Here, the kids are back in school and the dust is settling so it feels like time to pull myself together again, stop gorging on all the chocolate (So. Hard!) and get back to the words.
I like to look back on what I was prattling on about at this time the previous year, to see what I had planned and what I managed. I listed it here, but to summarise; I’d barfed up three stories in rougher-than-rough form and planned to set about them during the year with a swinging bat.
I started the Vomit-draft-to-First-draft beating of Story one, but at chapter 10 and four months in I decided to shelve it. I know we are supposed to finish things we start. I know, I know. But it just didn’t have the mileage. Maybe it will see the light of day one day, but not for now and the decision felt right. I started working on Story three instead and finished the first proper draft at the end of November. It is a full-length women’s fiction story and, by some small miracle for me, it even has a plot. I left it to mull and then read it over Christmas. I read it on a sunlounger, on my kindle, to make it feel like a real book. I made notes. Serious or what?
Soooo, looking forward; my plan for the first part of this year is to put those notes to use to get a second draft nailed down and then start the submission’s shenanigans to agents. Then I’ll either start the process again with Story two, or face writing from scratch a YA story that keeps knocking to come out but scares me.
I also have the annual Valentines story swap with my lovely CP to write. It was my turn to select the prompt, which I have, but now cannot come up with any useful ideas. Probably the smart thing was pick a prompt I had an idea for. Doh. Still, there’s a month to go on that one…
That’s what’s happening here, and making me happy. Other than the lack of Valentine's idea, the 2016 plan doesn't make me want to say "Eek", unlike other years.
Any 2016 writing resolutions/plans for any of you out there? Share please!
mine is to finally finish my ya novel. anything other than that would be unrealistic. on the reading front, I want to try to read ten pages a day.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to hold you to the YA resolution!
ReplyDeleteHaving been generally averse to resolutions, I suddenly had the brainwave last night that it should be a resolution to learn to play poker this year and have the kids do the same, in lieu of having no transferable skills to pass on to them...