December Goals

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Arisa81

This month my goals are quite different from months past. I will be spending this month getting organized for the new year.

* Work on my outline and details for my novel

* Gather poetry that might fit well in the book I want to put together

* Rewrite old poetry/greetings and resubmit

* Gather a list of contests that I would want to enter

* Research for my novel

I won't bore you with my non-writing goals. :p
 

triceretops

I promise that I am going to start this book regardless of how tardy the Water District is in getting me the fossil photos, reports and other resources I need. Just because they're dragging their feet doesn't mean they don't like me.
It's been almost a month and they keep promising a phone interview, so I will (again) politely remind them via email that I am expecting their call.
I WILL finish the book introduction and I WILL start on the first chapter believing that this book WILL be started and finished. I won't, cannot, doubt my ability to pull this off. I
must believe I am qualified to write about ice age mammals and get it right. I'm a 20-year amateur in paleontology with a small support staff of professionals--by gawd, that will have to be enough until a bolt out of heaven lands it's mark on my forehead with the letters, "NO" inscribed therein.
I can't give up on this. I just can't. To hell with La Brea
Tar pits. They've been tooting their horn too long---now it's our turn. It's our turn to be in the lime light.
Triceratops
 

Jyndral

I haven't thought of December goals yet. I know, bad Jen. I should've already.

I think I only made one of my goals for November and right now I'm so mind-mushy from transcription that I'm almost to the point of thinking "why bother" with any of it, but I won't go there.

OK. One goal for sure is to get the short story/article thing written and sent to the Haunted Encounters anthology that Dawn gave me the link for.

I'll think of others later.
 

triceretops

Got real lucky and nailed the interview. Yeah! Now the real work begins.
Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Okay, goal change for Dec and next year.
Novel is out and short stories are in

Reason: I feel I am not ready to tackle a novel yet. I need to build my skills and I am trying to get published so a project so big might not be a good idea.

I will save my notes and outline for the future, when I am ready to write it

:D :D :D
 

triceretops

Arisa,

It's not a bad idea to start off in the magazines at all. It's more of an instant gratification provided you hit some.
You're more likely to hit in the mag markets than scattering the first novel out there. Some will disagree, I'm sure. But
once you've been accepted into the published fraternity it somehow has an effect on your sense of pride and accomplishment. You're more apt to start a novel after the smaller acceptances.

Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Thank Tri ! I'm gonna give it a shot, build up my skills and see how it goes :D
 

Arisa81

Okay, one more goal for myself. I NEED to make a habit out of resubmitting rejected works. I'm so bad when it comes to that :\ Maybe because I've moved on and am working on new things and don't want to go back...I have no idea. So yeah that's something I really need to work on. I'm not submitting much this month but next month I will be back on track with my submissions.

Does anyone here have any quirks when it comes to writing and/or submitting? Maybe this isn't a quirk per se, but more organization but I only submit work on one day of the week (mainly Fridays). I found that when I was submitting just any old day I seemed to waste a lot of time ironing things out and getting off track with other writings.

Okay, someone else say something so I don't feel silly anymore :rollin :rollin
 

Jyndral

"Something."

Actually, I'm in that boat too. In the event that I do send something out and it gets rejected, I don't send it back out.
 

Dhewco

Hiya Everyone,

My goals are:

1. Write 25k on the three projects I'm running this month.
2. Find money for Xmas gifts.
3. Start my own Proofreading, Typing, and Transcribing business.


David

dhewco.tripod.com/proof.html

Check out the main page for more information about me.
 

triceretops

As Joseph Dirt would say, "Dang!" I shotgunned nine non-fiction book queries out to nine agents, who accepted email
proposals, and three hours later got a huge enthusiastic response from the first on the list! This was a legit, non-fee agent, who asked if he was exclusive and for me to send in a hard copy version. The letter back was long and very involved.

Now, we all know this is not supposed to happen. But it
did in this instance. I mean, what agent REALLY gets involved, with such gusto, with an EMAIL query, fa gawds sakes. Now I'm really worried about the other eight cyber
pitches. I think I've really ruined the "exclusive" issue here since I now have my pitch out there to more than one agent.
But not to publishers. Now what do I do?

Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Well, congrats on the one that accepted !
As for the others I think you need to e-mail them all back right away and withdrawn yourself hehe.
 

triceretops

Thanks Arisa,

Why do you only submit on Fridays? Why not some other times of the week? Don't be afraid to rework your older scripts, it takes a lot of submissions, sometimes dozens, to hit the right house.

Just got my second agent approval. Doh! Again, glowing comments. Gee, too bad it wasn't publishers who were sending in these positives---might have ended up in a bidding war, then I could handpick ANY agent. I did not mean for this to happen.

Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Wow Tri, you are having agent luck hehe

As to why I will only submit one day of the week, makes things less complicated for me. I can sit and work on things too long. At least if I have a submission date I can prepare for that. And it's a little motivational for me, I wouldn't like to see a Friday where I submitted nothing hehe

:eek: Okay and maybe I'm a little weird, but aren't we all? Aren't we ? heh...
 

triceretops

You know what I like about you, Arisa? You're organized.
You have a set pattern, a steady flow like a river. I'm beginning to see where my sporadic habits and behavior might benefit if I slow down and take deliberate aim at a specified target. Good for you....

Well, as we speak I just received the fourth acceptance via the phone from New York. Now I have four agents--and don't know how to handle this...I'm going to post this somewhere right now before this wicket gets any stickier.

Triceratops
 

Melina

Chris!

Awesome! I'm so stoked for you! Keep us updated, we want to know all the details.

Melina


***
 

Melina

Well, halfway thru December, and I'm just getting around to posting my goals. Obviously, my goal of breaking into a national publication by the end of the year is not going to materialize, so I'll just adjust that one. Really, I think my major goal now is to make myself keep at it. I keep falling into the blue funk (which is really typical of me this time of year), and I need to find a way to avoid it--or at least, pull myself out of it quicker. I can't begin to say how valuable it's been for me to feel accountable to the good folks here (and on the humor board). Now to get back on track. As for all of you, good luck on your goals! Let's all hit the new year running, huh?

Melina

***
 

klavinia

Re: Re: December Goals

I'm so excited to find this section. I "won" the NaNoWriMo thing last month. But what I found out about myself was invaluable; I do well when I know I have to check in. We did that on another site daily with word count. So I was looking for something similar. You all won't mind if I check in more often than once a month will you?

My December Goals:

1) 1st Edit of gazebo novel

2) Edit Summer Snowball and Query/Submit

3) Transcribe 20 pages of Dear Daddy

4) Put up bulletin board (for contests, pictures relating to novel etc...)

Happy Writing Everyone! Laviniaa
 

Arisa81

Re: Re: December Goals

Welcome to this area of the board Laviniaa!
Feel free to check in as often as you need :D We always love to know how people are getting on with their goals.
 

triceretops

Re: Re: December Goals

Thanks Melina and all others

As it stands--four agents pro--two against. Still haven't
heard from the other 3-4 agencies. Whoooa. It put me right to work, I can tell you. I have a good start on chapter 1, and am organizing the chapter outline. Those agents are just going to have to wait. I only shot so many book queries out there to test the waters--wanting to confirm, once and for all that I had a viable book idea.
Here's what I did, it might benefit someone else:
I drafted a killer book proposal, about 1 1/2 pages, following guidelines about sending the query with the proper topics. After 20 hours I started getting hits.
Now, I only queried agents who had websites AND email
addresses on the FictionAddiction.net site. I started in the
alphabetical A's until I reached the L's, which was about ten
agents. I never had to go through the rest of the alphabetical listings. Just make sure that the agent or sub-agent accepts email queries. That means read each website
all the way through.
Know what? I believe that if you tried this technique all the way to the very end of the listings, it's inconceivable to me that you'd be turned down by all of them. I can't explain why this worked so good for me. I assume that most of you have partials or completed manuscripts to turn over to them.
I didn't. Now I suck eggs for it. But I sure would like to see one of you fine writers hit that home run.
PLEASE notify me the instant this works for you. Don't
give up.

Happy hunting....................Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Re: Re: December Goals

Thanks for that Tri

Just have a question for you though, since you've has those 4 positive responses, have you gotten back to them ? Have you decided which to go with etc?

That would be my worry when sending out something to many people at once, getting a positive response from more than one. I don't know if it works differently for agents and submissions/queries for a piece of writing.
That might be a good question to ask in another area (please let me know if has already been discussed I would love to see).

I make a list of all places I can submit a piece to going through alphabetically as you mentioned. I usually will only submit to one or two at a time, more than that would make me nervous, especially now that my acception rate is going up :p

p.s. just want to clarify I am not nor was I ever looking for an agent hehe...I'm just talking from writing submissions
 

triceretops

Re: Re: December Goals

Thank Arisa

Those are really good questions. Only one of them wanted to hear back immediately about if they were exclusive or not. The others just said send, send, send. Since it was only a query, there is no exclusivity issue here, only when it involves sending in actual chapters and outlines. But I did say
yes, you are exclusive to the first agent because his letter was longer and more involved than the others. So I'll send my
first work to this agent, then if I get rejected, I'll have three
more to mow down. It's good odds for me. It's just another day in the office for them.
I'll find myself in deep you know what if even one of these agents happens to contact another one who's given me the green light. Then they might scold me if they do ever get a submission from me. I kick myself now, realizing the fix I put myself into. But I do have the home court advantage--and that's unusual from a writer's perspective. I DID give all of them fair warning that this project is in the infant stage, so they can't bitch at me for sending a script in a month. I only have to send them a copy of their positive inquiry to me as proof that, yep, they solicited me.
I'll keep you posted, good or bad.

Triceratops
 

Arisa81

Re: Re: December Goals

Well, Tri, it sounds like you've thought of everything !
Good going!
 
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