I wrote about my NaNoWriMo attempt here. If you want to revisit the post and revel in my failure, be my guest.
Last November might not have been The November, but this year is the year.
This is the year I finish a book.
Yes, Green Eggs and Ham has been languishing on the shelf for 22 years now, and my curiosity has finally consumed me. I must know what happens to Sam He Is.
That would be sarcasm, kids. (Catholic woman problems: my autocorrect changes sarcasm to sacramental).
I don’t have decadent visions of stardom and fame (because Californication is gross and a lie). I love my job, I love where I live, and I love the people in my life.
But I want to prove to myself that I can do this. I can set a goal, create a plan, and make it happen. I’m not shooting for Pulitzer, here. Or even published. Just not procrastinated. Remember November? Thank you, megadose of humility and reality.
So I have a proposal.
Let’s do this together.
[Cue campfire and Kumbaya, please.]
Let’s keep each other accountable (that’s code for someone beat me over the head with a brick), make a plan, and dive in. Don’t know what you’re doing?
Fantastic!
Neither do I.
We’ll improvise.
If you’re in, comment below and let me know what you’re working on, or what you want to start. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, recorded smoke signal stories of Native American legends, it doesn’t matter. And then, pick a big picture goal.
I’ll start:
I’m working on a thriller that I’d like to think is literary. My big picture goal is to have it completely finished, rewrites and all, and ready to pitch by the end of 2013. And by pitch, I mean pitch to literary agents and hopefully not out a window.
Now it’s your turn. Dream big, dream small, I don’t really care. I’m not your life coach, just a woman who desperately needs writing buddies. And more reasons to procrastinate writing. I’ll confess it.
Now get thee to a writery.
Doesn’t work, does it?
Sigh.
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“But I want to prove to myself that I can do this. I can set a goal, create a plan, and make it happen.”
Me too. I just started writing my first (middle school age) book (after having an outline for it over two years). I have a achievable goal. Write every day, and finish it over the next two months. If I don’t do it by then, I won’t do it at all.
Laziness and the internet are dragging me down though.
I hear you on both counts! My primary goal is to have a first draft finished by Easter weekend. I may have to purge all Facebook activity to make that happen.
Ha ha… I just deleted my Facebook because I want to do more with my time. A drastic move, according to some. It works when I don’t use the resulting free time to read blogs. Sigh. It’s hard to remove sources of distraction for Professional Procrastinators like me. There’s always something.
i wish i was writing so i could join you! only i don’t really love it. my writing goal is to keep my blog going 3 days a week. i’m having a tough time getting it established.
You can be my designated Keeper of the Real.
I want to write a nonfiction for parents and caregivers. The premise is that parenting is always trial and error. So many “right” answers that it is overwhelming. Parents need to trust their gut and do what they think is best. I write for my own blog and a few others but want to do this with limited time. I have 2 small children at home and I work part time. I have been a nanny for 15 years and a family coach for 3.
Marcia, I’d buy that book from you in a heartbeat. It’s an honor to have you along for the ride. Nanny writers unite!
I want to get into writing. I keep filing notebooks with ideas but no execution. Part of me wants to do fictional stuff, young adult or adult. Part of me want a realistic fiction, based off events in my life. I blame that desire on Tim O’Brien’s writing. I read his book in high school and it has stuck with me since!
Christina!! My worlds are colliding!!
I’m in! Oh, yes, by the way, I’ve been lurking around the blog for a little while thanks to Calah, and have never commented. Here’s my problem: I have two children and am terrible at writing anything without a deadline. My poor little blog could tell you tales. I want to work on a mystery novel that hopefully will end up either as a series of short stories or a series of novels. Is historical fiction always cheesy? It seems to be, but I have a really great set of characters in a notebook who need the industrial revolution to work. And this would be a great Lenten thing for me to do. Thanks
I can pull a deadline out of a hat for you if you’d like!
I can’t wait to learn more about your story!
I’ll join in. I’m working on a fantasy novel. Actually, it’s the back story for my fantasy novel – how the big bad guy becomes the big bad guy – but apparently it needs to be its own darned book. So, that’s what my big project is.
