2022 Goals

Musings

2022 Goals

These Cursed Waters

Finish my mentorship with Amie Kaufman and develop the manuscript further
Resubmit the manuscript to Text before the end of 2022

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 30 Jun
15 submissions by 31 Dec

Bleed For Me

Structural edit completed by 15 Jun
Draft 2 completed by 15 Aug
Submission ready by 31 Dec

Embers

Draft 1 completed 15 May
Structural edit completed 31 Aug
Draft 2 started in October

Counting Stars

Outline review by 31 Dec

Other Projects

Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31 Dec
Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 31 Dec

In 2022, I have no solid plans for writing short stories.

What are your goals for 2022? How do you plan to achieve them?

Musings

2021 Goals – End of year review

Because every professional needs goals, I set out some writing goals for 2021 in December 2020. Now that I’m saying hello to 2022, it’s time to check in.

These Cursed Waters

Submit to at least 30 Agents by 31st December – So, I didn’t hit this goal, but something better happened! These Cursed Waters was shortlisted for the 2021 Text Prize, and I was the inaugural recipient of the Steph Bowe Mentorship. I have been working with the fabulous Amie Kaufman on revising and developing the manuscript to bring it to the next level.

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 31st May
- Including: Manuscript, Query Letter, Synopsis – Structural edits are done! I have just been waiting on some feedback from my beta readers. A submission ready draft will be done in 2022.
~~A revised synopsis for book 2 by 30th June~~ – Done!

Bleed For Me

~~Do outline review by 31st January~~ – Done!
~~First draft done by 30th September~~ – Done!
Start the structural edit in December – In progress.

Other Projects

~~Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31st March~~ – Done!
~~Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 30th November~~ – Done! The working title for this manuscript is Counting Stars

Other Activities (because sometimes you can’t predict the cool opportunities that will come up)

I have written 4 out of my 5 blog posts on editing TSC as part of my outreach for the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship – One left to go!
On June 14, I achieved one year of writing 500 words a day. It’s well and truly a part of my daily routine

2021 was a successful writing year for me and I’m looking forward to 2022!

Musings

Because every professional needs goals, I set out some writing goals for 2021 in December last year. I thought now we are half-way through 2021, that I should revisit these goals and see how my progress is tracking.

These Cursed Waters

Submit to at least 30 Agents by 31st December – Since the beginning of this year, I have submitted These Cursed Waters for 22 opportunities, so I think I’m well on track to achieve this goal by the end of the year.

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 31st May
- Including: Manuscript, Query Letter, Synopsis – I haven’t yet finished my edits for TSC, I estimate I will have everything done by the end of August. Only the synopsis has been revised and is ready to go. Between the pandemic, a full-time day-job and the end of financial year, it’s been hard to find the time and creative energy to edit.
~~A revised synopsis for book 2 by 30th June~~ – Done! I even finished this one a few days early!

Bleed For Me

~~Do outline review by 31st January~~ – Done!
First draft done by 30th September – Currently at 39% and due to finish by 13 November based on my 500 words per day average. I’ll likely still make my original deadline as I tend to write faster towards the end and get excited by my next project.
Start the structural edit in December – Should be achievable if everything goes to plan. I like to leave my manuscript at least a month before I do any edits.

Other Projects

~~Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31st March~~ – Done! The working title for this book is Embers.
Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 30th November – I need to decide which project this will be, but I have several in the ideation phase which I’m excited to explore.

Other Activities (because sometimes you can’t predict the cool opportunities that will come up)

I have written 4 out of my 5 blog posts on editing TSC as part of my outreach for the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship
I got TSC submitted to my editor on time for the manuscript assessment
I have become more involved with my local writers guild, the CSFG and met some really cool people
On June 14, I achieved one year of writing 500 words a day. It’s well and truly a part of my daily routine
I completed by 2021 reading challenge to read 50 books – I might have to set a higher goal for next year!
I participated in CampRevPit on Twitter which was a whole load of fun

Overall, this has been a busy year for me, and not just for writing. I still have quite a lot left to do, but at least we’re only halfway through the year! In December, I will post my full reflection on my goals and create my goals for 2022.

Musings

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 1 – Planning

In 2020, I was awarded the Anne Edgeworth Fellowship to develop my manuscript, The Selkie Curse. The fellowship is generously funding a manuscript assessment and a mentorship. Along with the funds and my project work, those who win the fellowship are expected to undertake some community outreach. This post is the first in a series that I will be writing over the next few months about the process of structural editing. I hope to share my progress as well as any insights I uncover into the challenging task of editing my own novel.

About The Selkie Curse: Elsa and her mother, Queen Tiari, are at war with the Fisherman Kingdom. The young king of the Fishermen blames Queen Tiari for his father’s death, and he is set to destroy Tiari’s queendom. It is up to Elsa, and her best friend Aada, to find a way to end the war and save their home.

My first step in performing a structural edit was to plan it all out. I spent several days collecting every resource I had from workshops, theory books and editors, to compile a master list of tasks to be done. It was huge and needed a lot more structure in order to execute. So, I did what any sane person would, and made a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet with multiple tabs and tables.

I then broke down all of my information into stages of how I would tackle each component of the structural edit. The plan was to start at the highest level of my novel and work my down to the line-level detail. With everything in order, and the spreadsheet looking pretty, I was ready to start my re-read.

