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Saturday, October 1, 2011

October WIPmadness: Statement of Intent

Hello, all you wonderful wacky #WIPmadness folks! Those of you on the Twitter feeds may have noticed that I'm a bit of a night owl, but I won't let that stand in the way of the October check-ins. Thanks to Jaye Robin Brown for hosting September's fantastic round of posts. And now, welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere!

We have an interesting calendar this month. Today is the first of the month, and Monday, our typical check-in day, is just two days from now. So I thought today's post would be a great place for us all to state what we intend to accomplish this month, and how we intend to do it.

Because it never hurts to ask the universe for what we need. But it also never hurts to put a little bit of effort into earning those things we seek, either.

Here's my goals:

1. I will finish the edits to my WIP. I feel like I've been hesitating over sending it out, and letting myself dither over little things. A few nights ago I created a list of 17 things that needed to be fixed before I would be satisfied. Since then, I've crossed off 5 of them. I've been addressing the changes not in a straight line, but in true puzzler fashion, where I jump about and fix things as they strike me, viewing the prose with new eyes as I do so. The puzzle pieces don't follow an order. They come together as I find them.

2. I will get ready for this year's Surrey International Writer's Conference. That means prepping a pitch for an agent appointment, and also three pages of an urban fantasy piece that has nothing to do with my WIP or the contest I entered last month. It also means making at least one batch of tiger butter to share with friends and other folks, 'cuz that's my thing.

3. I will be active and eat reasonably healthy. This past month I was feeling a little bit low-energy, and I didn't make it to sword class. Now I am ready to reclaim my strength. I'm also going to keep paying attention to what I put in my body, because simply noting down everything that goes in the tank is making me more aware of what grade of fuel I'm using, and how much of it I consume. Most importantly, that alone has had a positive effect, without me having to resort to evil four-letter-words that begin with D.

4. I will start planning and preparing for this year's NaNoWriMo. That means having a rough outline. It also means getting ready to actively help out with local events. The Greater Vancouver NaNo community is a vibrant group with fantastic in-person events, and I'm excited about being involved.

So, that's my epic To-Do list for October. How about you? State your intentions here. Then, starting on Monday, we can check in and see how we're all doing!

We can do this. I know we can. That's what this madness we call writing is all about, right?

17 comments:

  1. Woowee L.S.! That is some list.

    October is pretty straightforward for me - revisions on Marks of A Horseman - I'd love to get all the way through for this round by the end of the month. I'm on page 84 and it's 254 pages total. Mid-month I have my state art education conference and I'm on the B.O.D. as our regional coordinator so that will be 4 days of no writing at all. Eep - can feel the withdrawals already.

    Other than that, I'm beta'ing a fun manuscript and dreaming of the day I get to work on something new again.

    And Ha, I just noticed my word verification is coldale - Cold Ale. Yes that will work nicely later today! :0)

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  2. Yay, more WIPMadness! I definitely need it this month, I've got so much I want to get done.

    I've got a WIP out with betas, but based on initial notes, I have a few ideas of how to change some clunky scenes. Psyched to get to work on those edits.

    And I've got a halfway finished WIP that I'd like to completely finish the first draft of this month. Not sure I'll make it, but I'm gonna try :)

    Good lukc to everyone!

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  3. Thanks for hosting this month, L.S. And wow on the awesome goal setting! I'm continuing in drafting mode for the WIP. I reached the midpoint and realize it's time for me to give some serious thought as to where the story's going. So I've paused this weekend to do some serious planning and plotting. Pantsing is not working for this story right now. I'm going to need all the encouragement I can get this month!

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  4. JRo, the trick is to only let it be those 4 days. Conferences seem to take up time even before they start, don't they? Here's to a productive month all the same.

    Jennifer: Good luck to you, too. I think it's better to list ALL the crazy goals. Even if you don't manage to reach them all, you can surprise yourself with what you *do* manage!

    Thank you, Angelina. I hope you make great progress and find your story's heartsong.

