First and Goals: May 2010

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: Oh, April was a month of EPIC FAIL for me. It looks my inner writer decided that my gag goals from April 1st looked pretty good and I spent pretty much the whole month in intense baby-preparation mode. So, you know those goals from last month? Yeah, they're making another grand appearance this month, hopefully with a better outcome. That's 3 revised chapters and 12 OWW reviews over the next 31 days. Time to get cracking!

Tori Pryer's Goals: Ok, I failed in the month of April, but I'm going to blame that on the massive pollen invasion that blanketed SC this spring. It took most of my energy to breathe and keep going to the day job. Add to that no free weekends and you have a recipe for poor writing habits. That being said, I have been working on TDC in the latter half of this month. I plan to continue that path and hopefully have revised pages to show for it at the end of May. I want to know what will happen in the story (synopsis) and have approximately thirty revised pages.

Sarah Templeton's Goals: I'm keeping my goals super-secret this month, my path is so set on what I do have going on that not even the threat of public shaming is required for me to succeed. So I'm not going to share--I'm going to write. And write. And write.

Haricot Vert's Goals: Wallowing in and revising of words. This is what I'm up to for May. So encouragement is always welcome, as the spirit takes you.
As for a resumé of April... well my goal of cleaning the short didn't happen. However! I did start revising a different project, so I count the past month as time well spent.

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?

First and Goals: April 2010 (Really This Time)

Okay, so we got a little silly yesterday, it being April Fools' Day and all. But we really do plan to work a bit this month, so here's the real First and Goals post for this month.

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: I met my goals last month! Huzzah! Woohoo! Yippee! *Ahem* Sorry about that; it's been a while since I've felt productive. 16 weeks, to be precise. Moving on. I need to pick up my pace if I'm going to get this book done before the baby puts in his/her appearance in September. This month, I will revise not one but three chapters and post them on the OWW site for review. Which, of course, also means that I'll do 12 reviews on the OWW site, in order to earn enough points to post three chapters.

Darlene C. Goodman's Goals: I don't remember posting goals last month. I don't think I did. Well, I guess I lived up to expectations! Woot! I did plot nine new scenes and start writing them, but what I have written is unsalvagable crap. I also wrote a very short story in a violent fit of depression and, dang, it's shiney. April's goal is to find a story that I actually want to write. Maybe about phoenixes, maybe about angsty teenage girls, maybe about rocks on the beach. My muse needs a fix.

Tori Pryer's Goals: Alas, I fail. I did not finish the short story. I am not meant to be a pantser. Therefore, I've chosen to plot it first. I know more stuff about the villain and the heroine and the hero. I have a scene list. I will write the short story, I just didn't do it this month. I read TDC and I've started making notes about the manuscript.

For April, I plan to break TDC into chapters and to start re-plotting it. If I get lucky, I would like to re-write/edit the first chapter. I will continue to work on the short story in my free time. Oh, and I'm doing the monster short for Script Frenzy

Sarah Templeton's Goals: I finally burned myself out on revisions last month. I need to write fresh words, and work on a new project. No rewriting, no tweaking, just fresh, muse-refueling words. So I'm taking on a 50k challenge with some other RWA PROs starting this month--and I'm writing a new project. I'm also letting my inner artist out to play: I'm designing steampunk jewelry for some costumes I get to wear in May. Gonna be a busy but freshly creative month designed to stimulate the brain cells.

Haricot Vert's Goals: For March, I said I would mangle a fairy tale. And I did. I survey the damage, and... yup, mangling definitely took place. So for April, I will clean up after myself, and see if there is anything coherent and cohesive amidst all of the verbal blood and gore.

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?

First and Goals: April 2010

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I've decided that, now that I'm having a baby, I don't need to do the whole writing thing anymore. It was just filler, fluff to make me feel worthwhile during the years when I wasn't living up to my potential as a baby factory. Because, really, you just can't be a wife and a mother and a novelist all at the same time. No one really does that (not well anyway). So, while it's been fun these past few years, I'm giving up the writing game. No goals for me this month.

Darlene C. Goodman's Goals: I'm starting a new project this month. It's a lit fic novel about a rock on a beach and all the people who pass by it on their way to the water. The beetle scene makes me cry just thinking about it.

Kalayna Price's Goals: I have recently come up with an idea for a super sexy book called THE SECRET LIFE OF PIGEONS. This month will be devoted to research to really get in the head of my characters. To do this, I will be selling all of my belongings and moving into the park so that I can be with the pigeons at all times. I will try to live just like a pigeon, from sleeping, to eating, to refusing to fly away from passing cars but instead waddle slowly with my head bobbing while the car blares its horn. It will be great. I think this will be the big one for me. But, as pigeons don't have internet--or a written language--I will have to leave this blog. As such, this will be my last post. Thanks guys, I really enjoyed blogging with you! Come visit me at the park some time.

Tori Pryer's Goals: I've been keeping secrets from you guys and I think it is time to come clean. I've secretly been finished with not one but two books and I've been querying them and through that process I've met a man...and well, I plan to go to Vegas this month so I will be a bit too busy to write

Sarah Templeton's Goals: This month, I intend to write four books, learn a new language, design my official website, and handsew fifteen steampunk outfits which I will wear over the course of three days next month. I will invent 101 new ways to enjoy the blissful taste of Thin Mints (Although some will be theoretical. I'll run out of cookies long before 101) and I am going to finally canoe fearlessly down a river--even though I can't swim.

Haricot Vert's Goals: My goals are small this time around. I will revise 2006's NaNoWriMo manuscript, edit it, polish it, and then query it to at least 7 agents.

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?

