Goals, Revised, 2010
Jan. 15th, 2010 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuSo, yeah. It's been 11 days since I posted my goals for the years. I'm changing them. The goals are originally presented:
So, it's 2010 and I've rededicated myself to writing. Among my goals for this year:
Write, finish and mail a story a week.
Write, finish and mail 3 novels by December 31, 2010.
Learn as much as I can about writing; mostly via the Carnegie Hall route (practice, practice, practice), in part by reading writers I admire as well as books on how to pick up my game.
What am I changing? I'm dropping the weekly short story goal and I'm going to concentrate on writing and submitting novels. Which is not to say that I won't be writing any short stories. I just won't be thinking of them as a goal. Recently I learned that in the last six months, of 80 new SFWA members, 14 achieved that status via short story sales (and it requires three professional story sales to qualify) and 66 (SIXTY-SIX!) managed it with a first novel sale.
There is simply a vastly larger market for novels than for short story sales. And since novel sales are more lucrative (even at first-novel advance rates), it seems like I'd be better advised to pursue that avenue since it's where I want to end up eventually.
To that end, I've started a second novel. I'm only three days into it at this point. I have doubts about it, of course, which is only natural. I'll continue to work on it, but I'm also doing a lot of thinking about why I have doubts. It's not just ego defense--I think I'm missing something, but I don't know what exactly. I'll figure it out, and then I can fix it.
In the mean time, I have to work on binding and gagging my inner critic while I continue to write. I can edit later. It's an uncomfortable feeling, wondering if I can do this...while knowing that I can. I've already done it once, for the NaNoWriMo project in November. I can do it again.
In the worst case scenario, I finish this novel, clean it up, and send it out and it never sells. It's still practice. I'll learn from the experience, just as I learned from the first one. And the next one will be better. Carnegie Hall, baby, Carnegie Hall. How do I get there? Practice, practice, practice.
In other news, today was both a good day and a bad day. I got a rejection--SnipLits bounced "Home Invasion". I haven't sent it back out yet, but I will. On the other hand, my fifth Cobblestone Press story, Three On A Rooftop went live and now available for purchase here.
Stories in Circulation: 11
Rejections: 25
Stories Accepted: FIVE
So, it's 2010 and I've rededicated myself to writing. Among my goals for this year:
Write, finish and mail a story a week.
Write, finish and mail 3 novels by December 31, 2010.
Learn as much as I can about writing; mostly via the Carnegie Hall route (practice, practice, practice), in part by reading writers I admire as well as books on how to pick up my game.
What am I changing? I'm dropping the weekly short story goal and I'm going to concentrate on writing and submitting novels. Which is not to say that I won't be writing any short stories. I just won't be thinking of them as a goal. Recently I learned that in the last six months, of 80 new SFWA members, 14 achieved that status via short story sales (and it requires three professional story sales to qualify) and 66 (SIXTY-SIX!) managed it with a first novel sale.
There is simply a vastly larger market for novels than for short story sales. And since novel sales are more lucrative (even at first-novel advance rates), it seems like I'd be better advised to pursue that avenue since it's where I want to end up eventually.
To that end, I've started a second novel. I'm only three days into it at this point. I have doubts about it, of course, which is only natural. I'll continue to work on it, but I'm also doing a lot of thinking about why I have doubts. It's not just ego defense--I think I'm missing something, but I don't know what exactly. I'll figure it out, and then I can fix it.
In the mean time, I have to work on binding and gagging my inner critic while I continue to write. I can edit later. It's an uncomfortable feeling, wondering if I can do this...while knowing that I can. I've already done it once, for the NaNoWriMo project in November. I can do it again.
In the worst case scenario, I finish this novel, clean it up, and send it out and it never sells. It's still practice. I'll learn from the experience, just as I learned from the first one. And the next one will be better. Carnegie Hall, baby, Carnegie Hall. How do I get there? Practice, practice, practice.
In other news, today was both a good day and a bad day. I got a rejection--SnipLits bounced "Home Invasion". I haven't sent it back out yet, but I will. On the other hand, my fifth Cobblestone Press story, Three On A Rooftop went live and now available for purchase here.
Stories in Circulation: 11
Rejections: 25
Stories Accepted: FIVE