I left my manuscript for two months before starting the re-read. In the meantime I began working on another project to help distance myself from the plot, characters and world. This gave me a fresh perspective on the first draft. What did I find in that first re-read? Lots of mistakes. Spelling, grammar, what have you. But there was no time to fix those. I highlighted everything that stood out as important or terrible prose and moved on. The re-read also gave me a good sense of what did and didn’t work with the manuscript. Flat character arcs, timelines that didn’t add up and shallow worldbuilding.

Using my magic spreadsheet, I set about describing the book as how it was versus what I want to be at the highest level. Did the opening ask a question? Was that question answered at the end of the book? Were my acts balanced? Who is my target audience? What is my main genre? With all of these answered I felt ready (if nervous) to proceed. There was a lot to do!

I was fortunate to meet with my mentor, the lovely and wisdom-filled Leife Shallcross. She shared a fascinating insight into her trials in structural editing and helped me to unpick some of my nastier problems. She also issued me a challenge – to assign my book AO3 tags (more about tags here). I’ve given it a go here:

#LGBTQ Themes
#Slow Burn
#Angst
#Feelings
#mythical beings
#enemies to lovers
#blood
#family secrets
#ballroom dancing
#environmentalism

My next post will be about how I went about fixing the big issues across my manuscript. In the meantime, I will be working hard on the edits!

My key insights from the last few weeks:

Give yourself a break from the manuscript, you’ll be surprised at how much needs work, but also how much solid gold you have that will just need polishing.
Keep breaking down the tasks until they seem easy or at least manageable. Can it be done in under and hour? Will you clearly know when that task is done?
Start at the highest level of your manuscript. What is your dramatic question? Is it in the opening paragraph/scene/chapter? Do you answer it by the end of the manuscript?

Musings

2021 Goals

Because every professional needs goals, here are my writing goals for 2021:

These Cursed Waters

Submit to at least 30 Agents by 31st December*

The Selkie Curse

A submission-ready draft by 31st May
- Including: Manuscript, Query Letter, Synopsis
A revised synopsis for book 2 by 30th June

Bleed For Me

Do outline review by 31st January
First draft done by 30th September
Start the structural edit in December

Other Projects

Untitled new series #1 book 1 outline by 31st March
Untitled new series #2 book 1 outline by 30th November

In 2021, I’ll be taking a step back from writing short stories. I will continue to submit what I have, but I have so many ideas for novels that I want to start putting them down.

What are your goals for 2021? How do you plan to achieve them?

*Edited 3/01/2021: Was originally 5 submissions but that was too easy. I’ve changed it to be 5 every 2 months.

Writing Tips

NaNoWriMo Tips

The following is an old blog post that I wrote when I finished writing my first novel in 2011. I was in the eighth grade and was very excited to ‘win’ NaNoWriMo. It’s funny to look back on it now, a dozen manuscripts later. I was driven by the need to prove my family wrong – that it was possible for me to write 50,000 words in a month, and I’ve been riding that wave ever since.

***

Here is a section of a post I wrote after completing my first novel in 2011:

It was one hell of a month and a very big challenge for me. This was something I had never dared to do before. I barely ever finish stories, much less full-length novels!

Here are my tips for doing NaNoWriMo from personal experience:

– Write an outline. Seriously. You’ll never know how valuable it is to you until the month starts and you have nothing to write about. Trust me when I say this because I had no outline and I did not hit my word count on the first day. If you can’t write an outline at least think about what you are going to do.

– Attempt to hit the word count every day. Catching up is no fun. 🙁

– Shove your inner editor up in a cupboard, lock it up, and throw away the key. When you have to write 1,667 words per day they do not need to be there.

– Write whenever you can. At home, on the bus, at school, while the teacher is talking… Jokes 😀 Don’t get yourself in trouble. But you’ll find more time to write if you do this, plus, you don’t have to stay up until 11:30 every night to hit your goal.

– No procrastination! Very important. Watching TV or playing games are no excuse. Think of all of the catch-ups… *groan* You can do that once you’ve hit your daily word goal.

– Do not set yourself an impossible challenge. If you’ve only ever written 100 words in your life don’t aim for 50,000 words. It’s not going to happen and it is completely unrealistic.

– Don’t let writer’s block get the better of you. It will most probably come at the worst of times. The only way to get over it is a) take a break (a short one mind you) b) write something else, something short or c) don’t start playing computer games. It will only make things worse.

– Social media is a no-no! Friends distract one so easily. Also, they won’t need you for that month. turn it off whenever you right.

– Sleep. Sleep keeps you going. It isn’t good to stare at a screen 24 hours a day. Drinking and eating also come under this rule.

– Most importantly:

DO NOT GIVE UP!

You have set yourself a goal and you should try your best to achieve it. Everyone thought of me as crazy but I did it anyway and I succeeded (and went mad along the way…)

So those are all my tips… There are a bit more than I’d thought there would be, I guess I can’t stop writing now! Do you want to hear how I went? Of course, you do! Thank you!

I WON! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

2022 Goals

2021 Goals – End of year review

2021 Goals – Mid-year review

Undertaking a Structural Edit: Part 1 – Planning

2021 Goals

NaNoWriMo Tips