Month: November 2014

November is over!

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

Okay, so:

My goals for this month:
1. Edit/write every day I don’t have a conflicting event (like my GKE trip next weekend). *Holds up calendar* You can tell I’m serious ’cause I wrote it down.
2. The above should let me finish a pass of edits on SaP, SS, and HtPD. So hopefully.
3. I’d love to get 3-5 K written this month, and I’m keeping track, but it’s not make or break.

I am excited to announce that I was very successful this month.

My writing hit 3K, but it wasn’t as much original, publishable fiction as I would have liked. And I haven’t written anything since the 16th. So that one wasn’t a huge success, but it did keep me writing a little when I knew my edits would overwhelm me.

As for the edits: I finished doing a pass on SaP, SS, and HtPD. I sent SS out to two beta readers and have gotten feedback from one. Overall positive feedback, so that makes me happy. She pointed out an issue with the end that I also felt…but I need to ponder how to fix it.

SaP, sitting at just over 50K, was a close one. I just finished my editing pass today. I also have to ponder how to move forward with this one. There’s a submission call that it can be sent to, and the deadline for it isn’t until 1/31/15, so I could hunt up a beta reader and get feedback, or I can just send it off and get it off my plate.

I’m leaning toward the second, because I’d like to focus on finishing up SS and then returning to BaW, which I’d REALLY like to get done or closer to friggen done 😛

Which leads me to this month’s goals:
1. Finish writing new ending to BaW.
2. Enter handwritten edits into final file.
3. Submit BaW to the writing group.

Midpoint update!

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

My goals for this month:
1. Edit/write every day I don’t have a conflicting event (like my GKE trip next weekend). *Holds up calendar* You can tell I’m serious ’cause I wrote it down.
2. The above should let me finish a pass of edits on SaP, SS, and HtPD. So hopefully.
3. I’d love to get 3-5 K written this month, and I’m keeping track, but it’s not make or break.

So far, I’ve done fairly well. I didn’t edit on vacation, but I did get a few hundred words plopped out. I’ve already hit the 3K mark (although 1300 of that was for a World of Darkness game I’m playing).

I’ve finished edits on HtPD and SS, which leaves me with 13 days to finish SaP. So we’ll see. It’s the biggest, but I’ve already started it, sooo….yeah.

This month I also started going to a local writers’ group. I wasn’t sure what kind of mix would be there, but of the four people who came to the one I went to, three were over the age of 50. Only one sneered when I mentioned queer romance. I’ll keep going and see how things turn out, but I’m definitely going to be careful what I take there. Which I knew was going to be something I’d have to worry about in my small town, but I guess I was hoping…

Anyway, back to the grindstone!

National Month of Doing Things

/ Alex Whitehall / Leave a comment

November is National Novel Writing Month. 50K in 30 days.

I’ve participated before. Enjoyed the challenge. Enjoyed the amount of work that got done.

But I’m also being realistic that this year it just is. Not. Happening. For reference, see October.

Here were October’s Goals:
1. Finish first pass on SaP. If ready, send to beta.
2. Finish pass on SS. If ready, send to beta.
3. Another pass on HtPD. Try for 500 more words. Submit.
4. If time/energy, look at R&R on GR.

I…did none of them. Now, I knew I had GRL, which would take up the 12-20. I just wasn’t also expecting for the ramifications of after GRL. Exhaustion being a big one. I still should have gotten some work done (and I did some edits on SaP, but not nearly enough).

I had vague plans at the beginning of October to use November as a chance to finish additions on BaW and alterations for GR. But since Nothing got done in October, I have new goals.

For November:
1. Edit/write every day I don’t have a conflicting event (like my GKE trip next weekend). *Holds up calendar* You can tell I’m serious ’cause I wrote it down.

2. The above should let me finish a pass of edits on SaP, SS, and HtPD. So hopefully.

3. I’d love to get 3-5 K written this month, and I’m keeping track, but it’s not make or break.

I’ve already started thinking about how I want to handle goals next year. I definitely want to try something different, but I’m not sure how. (Either something more consistent, something with rewards, or…I have no idea.)

I do need to do something that has more results, that’s for sure!