Tag: publishing

2024 Goals

Here we are in 2024! A new year, with 366 (Leap Year!) new days to make things happen and reach some goals.

2023 was super productive and very successful. I hope to repeat the trend in 2024, only better because I’m taking what I learned in 2023 and refining it to better hit my goals.

Writing Goals

Write 1.5K-2K (Or 1 hour of time) daily one project at a time until Completed

Over the last few months of 2023, I changed my writing practices in an effort to be more efficient and not over do it. I overdid it, with massive word counts, but I did learn how to make my writing more efficient. I found I could consistently get anywhere between 1.5-2K words in about an hour, so I would like to make that a daily practice so I can finish some projects this year.

Finish 5-6 Writing Projects

This goal is a huge goal, but I have done that on purpose. If I continue at the pace I did at the end of last year (and with consistency rather than a crazy race to the finish), I can finish several projects. I’m leaving the projects open, not setting anything crazy, seeing what come along when it comes along.

Finish 2 Editing Projects

There are two projects I want to get through edits this year. The first is the edits from last year I didn’t quite get finished and the second is the novel I finished in December. I can’t quite edit as fast as I write (yet), but I’m hoping to improve this year.

Read 15 Books

Reading is one of the goals I definitely overshot last year. I started with 6 and then increased to 12, but read 19. This year, I want to split the difference and read 15 books. I have a few books left over from 2023, but I’ve been itching to get reading and improve my craft.

Publish Consistently Online

Over the last few months, I’ve upped my online publishing game and I’ve seen the results. I want to publish online consistently and get more exposure. I’ve got three places I publish and I want to stay as consistent as possible throughout this new year.

Publish a Long Work

This year, I would like to publish a novel. I’ve been saying that for years, but with years of practice behind me and the hope of more consistency this year, 2024 will be my year to publish. Whether indie published or traditional, I hope to have something published in the next 366 days.

Personal Goals

Exercise/Get in Better Shape

I make this goal every year, and every year I get fed up and give up somewhere in the first few months. I want to exercise (or at least walk) four times a week. I have a very important big party in September and I want to be my best physically for that and continue the habit for the rest of my life. I haven’t always been the healthiest, but now it’s time to change that.

Hydrate

In November, I started a water drinking challenge and it worked very well. I felt better, I wasn’t as fatigued and I didn’t have as many little aches and pains. I didn’t do the greatest in December (still drinking way too much coffee), but I want to continue tracking my water and hydration goals throughout the year.

January Goals

Writing Goals

Outline Open Projects

I have a lot of open projects from the last few years. I’ve learned I do better with an outline, so I want to outline the open projects I have and decide if they are worth continuing or if they should be put on hiatus so I can work on other things. From there, I will pick the project I want to work on for the next few months or so (depending on how long it takes to finish).

Update Blog and other Platforms

I’ve had the blog for a while and I’m branching out into other platforms. I want to create a cohesive experience where all my bios are inter-connected and easier to navigate. I want to update some things here on the blog and make the navigation more user friendly. Stay tuned for updates!

Publish consistently on the Blog, Medium and Substack

Publishing online has been a positive experience for me so far, now that I have been able to make a consistent publishing schedule. I want to continue to publish and build a routine and challenge myself to improve.

Submit a Short Story to a magazine

This goal, I’ve been thinking about for a few months now. I want to attempt to publish something through a magazine and when I last looked submissions weren’t open yet. They open this month, so I’m going to do something scary and submit.

Personal Goals

Exercise 4x/week

I want to walk and get outside for at least 30 minutes a day four times a week. It shouldn’t be too difficult if I stick to a schedule and make it happen consistently. Part of the battle is motivating myself to get it done. I’m hoping with a decent audiobook, podcast or album to listen to, I’ll be able to be more consistent.

Drink Enough Water daily (with the help of Waterminder)

Drinking water and staying hydrated has helped me feel so much better in the long run. I want to keep it up and drink more water consistently and improve my body from the inside out. Waterminder, an app I’ve had since 2020, is very helpful in tracking my water, and it’s really nice to see the pretty colors of all the different liquids I drink.

Overall, I’m excited for 2024 and all the new opportunities it will bring!

 

Tuesday How To

Welcome to Tuesday How To!

Here is your crash course of how to write from the beginning to the end, finding ideas to finding publishers. As I learn things, so will you. I will share my wisdom, and help you understand and learn some things about writing that you don’t know, or remember some thing that you do.

The first section is all about writing, so let’s get started, shall we?

Publishing in the Modern World

When we write, when we put words down on the page, we often want to be heard, we want our words to mean something. Sometimes that means just putting words on the page, and sometimes that means something huge, like publishing. Publishing is one of the best opportunities for writers, and it is a huge step, no matter what path we,as writers, choose for ourselves.

