My goals for 2013

I was reading an update from Joanna Penn of the creativepenn . She was talking about the goals she had set for herself at the beginning of 2012 and comparing how well she did in achieving them. I think she did very well with her list. And as she says, putting it down in words makes her accountable. Good point. I will add that her site is a fabulous resource for not only writing, but also for marketing and publishing advice too. She writes both non-fiction and fiction, does video interviews with all sorts of people and does public speaking on publishing etc. So she has many hats. Definitely worth a look. And a listen. Besides, I could sit and listen to her English accent all day. Lol.

I was also reading an update from lit reactor about resolutions.

So, here are my resolutions for 2013:

1.     I will write and publish one novel (approx. 100k words) and a novella (20-40k).

2.     I will reach 500 likes for my Facebook author page.

3.     I will write 2,000 words a day.

4.     I will write less fanfiction.

5.     I will improve my writing, grammar etc.

I am already looking at that list thinking… ‘What? 500 likes?’ Sigh. My inner critic is a whiny bitch.

So, how am I going to do that? That is the question.

1.            I will write and publish one novel (approx. 100k words) and a novella (20-40k).

I have a pile of unfinished projects. Obviously I need to finish stuff I have almost finished, or kill it if it is never going to work. This is where the inner critic goes feral. I have an acquired habit of self-doubt. It’s a long and ugly story that I might write one day and change the names to protect the innocent, but suffice it to say that I used to have a real living critic and my inner critic has absorbed all the statements I used to hear. The critic is gone, but the inner voice remains. I read a quote the other day that was the perfect example.

“People don't believe what you tell them.

They rarely believe what you show them.

They often believe what their friends tell them.

They always believe what they tell themselves.”

― Seth Godin

So, silence my inner critic. Hang draw and quarter it with a ball gag so I can’t hear the screams. Sounds like a plan.

2.            I will reach 500 likes for my Facebook author page.

I’m still a little doubtful on the power of FB and Google+. Too often I see comments that indicate that the people never actually clicked on the links. So I am not convinced that they are the major marketing tools they would like to be thought of as. Twitter is more immediate and personal (it feels more personal to me). But, again, I am not sure I am using it the best way. I hate people who only tweet about their books or post the same damn quote every three hours. So I need to do more Twitter research, find out about tools and apps etc. God forbid I get a phone that is recent and not more than ten years old. Like my current model. Tech dinosaur here.

3.            I will write 2,000 words a day.

I had fun with Excel a while ago and worked out how to draw graphs. Again with the tech dinosaur… don’t go all judgy on me. From the 1st July until now I have written 242,288 words. WHOA. It works out to about 1400 a day. Each and every day. For example, 1600 is the amount that the Nanowrimo sets people to write in a month and they all complain about it. I've almost done that every month of the last six months. So I should be able to push it up to 2k a day.

But, most of that is fanfiction and that leads me in to the next point.

4.            I will write less fanfiction.

I love fanfic. It’s safe. People there like me. Their love drowns out the fear of sticking my neck out and being judged. (Inner critic again.) I did it before; I stuck my neck out when I posted my first fanfic stories. It was a nerve wracking experience and I was so surprised when people actually liked me, so I should be able to do it again. I have bills to pay and fanfic doesn't pay them. Unless some publisher offers a pull to publish of my fanfics? Yeah right. Cue moral quandary if that ever happens.

So, more original fiction.

5.            I will improve my writing, grammar etc.

If I improve my work space/tools/methods and fitness, then I will write more. It sounds dumb to say it, but you can’t write if you are sitting in an uncomfortable chair, or you are in a foul mood or whatever. And you can’t write well if your grammar and language skills are not up to par. So I need to read, purchase grammar books or do courses - whatever will work for that.

As an extra point, I won a flash fiction contest a while ago run by Biting Duck press. It’s a tiny new publishing house and I won a trip to the top of the slush pile. If I send them something, they promise to read it. But, I don’t have a WIP that fits their specs. So, should I try to write something that does? Or am I wasting my time? These are their submission guidelines for fiction.

Fiction: science fiction; genre fiction about science or scientists; medical thrillers; fantasy/supernatural with a nerd element (you know who you are); cyberpunk; young adult. Please no poetry, romance, goth, religious, or explicit sex or gore.

No romance and no sex? Hmmm… doesn’t sound like me, eh?

So, there you have it; all written down and now I just need to do it.

Protein

My winning entry for the bitingduckpress and storied competition, 'Protein' was posted on the Storiad site, here:

http://storiad.com/blog/2012/06/18/bitingduck-press-writing-contest-winner-am-gray/

Only 500 words. It’s actually quite hard to get ideas across in that few words. But I must have done it and they commented that I made them laugh, too.

Thanks to both  bitingduckpress and storiad for running the competition.

There is a new one now with Zova books. Another 500 words.

You guys should have a go!

http://storiad.com/blog/2012/06/16/enter-the-zova-books-short-fiction-writing-contest/

The Prompt: The red flashing lights on the control panel told him/her that something wasn’t quite right.

Hmm… sounds like sci-fi to me… or a crashing plane… what about a chimp on the first space flight?

Storiad competition

Storiad is a website that is fairly new. It hopes to link up writers, publishers and movie makers; a Facebook for the industry if you will. http://storiad.com/  You can log on at the site. It’s free for writers. Or follow them on twitter. @Storiad

It makes a lot of sense; writers sometimes get so lost in the world within their heads, how do they meet other writers? It has all kinds of groups you can join in your special interest or you can even make your own. Into true crime? Make a group and meet other writers who are into that too. You can upload your work and hope that it will be seen by industry people.

I noticed a competition run on there recently by a publishing company called Biting duck press. http://bitingduckpress.com/ They are also on twitter @bitingduckpress

I do love Vin Diesel and I had an image of the crazy pet duck from The Pacifier, but the competition looked intriguing.

“We’re looking for `Science in Fiction’, not necessarily `Science Fiction.’ Tell us a story about life in science, or the lives of scientists, or cutting-edge research that’s going to change the way we think, work, and live. Take it one step beyond reality if you like: Clone a Sabertooth, fly to Mars, cure cancer. Make it real, but make it imaginative.”

Spin your yarn in 500 glorious words, or less.

Ooooh I thought, I love writing short stories and one shots. So I worked on something. It was hard to keep it under 500 words and still make it interesting, but I was pleased with my entry. I called it ‘Protein’.

Today I got an email to say I was one of the three winners. Yay!

My prize is publication of the short story entry. The other prize is consideration of a full-length manuscript by Bitingduck Press. It should meet their general guidelines. Briefly, these are: >50,000 and 30,000 and <90,000 words for YA fiction; no explicit sex or violence, short stories only as part of a collection with at least 30,000 words or 10 stories.

What? No sex? Dammit. Don’t they know who I am? Lol.

Guess I had better find all those short stories I wrote and don’t know what to do with.

*Runs off to search her doc files*