Today's prompt is Achieve. The scoopage:
December 28 – Achieve What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.
So, either publishing my active novel (by that I mean the one that is currently finished and I'm actively seeking publication for) through traditional publishing or putting it out myself as a self-published ebook and print-on-deman (POD) book is my goal.
I think I will feel elated when I reach one of these two goals (traditional publishing is my primary goal. Doing it myself will be less elational but still exciting.) I've been writing since 2007, started as a New Year's Resolution. I love to write. I wish I were better at it, but I know the cure for that - more writing (and/or cowbell, in appropriate doses.)
I feel two things very strongly about writing. The first is that writing is a career that is actually compatible with my desire to raise my children. This is big, since my other career (technology and eLearning consulting) is often in direct opposition to my desire to be here for my kids, either due to geography, time commitment, client needs/demands, or my own personal style and work ethic.
The second thing I feel very strongly about re. writing is that I *need* to write these books, these sci-fi books where girls are the main characters and do amazing things with technology, have crazy adventures, and come out okay. I need to write books that girls can read when they are ten and twelve and fourteen and see that being a girl geek can be normal, can be good, and is perfectly reasonable. This is really really important. I need to write these books for my own girl, but for all the other girls out there, too, the ones like me who had an aptitude but didn't know another soul who liked to figure out how to solve problems using technology, who wanted to know what was inside a computer, who could make things happen without even realizing they knew how.
This is the part of the post where I list what I will do to achieve this goal.
Deep breath.
1. Keep novel marketing packages in the mail, at least five of them, at all times. Sidenote: A novel marketing package includes a query letter, a sample of the book (first two chapters in my case, 15 pages) and a synopsis of all the major events of the story, including the ending. I blogged about writing a query letter back in October.
2. Research more markets, so the process of addressing a new query letter is simpler, as this is one of those things that tends to hold me up.
3. Hmm...I think I need to read more YA book blogs, and find more YA sci-fi to read. I have not found a whole lot out there. Gone, Maze Runner, and I am Number Four are the only recent ones I've read. (Would love more ideas if you have them...high-end Middle-grade would work, too. Protagonists in the 12-14 range.)
4. Put up another short story (or two, or fifteen) on Kindle/Barnes and Noble/Smashwords, to practice the formatting needed for ebook publishing. (Did you see my post from yesterday about my stories available for purchase?)
5. Pre-address five more novel packages. Wow, that's a simple and smart idea.
6. Implement a simpler tracking system for novel submissions. I am not happy with the spreadsheet I've dreamed up, it seems overly complex for what I need it to do. I think I might do best with a simple chronological listing. Out to X market on Y date, back on Z...
7. Read this writing book that's sitting on my desk (20 Master Plots by Ronald B. Tobias.)
8. Consider attending a writer's conference, though this requires such careful planning due to DH's job and life commitments, it might not be possible. At least research some.
9. Start editing book #2, prepping it for market. Hope to have it in the mail by March.
10. Write the next book.
I think a lot of writers forget #10, but that's got to be high on the list if I want to make any sort of living at this. If I am to be a self-published writer, one of the primary things that will help me be successful is having a number of publications available for purchase, not just one or two novels, but whole collections, batchs of short stories, and other things to help people who read one book of mine find my other work (and hopefully spend their hard-earned pennies on it!) I write fast, if I could just crack this confidence/skill issue (I am a good writer, I just don't always know WHAT to write. When I know what to write I can write extremely quickly.)
What about you? What goal do you hope to achieve in 2011? How do you plan to go about getting there? Care to join me on a crazy train?
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