2009 Goals

In about 27 hours, it will be the year 2009 here in New York.  I will be knee-deep in a bottle of scotch, a game of poker and a hearty cigar.  It’ll be fun.

On Thursday, I’ll find my way home, maybe run a couple of errands, and then end up right here, in front of my computer.  Life will go on, just like it did last year, the year before that, the year before that, and so on.

That said, the 365 (and occasionally 366) day period that we use to define a “year” can be a helpful construct in planning our future.  To that end, I’m a believer in establishing goals each year.  I differentiate goals from resolutions, by the way, because resolutions are figurative absolutes, as in “I will do X, I won’t do Y.”  Goals are malleable, and are simply targets.  “I hope to accomplish X, I hope to avoid Y.”

I’m not going to list a bunch of (non-writing) personal goals on this blog — that’s not why I have it, that’s not why you (of course this is a figurative you, since it may not actually apply to some of my readers) read it.  The following goals are all related to my novel(s) and the 365 days that follow tomorrow:

• Complete my work in progress and get an agent
• Come up with a basic viral marketing plan for the novel when it is published
• Plan out and complete the first draft of the second novel in the series

What about you?  What are your writing goals?

Not going to finish on time….

I had set December 31, 2008 as the deadline for finishing draft number one of my yet-to-be-named novel.  I’m now stating that there is no way I’m going to finish by then.  No way, no how.

I’m okay with that.  My original deadline was based on the thought that it was going to take me approximately 110,000 words to complete the draft.  That prediction, of course, was based on absolutely nothing other than my pulling a number from a dark place and saying “that sounds good” (okay, it’s also based on the understanding that the average novel is between 80,000 and 120,000 words, with most falling in the 95,000 to 110,000 range).

It turns out that 110,000 words will not be enough to finish the first draft, and I absolutely will NOT rush through the ending to come in around a specific number of words.  I will hit 110,000 before the end of the year (as of right now, I’m less than 700 away — I may actually pass the 110,000 mark tonight).  I will not finish the book until probably January 10th.

Here’s the thing — it’s okay.  This isn’t a brief for work where, if I miss the filing deadline the courts won’t accept it.  This isn’t a work under contract where, if I miss the due date in the contract I could trigger some sort of penalty clause.  This is a work in progress, and I’m only on the first stage.  If I finish on January 10th, instead of December 31st, the world won’t end.  My book won’t suddenly turn to a pile of crap.  Agents won’t reject me because I missed my own artificial deadline (I’m sure they’ll find plenty of other reasons… ).  All that matters is that I’m close to completing it.  All that matters is that I’m going to complete it.  All that matters is that it gets completed.

Really, all that matters is that I’m loving writing it.

Hope everyone has had, and continues to have, a happy holiday.

Dichotomy

I think I’m going to like the second half of my draft better than the first.  Of course, part of it could be that there’s some disconnect with my first half — most of it was written between a year and six months ago.  Of the part written relatively recently, a lot of that was tied up in the battle that would not end.

Partially, however, I think it’s because I’m getting more descriptive in my writing.  I’ve noticed that, earlier in the book, there are passages here and there that had that distinctive “literary” quality in the descriptions, but there are also plenty of passages that don’t have that same feel.  The events flow smoothly, and perhaps it’s because of the flow that the descriptions got left out — I won’t know until I do my first real read through.  All I know is that I’m getting the sense that the second half has more of that quality, that taste to it.

It’ll be interesting to see, once I’m finished and do a read through, whether there is a marked difference between the first and second halves.  If there is, matching the two will definitely be a huge part of the revision process.  If there is, if it really feels like two different books, then I’m going to have to rework the first to feel like the second, because I really really like how the second is turning out.

(P.S.: word count is over 103,000.  I’m realizing that I’m definitely going past 110,000, possibly even past 115,000 on this draft.  If that happens, it may take me a couple past the end of the year to finish.  That’s okay — I don’t want to rush things to meet an arbitrary deadline.  It’s all about making sure the final product is quality.)

100,577

96,162

It’s been a hectic week since I last posted.  There were a couple of issues that came up at work last week, continuing education classes that had to be taken, christmas shopping that had to be done, an obligatory family visit, football, basketball and, oh yeah, writing.

In the last week, I’ve written a little over 6,000 words (as you can see by the amazingly clever titles for this post and the one before).  I’m settling in for the home stretch — the first major secret which drives the ending has been revealed.  The second is just gnawing to come out, but it’s not quite time.

I think I might blow past the 110,000 word mark in finishing this first draft.  At the rate it’s taking me to get through some of the parts that have to be wrapped up, I’ll probably finish closer to the 115,000 word mark.  That’s not a problem — I’ll still be done by the end of the year.