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  5. My biggest goal is to finish the first drafts of the duology by the end of the year and be starting on edits. Book one is down and I’m having a little bit harder time on book two, but I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get book two worked out if I stick with it. The major reason for wanting to accomplish this goal is that I’m trying to prove to myself that I can work fast enough to make it in the business. I’ve always noticed that many of the successful authors manage to get multiple books finished/published in a year, the ones that are actually managing to quit the day job. Even before the folk at MW were posting about writing fast, I’ve always wanted to crank out the work faster. I’m finding that as I continue to work, my speed is increasing. Of course, what hampers me from going too much faster is my lack of keyboarding skills, but I’m still able to get 2-4k a day with my two-finger hammering, which is good, I think. A first draft in 8-10 weeks isn’t too shabby, IMO.

    And I should actually start working out too. I’m 40 and starting to feel far older with fatigue and body pain issues. Of course, some of that can be attributed to the autoimmune crap, but not all of it.

    Yeah, my list isn’t all that big...

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  6. Thanks for hosting, L.S.! :)

    My self-imposed deadline for this WIP is Oct 15. I have a few holes to fill, then a run-through for voice and a run-through for setting. Then it's off to a reader who's vetting for one particular aspect. While I wait for her comments, it's query-writing time! Can I get a "woohoo"?! Yeah, I'm not psyched about query-writing, either, but I AM psyched to get this baby out into the world by the end of the month.

    Good luck, all you fabulous WIPmadness peeps!

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  7. I had to scale back my word-count goals quite a bit because I was consistently failing to hit them -- a sure sign that I was over-reaching. So my word-count goal is 7500 for the month. Small, but (I hope) achievable!

    I also need to work on world-building and character histories, but that's much harder to quantify.

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  8. Daniel, It sounds like you're making excellent progress. May this month turn out well for you and your goals. And remember, with the exercise, it doesn't hurt to start small, do it daily, and build up your strength.

    Shari, whoohoo for sure! And yay for the query-writing! You go, girl!

    Jamie, I get what you mean about setting attainable goals, because it can be a satisfying feeling when you surpass them. I've set a lot of big goals this month to help push me out of the funk I've been in recently, and to see if I can actually reach them, but sometimes scaling back can be helpful, too. Here's to a successful October!

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  9. I'm here, but I don't know what my goals are. Sigh. I need to get a plan ready for NaNo, but I'm having a hard time picking a project. I also should really finish up a couple of projects that are half-done. But we all know what happens when we use the word "should".

    I think I will try to do some free writing for the next week and see what really pulls me. I don't want to be stuck in a month-long commitment on something that's not jiving with me.

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  10. Denise, all the best in figuring things out. Not knowing what you want and being prepared to figure it out can be a good thing, too. It sounds like you've got a great plan, and *not* committing to a goal can be as important to your creative process as making a big list.

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  11. I've never done NaNo - It seems impossible that I could write 50K in a month and work a day job. But I love parties, will I be lonely if I don't? *scratches chin, ponders*

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  12. Hi all!

    So my writing aligns with my marriage roller coaster - my hubbby is in the Air Force with a 3-months-off-3-on deployment schedule. When he's home, I get about zilch done. When he's away, I churn out pages. Not the best, but hey, gotta do what works, right?

    He deploys at the end of October, which is also when I hope to have beta reads back (yikes!), so this month:

    I'll shoot for writing a new short story (for real this time - and I think it's gonna be a ghost story!). Also, I aim to read a butt-load of MG sci-fi's that sound similar to my MG WIP, McCorduck 7. Gearing up for revision.

    Looking forward to October WIPMADNESS with y'all! Thanks for hosting,L.S.!
    --Lora

    p.s. My maiden name initials were L.S. !! Just sayin' :O

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  13. You're welcome, Lora!

    That sounds like quite the undulating schedule, but it also sounds like you've found some balance and you know what to do. Have a productive month!

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  15. Fabulous list!

    I'm just hoping to revise all the chapters so far and finish the climax. Small goal, right?

    In the meantime, I'm heading to my first Southern Breeze conference and hoping to be inspired. I miss my Eastern PA chapter, but I've heard great things about the SB group.

    In the mean time, I'll just try to keep my head!

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  16. Mary Ann, have a great time at the conference! And you can do this. Hope those rewrites come along splendidly.

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