Writing Goals--2010
I seem to remember making many fine resolutions last year about writing every day, even if only for an hour, which sounded reasonable at the time, but (like world peace and a perfect health insurance plan) dissolved under the weight of real life and human nature, namely mine, and I lapsed back into what seems to be The Way I Do It, which is fairly long periods of daily writing, and uneven periods of no writing at all--except what's involved in interviews and letters and prep for some trip or teaching gig or con.
So I'm not making any resolutions this year. I'm making goals. And I'm trying to make them realistic, which is somehow in my head different from reasonable.
In 2009, I
Edited, administered, and did publicity for Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing (With Chris Barzak, who did a lot of work, and Gavin Grant, who actually published the thing)
Edited the Annex (with Chris again, and Geoffrey Long, who designed the pages and put the stories up)
Did publicity for The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen.
Oversaw the redesign of my website (Thank you, Claudia Carlson, web-designer extraordinaire and good friend).
Oversaw the making of the video trailer for MMMQ. (Thank you, Lisa Stock, film-maker, artist, and good friend).
Wrote "Flying".
Wrote Draft 15 of The Freedom Maze and sent it out to an entire alphabet of Beta readers for comments, which I am now digesting.
Began "The Great Detective," which morphed into "The Mystery of Cwmlech Manor," leaving the first idea to possibly grow into a steampunk novel someday.
Began the proposal for The Dragon of Wall Street, the next New York Between novel and the final book in the Neef trilogy.
All of which, I guess, adds up to a lot more than I thought I'd done when I started the list, although still less than I wish I'd done.
Which is the problem, I guess. There's desire and duty on the one hand; there's reality on the other.
I want to be able to write a novel in a year; I should be able to write a novel in a year. But. I like to travel. I like to teach (plus, I get paid for it). I like having friends and feeding them and hanging out with them. I also have to do my part to keep the house ticking over smoothly, which boils down to things that don't involve picking up a telephone or spending a lot of time chasing things on-line. I like going to the theatre. I need to sleep, or I can't do any of the above. And there are only 24 hours in the day.
So what is a realistic writing goal for 2010? In which I will be teaching Clarion and spending time in Finland and Australia?
Finish The Freedom Maze (Absolutely necessary to my peace of mind, since I've been working on it on and off since 1996, and I really, really, really need to GET IT THE HELL OFF MY DESK)
Finish "The Mystery of Cwmlech Manor" (Well, it's due Jan. 30, so that's going to happen)
Finish the proposal for The Dragon of Wall Street (Thoroughly doable, since it's all but done)
Choose my next project and get cracking on it.
If Dragon is accepted, obviously, that's what I'll do. If it isn't, or it takes a while to hear, then I'll need something else lined up, ready to jump into. Choices include the middle-grade boy-book The Wizard's Apprentice, the cracktastic Sherlock Holmes as an automaton novel, featuring Mycroft, a hitherto unknown sister, and a young Moriarty, and Gingerbread House, my take on "Hansel and Gretel," set in New York in 1929, which I really need to write before too long, or I'm afraid I'll lose my desire to write it.
Wizard's Apprentice is maybe 1/3 written, so it makes sense to dive into that one, maybe start the research on one of the others. And something's bound to pop up in the course of the year. It always does.
Okay, that sounds like a plan. I'm glad we had this little talk. Howabout you?
So I'm not making any resolutions this year. I'm making goals. And I'm trying to make them realistic, which is somehow in my head different from reasonable.
In 2009, I
Edited, administered, and did publicity for Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing (With Chris Barzak, who did a lot of work, and Gavin Grant, who actually published the thing)
Edited the Annex (with Chris again, and Geoffrey Long, who designed the pages and put the stories up)
Did publicity for The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen.
Oversaw the redesign of my website (Thank you, Claudia Carlson, web-designer extraordinaire and good friend).
Oversaw the making of the video trailer for MMMQ. (Thank you, Lisa Stock, film-maker, artist, and good friend).
Wrote "Flying".
Wrote Draft 15 of The Freedom Maze and sent it out to an entire alphabet of Beta readers for comments, which I am now digesting.
Began "The Great Detective," which morphed into "The Mystery of Cwmlech Manor," leaving the first idea to possibly grow into a steampunk novel someday.
Began the proposal for The Dragon of Wall Street, the next New York Between novel and the final book in the Neef trilogy.
All of which, I guess, adds up to a lot more than I thought I'd done when I started the list, although still less than I wish I'd done.
Which is the problem, I guess. There's desire and duty on the one hand; there's reality on the other.
I want to be able to write a novel in a year; I should be able to write a novel in a year. But. I like to travel. I like to teach (plus, I get paid for it). I like having friends and feeding them and hanging out with them. I also have to do my part to keep the house ticking over smoothly, which boils down to things that don't involve picking up a telephone or spending a lot of time chasing things on-line. I like going to the theatre. I need to sleep, or I can't do any of the above. And there are only 24 hours in the day.
So what is a realistic writing goal for 2010? In which I will be teaching Clarion and spending time in Finland and Australia?
Finish The Freedom Maze (Absolutely necessary to my peace of mind, since I've been working on it on and off since 1996, and I really, really, really need to GET IT THE HELL OFF MY DESK)
Finish "The Mystery of Cwmlech Manor" (Well, it's due Jan. 30, so that's going to happen)
Finish the proposal for The Dragon of Wall Street (Thoroughly doable, since it's all but done)
Choose my next project and get cracking on it.
If Dragon is accepted, obviously, that's what I'll do. If it isn't, or it takes a while to hear, then I'll need something else lined up, ready to jump into. Choices include the middle-grade boy-book The Wizard's Apprentice, the cracktastic Sherlock Holmes as an automaton novel, featuring Mycroft, a hitherto unknown sister, and a young Moriarty, and Gingerbread House, my take on "Hansel and Gretel," set in New York in 1929, which I really need to write before too long, or I'm afraid I'll lose my desire to write it.
Wizard's Apprentice is maybe 1/3 written, so it makes sense to dive into that one, maybe start the research on one of the others. And something's bound to pop up in the course of the year. It always does.
Okay, that sounds like a plan. I'm glad we had this little talk. Howabout you?