I have 20 “events” that have to happen between now and the end of the novel.  I think my pacing will now be tied more to the events instead of a word count — if I get through 1.3 events per day, I’ll finish in time.  Many of the events blend together — there will be chapters where three or four of the events get completed in under 2,000 words.  That means that the pacing won’t be too onerous — I just have to stick with it.

I’m very excited about how the ending is coming — I don’t feel that it’s going to be dragged out, but I also don’t think it’s going to be over too quickly.  I’m aiming for “just right” on the pacing front.  I’ll know soon enough.

90,087

I’m getting there.  Slowly but surely, I’m getting there.  110,000 definitely seems like it’ll be the magic number.  That means I have roughly 20,000 words to complete in the next 24 days.  That’s 833 words/day, assuming I don’t take a day off.

With the holidays, and the obligitory family visits, I expect to lose three days.  Assuming I lose another two days in there, that leaves me at 1,052 words/day.

Is it doable?  Absolutely.  Do I think it’s going to require me to push the pace at all?  Not really.  I’m upping my daily minimum to 600 words from 300.  For every 600 word day, I expect to have plenty of 1,500 word days.  I have a quality outline of the remainder of the book, the divergent plot lines are coming together nicely, and once the first two meet (which should happen in about the next three thousand words) the rest should snowball.

I’m excited and anxious about finishing the draft.  Just a few months ago, it seemed like an impossible dream, like finishing a novel was a flight of fancy.  Now that I’m so close to finishing the draft, so close to moving on to the second step, it feels great.

Twenty-four days to go.

Na”No”WriMo Updates?

Alright, it’s now December 2, 2008 and Na”No”WriMo is officially over for another eleven months.  So, gentle (and not so gentle) readers, I want to know:

1) Did you participate?  If so, how many words did you finish?

2) What genre were you writing (since, as it has been pointed out to me, 50,000 words could put you in the vicinity of a completed YA novel)?

3) What now?  Are you going to continue the story?  Put it aside and work on something else?  Take the next eleven months off?

4) Are you planning on doing Na”No”WriMo next year?  Why or why not?

5) Are you pleased with the quality of the work you did?  Do you even remember what you wrote?

6) How stressful did you find the whole experience?

As anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows, I didn’t participate, and have no real desire to do so.  I only wrote about 20,000 words last month (which is less than I’m planning on writing this month), but I’ve managed to advance myself to the point where I can legitimately finish the first draft by the end of the year (about 25,000 words to go).  I’m writing a fantasy novel, and as I’ve said, I’m going to keep on going.  I’m proud of everything I’ve written and look forward to completing the draft.

I don’t plan on participating in next year’s “event” either — I expect to be knee deep in novel #2, whether it’s in the drafting or revision stage.  The stress level is one reason I will not participate in Na”No”WriMo — while I believe it’s easily in the realm of possibility to churn out 1600+ quality words per day, I know that I can’t do it day after day after day (at least not while I have to have a day job).  Having it in the back of my mind that I’m “failing” or “falling behind” would only lead to greater stress levels, and leave me feeling dejected.

Still, I’m interested in everyone else’s experiences in November, whether you participated or not.

Planning

I am a firm believer in planning.  I’m also a firm believer in throwing plans out the window.  In other words, I believe there need to be lines, but you need to be willing to color outside of them when appropriate.

This weekend, I had to spend time planning out the rest of the novel.  Now this isn’t going to be a huge planning post — I’ll do that when I plan out the next novel.  However, I am going to talk about the evolution of the plan.

When I started the novel I had a roughly 25 point plan of important points for the novel.  As I’ve progressed, I finesse the plan.  Amazingly enough, even after covering 10 or so points from the original plan, I end up with roughly 25 points in the new one.  At the point I’m down to the last 25,000 words or so.  I now have a 27 point plan for the remainder of the novel.

One of the reasons I’ve decided I had to take a couple of days to plan out the remainder of the novel is because one of the things that I hate most in a book is when they resolve everything in the last ten pages.  I much prefer an ending that goes with the flow of the story, instead of one crammed into the final couple of chapters.  In my story, there are several storylines, which flow from the “discovery” of key pieces of information.  There are two major revelations, as well as a couple of minor ones (as a side note, for those of you who didn’t get my direct statement or metaphor at the beginning of the post, here’s an example of having a plan and throwing it out: at the beginning of the writing process, there were two major revelations.  In the last 30,000 words of so, one of the two has become a minor revelation, replaced by a new major revelation; if your plans are inflexible then you can miss out on an even better storyline).

So, with the first major revelation about to come out, I felt I really needed to write out a guideline as to where I was going, so I ended up with good spacing among the revelations.  With that done, I feel like I’m ready to tackle the end game and get this draft finished!