First and Goals: March 2010

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: The write a little something every day goal didn't work out so well for me last month. It's too general for someone with my intense self-diagnosed OCD somewhat detail-oriented nature. So this month, though my writing schedule still isn't back on track at all, I'm setting a specific goal again. Just a slightly smaller specific goal than I tried in January. In March, I will write, revise, and polish the new scene I'm adding to chapter 1 of my WIP and will finish the revisions of chapter 2. I will also do enough reviews for OWW to post chapter 2 for critique.

Kalayna Price's Goals: Well, I have a book due April 1st, so my goals for March are pretty straight forward: have a publishable draft by the end of the month!

Tori Pryer's Goals: February was not a complete failure, but neither was it a complete success. I did not meet my goal of having a short story complete though it is started. I did not start editing TDC. I lost a lot of time to the day job and some to my Olympic obsession, but mostly to the day job. I can and did turn off the TV. I can't turn off the day job. This month, I'm working on the Artist's Way. So my goals for the month of March are to finish the short story, work on the Artists Way, and begin editing TDC.

Haricot Vert's Goals: I could blame the Olympics for my writing goals failure. ...In fact, I do blame the Olympics. Never mind that they started February 12, and that I didn't even watch as much of them as I wanted. Yes, now that I have a scapegoat, I can admit that February wasn't the kindest to my goals. But March will be better, in part, because I am changing my goals. I will, this month, mangle a fairy tale. What this entails is re-imaging the story while keeping to the language. Maybe the tale will be recognizable at the end. Maybe I'll even post bits and pieces here.

Sarah Templeton's Goals: I can sit around and wait for things to happen only so long before letting the muse spur me down a different path altogether, so this month I'm letting the big stuff simmer on the back burner and moving on full-tilt at the side projects. Well, as full-tilt as one gets with a day job and a really nasty cold/flu thing trying to defeat my immune system. (Yes, the clause placement is intentional: I'm betting this particular strain came from a coworker.)

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?

First and Goals: February 2010

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: Well, my January goals were a total bust. A classic case of that whole "Man plans, God laughs" thing. So I'm setting a much lighter goal for February. At this point I'll just be happy to get back to writing a little bit every day. So that's it for me. No target word counts, no revised pages plans. Just some kind of progress, every day for the next 28 days.

Darlene C. Goodman's Goals: I didn't get my timeline in, but I did break through the chapter 13 jinx and start a series arc narrative summary document. For February, I want to finish my series arc.

Kalayna Price's Goals: Well, I knew last month's goal of writing 90k in a month was ambitious. Unfortunately, I didn't meet it. (Next time. Next time) So, February's goal is to finish my WIP and start on the second draft.

Tori Pryer's Goals: Well, I finished the first draft of my WIP. That was the biggest goal. I think I accomplished it even though I wound up combining my new draft with the second half of my old draft to do it. I finished the new ending last night. For the month of February, my goal is to write a World War II short. If I can, I will begin editing the WIP that I just finished.

Sarah Templeton's Goals: My muse is exhausted. She and my internal editor (who's still hopped up on caffeine and poking away at the intriguing gray squishy bits inside my skull) had a busy, busy month. Together they accomplished and then swarmed past my goals. Page 200? Try 1 and 3/4 full revisions, 2 new chapters, and a major revamp of motivation. This month I'm swinging my focus around to agent submissions--synopsis and query letter time!--and revisions for the first half of a steampunk short I drafted out last year.

Haricot Vert's Goals: Right then. So I had plans to expand the scene list completed in January (yay for achieving a goal!), however now that February is staring me impudently in the face, I am backing down from those plans. Instead, my goal for this short, stumpy, month is to write each day. *fist bump with NL*

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?

First and Goals: January 2010

At the beginning of each month, we Modern Myth Makers will be posting our writerly goals for the coming month, in an effort to motivate ourselves through the threat of shaming in a public forum by giving each other, and all of you, the opportunity to encourage our progress.

NL Berger's Goals: Oh, we're starting a new year and a new way of doing things on this blog and it's all fresh and exciting and . . . I'm already feeling a little behind schedule. I'm playing catch up this month to account for some setbacks during the last few months. This month I plan to make it through 160 pages of intensive revisions of WIP #1 and get at least 48k words of the rough draft of WIP #2 written out.

Darlene C. Goodman's Goals: My goals will seem slackerish compared to the rest of the TriMu, but that is my usual technique for success. Aim low and exceed expectations. ;) Anyway, the thing I need to do in January is create a working timeline for my WIP so that I know where all my characters are in relation to one another. This should include motivation arcs as well. I want to make sure I not only know what a character is doing and when they are doing it, but the all important why.

Kalayna Price's Goals: I'm feeling overly ambitious at the start of this brand new year/new decade--or maybe that is not ambition. Maybe it is terror in a "OMG are those my deadlines?!" kind of way. So, my ambitious/terror stricken goal for this first month of the decade is to write the first draft of my next WIP. Yup, the whole thing. That's only 3k a day . . . no days off or bad days. No problem, right? (Gulp.)

Tori Pryer's Goals: My goal for the month is to finish my manuscript!!!! Also begin plotting a world war II short.

Sarah Templeton's Goals: My goals have become a little skewed in light of recent events but I'm going to try to get back on track here. I have a novella to outline by the end of the month and at least 200 pages of layered revisions to work on for one of my novels. I have to dial back the hours due to the day job hitting the busy season (leaving me exhausted at end of day and occasionally stealing hours anyway) and getting back from the holidays and my brother's wedding leaving a lot of housework for me to accomplish in my (cough) free time, so I'm back to aiming for my minimum of 20 writing hours a week. Wish me luck!

Haricot Vert's Goals: Character profiles and then a complete scene list for a short. This can happen in 31 days, right? Right??

What about you guys? What are your writing goals for this month?