My goal is to have a first draft of any variety done by midnight of Dec 31, 2013. It can entirely such and have whole chapters that need to be sent to the incinerator, but it needs to be done.
I also have accountability/procrastination issues. I started a 500-words-a-day challenge in December and I’m now only about 4,000 words behind (and it includes blog posts!). So, I’ll hit you with a brick if you hit me, deal?
My brick is primed and ready to go, ma’am! Welcome aboard.
I’m in with my zombie bible story (a map to the bits and pieces here: http://riverofthoughts.com/writing/putting-it-all-in-order/ ). I took a bit of a break from Zach over the holidays, but I really really have to get back to him and finish. Picking up my brick and standing in the circle with y’all!
Zombie Bible story! I’m intrigued!
I miss Zach! Glad you haven’t given up on him.
Spiritual memoir by Labor Day.
I feel like I should get a tattoo of that.
Pictures!!
I love the autocorrect changing sarcasm to sacramental! I wrote my book (http://worthyofagape.com/book/) last year…the goal for this year is to either get a publisher to agree to publish it or self-publish and market the crap out it. I could care less about the moolah (though that would be nice) – I just want the message to get out there! Praying for you! =)
You should be SO PROUD of me for not asking ten million times if you’ve heard anything!
But oh hey…have you heard anything?
One time is better than being asked ten million times! I’ve heard nothing yet…but I can feel the Spirit is up to something, so I’m taking a lot to prayer! =)
I’ve been working on a particular novel since March of 2007. First major draft took 3 years, and then I spent two weeks correcting the most egregious typos and sent it off to a friend, who read it, loved it, and calmly tore it into tiny little pieces.
Second draft Summer 2010 through October 2012. Won NaNoWriMo 2012 with a different book, then took December off. I’m trying to speed-edit for egregious typos now but my brother’s baptism and the stomach flu got in my way.
Still, I have 13 days. Let’s do this thing: Complete speed-edit of a 120k-word book by February 1. Then I send it to the beta readers and it gets torn into itty-bitty pieces again.
In case anybody’s curious, it’s a contemporary-ish realism-ish novel. The characters stand around talking a lot. I dunno, it seems to work.
You’re my hero.
Hey, I’m impressed that you’re shooting for being able to pitch your book by the end of 2013. My pitch goal is 2017…gives me the chance for a couple more drafts after this to wrestle this beast into submission.
I just sent it to the betas. One of them is currently being sinisterly gleeful over Skype. (The other is currently distracted by webcomics.)
I’m in! My big WIP is a supernatural thriller that my best friend, husband and I started in November 2011. We’ve written enough words that it technically could be a novel, but it’s missing plot and substance. I think all 3 of us would love to have it finished & ready to pitch to agents by the end of this year, if not sooner.
The other WIP is a short story about Jake, a young cowboy who have up on his dreams of college to fulfill his family duties after tragedy strikes his family. I’ve not written much about him yet as he doesn’t seem to want to tell me his story right now.
Woop, here we go!
So, here’s the basics: Self-published my first novel in 2011 (St. Charles at Dusk). It was a real labor of love, mostly because it took me a long time to decide that hundreds of re-writes were not going to make it any more perfect in my own eyes. I completed NaNoWriMo in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and all three pieces were “sequels” to the first book, or what has morphed now into a series (House of Crimson and Clover).
I’m working on the editing phase of the next book I want to publish, titled The Storm and the Darkness. It’s not much further from it’s Nano-phase than it was when I wrote it in 2010 and I have a lot of ideas for touching it up but am having difficulty focusing those ideas. I’ve created an entire world for this series, with complex genealogies and histories going back several hundred years, but I think in some ways I’ve been doing that stuff to avoid the act of writing itself
So…my goal is to have my first round of heavy edits by the end of March, with it being ready for self-publishing in the late spring. Eventually I want to try to market these to mass market publishers, but for now I am happy in the self-publishing world.
Nice to meet you!
SO TRUE about the pre-writing sometimes being an excuse to get to the actual business of writing. I needed that reminder! Thanks!