Goals & Objectives - 2008

Submission goals:
--24 non-novel subs (novellas, short stories, humorous essays)
--12 novel subs (to my agent)

Market goals:
--I want to have at least 5 books in different genres at a variety of publishers
--I want to sell at least one short story (anydarnedwhere )

I'm sure I'll have more and/or alter these as time goes on.

Cool thread, Lori!

There are levels in a fetid swamp? My goal is to keep my nostrils far enough above the stagnant water to continue to breathe.

caw

Goals for 2008:

1. Revise the two rough drafts I wrote last year; get them polished and ready to submit.

2. Once ready to submit, be persistent on the query-go-round. Don't give up too easily.

3. Start a new novel. Maybe two new novels (I've got two way cool stories tugging at me ).

There's a similar thread in the Goals & Accomplishments section, in case you feel like merging and having them all in one place.

I will submit 'Set as soon as I have a decent synopsis. After that, I have something big planned. Not sure how it's going to work, but I think it will be biggest (in terms of size, plot and basic scope) story I've written so far. I'm looking forward to it.

Finish the first draft of the Urban Fantasy I'm working on and start on the revisions
Start the next Urban Fantasy and get at least 100 pages done.

I've got small and medium press publications. What I'd like is that big house, and I have two candidates up for that right now with my agent.

I want to finish the WIP I'm on right now. It is by the far the most difficult and complicated book I've ever attempted. If it isn't done in these first three months of the year, it means it will never be done. So, I best giddyup.

Tri

Do a final edit of a novel I finished last year...and query it. (It was written specifically for a Harlequin line, so if it's rejected, I'll probably trunk it.)

Finish the thriller/mystery I started last year...it's stalled and I haven't had the energy to push through. I will finish it this year!

Finish my NaNo novel and do a couple round of edits.

Maybe try my hand at a couple of short stories.

That should be enough to keep me busy!!!

Write the last 9,000 words of my current WIP this month!!! (adult novel)

Go back to my 5 kids fantasy book series and edit the $#it out of them & start querying again!!

1) Submit my finished short story to markets now that everyone is back from the holidays. Perhaps write another and submit.

2) Finish novel 1st draft by May, start editing

3) Attend writing conference and local seminars

4) Read tons. Write more flash fiction.

Market my newspaper column, and find out if it is viable for syndication.

Continue to market my completed novel to agents.

Resume work on my second novel, which I postponed for the last 18 months.

Begin sending out magazine article queries.

Read at least two writing how-to books.

Take a course in web page development (at my local CC in March), and establish a web presence to supplement my new blog.

Blog regularly.

Read at least three contemporary novels of the type I'd like to write.

Assemble notes from the last two Bible studies I've taught and see if there is anything publishable there.

Complete the family history book (for self-publication) I almost finished a year ago.

That's enough,
NDG

1. Find a publisher for my novel

2. Break into the higher tiers of short fiction market, Glimmer Train, The New Yorker, The Missouri Review are just a few of the markets I strive to break into this year.

3. Look for more paying, ongoing gigs so I don't have to spend so much of my day trolling for markets and one time gigs

4. Complete, edit, and hopefully submit my WIP

5. Increase the amount of money I have earned from freelancing in 2007 (I have a bigger mortgage to pay after buying a newer, larger home last year!!)

I already posted these in the similar thread in the Goals and Accomplishments section

1. Revise and edit my WIP
2. Write a kickass query and synopsis for WIP
3. Query agents with 1 & 2 above
4. Start on first draft of next WIP

I'd also like to add to that my non-fiction goal of keeping my Technical Author job, which would be easier said than done if it wasn't for this forum.

1. Finish revisions on my first novel.
2. Revise the '07 NaNo novel.
3. Write at least one novel before NaNo '08.
4. Write another novel for NaNo '08.
5. If #1 or #2 on this list is completed to satisfaction, write appropriate queries and submit.

Finish revisions for second draft of Ghost Machine by late winter/early spring. Revise again. Send to beta readers. Hopefully have polished manuscript by summer. Hopefully.

While I'm working on that, submit children's story to more publishers. I haven't given up on it yet!

And while I'm doing that, submit proposal for book about radio to publishers.

While I'm waiting on those things, I can work on Ghost Machine.

allen

Finish polishing current ms and write query and synopsis. I want it ready to submit by the end of month (including beta time, etc...) I resolve to send out at least 10 queries a month. I hope to do more than that, but that is my realistic intent. Anything more than that is gravy. I will submit 2 shorter pieces of fiction a month.

Whew. That's enough.

Oh wait. New writing. I dunno. I just take that as it comes. I'll write another couple books. I'll write the second book for my mystery series. Finish WOTC. And I have an idea for another MG book that I would like to write. I'm holding onto it for the next TGTD (I think).

I put my 2008 goals in my sig line. 4 short stories for the Trues and a draft novel. It's ambitious for me, but I need to push my production upward this year.

Get Wolf of Whitechapel closer to completion, though I doubt I'll finish it in 2008.

Not wimp out on the writing of it.

1. Finish. The. Book. Get it to the point where it is ready for submission, if I decide this one is actually marketable. Pushing myself to write every day probably won't work with my current schedule, but doing something for the manuscript every day, at least, is possible.

2. Read every day. More specifically, I'd like to read 100 books this year - that's about eight a month, and so far in January I've read three.

My resolutions that aren't writing-related:

3. I'd like to learn to play the piano again. I've been checking eBay for cheap keyboards.

4. Accept change, because there will be a lot of it this year.

Get my novel rewrite done by Easter, write more of the story ideas I keep having, even the lame ones because I've been pleasantly surprised by the results of not-so-good ideas in the past, and most important of all, submit the finished products.

T.

1. Read every day.
2. Write at least 500 words a day. (Ironically, once I hit that number I seem able to go over it fairly easily.)
3. Finish, rewrite, polish up two manuscripts. One's urban fantasy, the other is post-apocalyptic. I can see the fantasy taking a longer time since it was my NaNo and...um...needs work, but the post-apocalyptic I'd like to try submitting over the summer. Six months!
4. I have a new idea for a supernatural-type story that I'm not sure what to make of yet -- it's drawn from two different stories in two different universes that I worked on over the last couple years. Last night I took the main plot theme from each one, used the characters from the stronger one, and suddenly I had...something interesting! I must cultivate it.
5. Take a writing class somewhere.

1. Finish 3rd and (hopefully) final draft of novel #1 and get it out to agents
2. Finish first and 2nd draft of novel #2
3. Polish Short story #7 and #8 and begin submitting
4. Begin novel #3

My goal was a thousand a day so I could finish up my ms by the 12th of January (before I go back to college)...it's not working though.