May Things, 2019

I had high hopes for April, but I forgot that I still had to finish the tax return and that ate far more energy and time than I had hoped. Then I was planning for my UK family visit, and actually travelling…

So, let’s see how bad things really were.

Three Things for March

1. Song fourth draft — revision plan and actual revision.
   Finished the revision plan and did a good chunk of revision. I had signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo in April, but managed about a third of what I had intended. Still, it’s moving along and I have a lot of good answers to questions so I am going to call this achieved.
2. workshop application — this is going nowhere. I am abandoning the application for this year. Maybe in 2020?
3. short stories — write another story for independent submission.
   No work.
   Well, that’s kind of true. During work on the revision plan I discovered a whole new setting I want to write in which will probably be a productive place to develop stories for, but it’s not a story or anything yet. Definitely doesn’t count as anything like done.

That’s 1/3.

However, I have made progress on the podcast format question, which I will talk about a bit more in the annual goals update.

Three Things for 2019

That’s a third of the year gone. Have I finished a third of my annual goals?

1. query A Turquoise Song — a goal in three sequential parts:
   1. prepare a fourth draft — incorporate feedback, make it good. Target is to have this done by the middle of the year.
      I have a revision plan which I like, and I’ve started working through the points in the plan. I am unlikely to hit the end of second quarter with these changes, but it’s going to be a much better book.
   2. prepare query letter — obviously the initial targets are the agents I talked to at the conference in 2017, but I also want to prepare for querying other agents.
   3. query — get the book out there.
2. short stories — I am finding my relationship to short stories becoming much less contentious, even fruitful!
   1. several stories to write for Boundary Shock Quarterly — nothing more this month, although I need to get the next one under way soon.
   2. write and submit four stories to other markets. So that’s one a quarter, and I will mark it as such — no new stories being written.
3. engage with the writing community — this is a nebulous label for a group of related goals that don’t warrant a top level item to themselves.
   1. workshop application — I had intended to apply for an intensive workshop, but the application has not gone… anywhere, really, so I am abandoning this goal.
   2. podcast — one of the things that came out of the inconclusive work on producing Livia as an audiobook was a desire to launch a podcast of some kind.
      I think I have my format, though: an idea for a narrative fiction series set in Yorkshire and called “T’ Stars Are Reet”. More to come once it’s a bit closer to available.
   3. cons & confs — I need to be getting out there more. I just do.
      I’m planning on going to WilWrite again this year.

April was better than March in terms of energy, but wasn’t massively more productive in terms of output. Still, I feel better about it and while one goal is abandoned, I have made unexpected progress on a goal I hadn’t really thought about.

Three Things for May

There’s not a lot of steam in the boiler yet, but at least it’s heating up.

1. Song fourth draft — continue revision. I have metrics for this, but I need to see how fast I move before setting a specific goal.
2. podcast — figure out the elements of “T’ Stars Are Reet”, including such basic things as how many words I speak at when reading this kind of thing.
3. short stories — write another story for independent submission.

To the word mines!