There are many options and so many choices to make when we decide to enter the publishing world. There is everything from publishing on a blog for just a few followers to sending your work to one of the big publishing companies for millions upon millions to read (if you’re lucky). In between, there are more options and so much to decide in a short amount of time. There is a lot you should know about publishing, and so much you should research for yourself. Publishing has changed so much since books began to become mass published and there are so many terms and conditions that may be confusing to first time researchers.

These are only for short story markets so far, but some do cross over to novels and non-fiction.

Simultaneous Submissions- This refers to how many submissions you send into separate publishing companies. Say you have a story called “Bob’s Lunchbox” and you think it’s the most amazing story ever so you send it to Company A, Company B and Company C. That would be a simultaneous submission and most publishing companies frown on that. They usually prefer that you wait to hear from them before you send your masterpiece somewhere else.

Multiple Submissions- This refers to how many submissions you send to that same company. This means if you have more than one great masterpiece, “Bob’s Lunchbox”, “Purple Robe”, and “Rest for Bob”, you send them all to the same company, Company A. Most publishing companies don’t like that either. They prefer you send one story at a time so they can process that one, decide what they want to do with it, and then get back to you before you submit your next piece.

Previously Published- As writers, we should know what “previously published” means, but with the internet and so many types of art becoming readily available, that definition becomes a little fuzzy. Most literary magazines, publishing companies, and online publishers define previously published as “Anything that has been distributed for audiences on websites, print, or digital”. This means on social media, writing websites, and yes, your blog. But don’t fret when you print it on your home computer, in print refers to anything with a barcode. Say, the createspace option for winners of NaNoWriMo. It may be amazing to have your book in print, but if you want to publish it, and publish it seriously for mass audiences, skip the offer.

These are just some general terms that are on most submission guidelines pages. There are probably a lot more options out there and a lot more terms to research, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. You should do your own research for your own publishing ventures and carefully decide what path you want to pursue. I am not an expert, I am a researcher, just like you, and a writer that wants to inform and protect my fellow writers.

Best of luck if you decide to publish, and best of luck in your writing!

Publishing can be scary, but you will learn a lot just by researching

Do you have plans for publishing? Where are you going to start?

Facing Our Fears

Sometimes, we don’t know what to call ourselves. Are we writers, novelists, authors, all of the above? When people ask us we often just shrug and say “I write stuff I guess…” or just kind of “I’m a writer but not published or anything” Does it matter what we call ourselves or what we say, as long as we write?

I used to struggle with calling myself a writer. I thought that no one would care, no one would appreciate it unless I had something to show for it. I used to write in secret, and I used to let only one person, or a few read my works (and those were first drafts!). I still don’t completely share all of my works yet, but maybe someday I will.

I started to call myself a writer pretty recently, when more people started calling me a writer. As I got older, I got more comfortable calling myself a writer, telling people what I do, what I want to do, what I feel I must do to enjoy this one life I have. So now, when people ask, first I say I’m a soon-to-be nurse (since I’m technically waiting to take the test that will make me a real practicing nurse), and then I say I’m a writer. Depending on who asks, it’s usually switched. I have been a writer way longer than I have ever even wanted to be a nurse.

An author, in my mind, is someone who makes money from their writing. I am not yet an author, but I want to be. Someday, you will all see my name on bookshelves everywhere. I just have to face the fear and dive into the publishing pool head first. And it is scary. The waiting and the rejection and the possibility of having my words out there is three parts exciting and one part pure and complete terror. So I cannot yet call myself an author, but I will someday.

I made the first step toward calling myself an author today. It’s a baby step, but I researched short story publishing today. There are a lot of choices, and so many more steps, but it was a start. It’s terrifying, but I am so glad I did it. It might be a while, but it is going to happen, and I am going to keep writing until it does happen.

Our fears may be frightening, looming before us like huge gates, holding us back from what we can achieve, but amazing things can happen when we face them. Courage, not fear, is the way we make our dreams come true.

This quote is so inspiring. Learning to live with my fear was one of the best things I ever did

What is your biggest writing fear? How do you plan to face it?

Writer Life Lesson #2: Write What You Want

Fads are everywhere. Things become popular one day and are gone the next. Writing is no stranger to fads and popular ideas are everywhere. When one idea becomes popular several copies follow. Think about how popular vampires have been, or dystopian novels. Where one pops up, five more follow. In five or ten years we’ll all be moved on to a new overused plot or trope.

This leads me to Writer Life Lesson #2: Write What You Want

There are several reasons why you should write what YOU want. If you are writing to please someone else, or because popular fads get published, or you just want to make money, you are doing it for the wrong reasons. It may work out for a short time, but in the long run it is career and passion suicide. It will get tiresome and boring and you will hate it.

On the other hand, wonderful things happen if you write for yourself and what you want to write. Every piece will get your heart pumping and your hands itching to write just one more scene.To write what you want, to write for yourself, is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.

Write your work and your ideas, no matter what the popular fad of the week is. It’s easy to want to fall into a fad, to get ourselves thinking “Well the best selling novel right now is about werewolves so I am going to write a book about werewolves and make it big!”, and yes, anyone could make it big writing about werewolves, but that doesn’t mean the werewolf fad will always be popular.

Publishing a novel takes a long time. With the weeks to wait to hear back from publishers and agents, weeks for rewrites and edits, more weeks after that for formatting, cover design and PR, but the time your book hits the shelves it could be a year and a half or more. Think about where you were a year and a half ago, think about what was popular then and what is popular now. Back to the werewolf example, if werewolves are still popular in a year and a half to two years, your book is probably catching the tail end of that wave. Your book will get some sales, but slowly be phased out with the rest.

I’ve fallen into the same trap. I wrote a vampire novel, and a werewolf novel, or parts of them anyway. They ended up being scrapped pretty quickly. Might I finish them eventually, or rewrite them entirely? Maybe, but now is not the right time. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I even wrote a novel with basically the same plot as Twilight, or it started out that way. Toward the end it became its own plot and had it’s own themes. When I rewrote it about a year later, it became much better. That piece is still in the works, and it may be published someday, but only after I can give it the proper time it needs.

Which leads me to my next point: If you feel you must write something that is considered a fad, change it up enough, make it as different as you can, give readers something they don’t expect to keep them reading. Fads go out of style because we, as a society, get used to them, they become boring and trite. If you can surprise the reader, show them a new side or something they didn’t consider, they will keep reading.

Back to writing for yourself, what you want to write, and publishing. If you write something that you didn’t choose or something that you think will make you money, remember it is something you will have to keep revisiting. Something that will continue to need work and edits and rewrites. It’s not something you can just write once and send in expecting it to be perfect. If you write something you love working on, something you love to revisit like an old friend, it will be easier and more fun.

And isn’t that what writing is supposed to be about?

My favorite work so far. And the piece I keep revisiting.

What is your favorite piece you’ve written so far? What was it about?

Goals for 2015

I’ve done a lot of talking about goals, and how important they are, but I haven’t really shared any of mine yet. I suppose this post would hold more importance around the new year, but goals can and should be considered all the time. The new year is a great reason to start new goals, but it shouldn’t be the only reason.

My goals for 2015 are:

1. Write every day- This goal should be pretty obvious. I am a writer and if I want to continue to be a writer, I should take it seriously and write. I have tried this goal several times, for several years, but something always gets in the way. So far, I have missed a few days here and there, but I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be. Since starting this goal in the middle of January, I have written around 20K total.

2. Finish the second book in my series- I started the second book, Little Earthquakes: The Child, in November of 2012 (Thanks, NaNo!). The end of that year and the beginning of 2013 were very stressful for me, and I barely even touched the surface of the second book. After editing and rewriting parts of the first book, the plots of book two changed into something better. Since I finished the third draft of book one, it’s time to let that rest and give some life to book two.

3. Edit the first book in the series- I began the first book, Spark: The Girl, in November of 2011 (Thank you, NaNo!) and I had parts of a plot, but not any ideas strong enough for a whole series (which it quickly became). After finishing the first draft, and realizing the holes and the several changes it needed, I began to write draft two, which then became draft three after several more realizations. Now that draft three is done and complete, it’s time to try something new and edit it thoroughly and start looking for a publisher. Maybe even draft four too.

4. Write a short story every month- I used to struggle with short stories. I figured why write a short story when you could write a whole novel? I began my first short story in April of 2013, to challenge myself, and I actually ended up liking it. I decided when 2014 rolled around to do a short story a month. I managed to write nine short stories and start a tenth before 2015 started. I liked it so much last year that I’m doing it again this year. Not only does it flex my creative muscles, but it gives me the option to work on something else if I get stuck in a novel.

5. Send something out for a contest and/or publishing- This was one of my goals last year. I expected to be finished with the third draft way sooner than I actually finished it, and I was going to edit it quickly, find an agent and a publisher and have it published by the end of the year. That didn’t happen and to be honest, I’m quite glad. It would have been a complete mess. However, what did happen was way better. I found out about a short story contest and submitted what I thought was my best work. I didn’t win or anything special, but at least I tried. It was frightening at first, to say the least, but the confidence boost afterward was one of the best gifts ever. I plan to do something like that again this year.

Now that I’ve shared mine, what are some of your goals?