Happy New Year everyone!  I wish everyone health, happiness and prosperity for 2011. 

2010 was a milestone year for me in terms of my writing career. I’d like to thank each and every one of you for your continued support.  January is a great time to look back on the previous year and review accomplishments and opportunities for improvement.  In that spirit, I’ll review my 2010 goals and layout my 2011 goals.   

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2010 Goal Review

Last January, I published a post detailing my 2010 goals .  I also provided some updates in September in my Time To Celebrate  post. Let’s take a look at each of my writing goals to see how I did:

Finish final draft of Obsession by 3/01/2010 (Action plan: edit/revise 2.5 chapters/week)

I did complete the final draft in 2010 but it was in September and not March.  For more details on the activities included in the revision/editing process, see Time To Celebrate).  For my next books, I will take into consideration that 2.5 chapters/week is not always possible given family and work obligations.

Status: Complete

Send Obsession to Beta Reviewers by 3/07/2010

I sent the manuscript to Beta Readers in September.  I’ve since received feedback from a couple of them.  I hope to hear back from the others soon.  The comments from Beta Readers are very interesting but their true value is in exposing trends, so at least a handful are necessary.

Status: Complete

Finish updates to Obsession based on Beta Reviewer comments by 4/11/2010

In addition to getting feedback from Beta Reviewers, I’ve also been working with my Critique Partner (CP), Dana Delamar, to cut the manuscript down to 125K words.  That’s 35K words that need to be cut!  It’s a huge effort but I believe the results speak for themselves.  The story is much tighter and faster paced.

Status: Complete (expect to hit 125K this week!)

Send Obsession to Agents by 4/30/2010 (Action plan: Starting 3/07/2010, begin working on Query Letters and Synopsis.  Research agents and determine appropriate guidelines for each.)

Since I decided to enter the Golden Heart Contest last December, I needed to write a Synopsis.  This was a much more daunting task than I ever thought it would be! My first synopsis was 9 pages long.  After much tweaking with my CP and Writing group, I managed to get it down to about 5 pages, double-spaced.  I’m still working on cutting it down some more and hope to get it to 3-4 pages. This is particularly difficult for a romantic suspense since the synopsis needs to provide the arc for both the romance and the suspense stories—but you don’t get more pages to do it in!

I have also done various investigations into agents/editors that would be most suited for the genre of book I write as well as the length.  I plan to start sending out Query letters as well as respond to the requests for partials I got at the ECWC conference last October.

Status: Pending (Jan 2011)

Start working on draft of 2nd Novel by 5/1/2010 (Action plan: Starting 3/07/2010, begin research for 2nd Novel)

Here’s the good news: novel 2 is plotted and a lot of the research has been done.  However, I still have some interviews pending.  I think I have enough to start through.

Status: In Progress

Finish first draft of 2nd Novel by 7/30/2010

Now here’s where the trouble starts.  I didn’t begin the draft of book 2 in 2010 since I was still struggling with book 1.  This goal and related ones below will be transferred to 2011.

Status: Transferred to 2011

Finish final draft of 2nd Novel by 9/30/2010 (Action plan: edit/revise 2.5 chapters/week)

Status: Transferred to 2011

Send 2nd Novel to Beta Reviewers by 10/7/2010

Status: Transferred to 2011

Participate in NaNoWriMo 2010 to start draft of 3rd Novel (50K words) on 11/01/2010. (Action plan: Starting 9/30/2010, begin research for 3rd novel.)

Haha!  Boy was I optimistic.  Not only did I not begin the draft for Book 3 during NaNoWriMo but I didn’t even participate in it since I was buried in Book 1 revisions.  Oh well.  Better luck next year.

Status: Transferred to 2011

Finish updates to 2nd Novel based on Beta Reviewer comments by 12/30/2010

Status: Transferred to 2011

Send 2nd Novel out to Agents by 1/7/2011 ((Action plan: Starting 10/07/2010, begin working on Query Letters and Synopsis.  Research agents and determine appropriate guidelines for each.)

Status: Transferred to 2011 (maybe even 2012 depending on how long it takes to finish the book)

2011 Goals

Taking all the transferred goals from 2010, this is what my 2011 Goals are:

Send Obsession to Agents by 1/30/2011 (Action plan: Starting 1/04/2011, begin working on Query Letters and Synopsis.  Research agents and determine appropriate guidelines for each.)

Start working on draft of 2nd Novel by 2/1/2011 (Action plan: Starting 1/04/2011, begin research for 2nd Novel)

Finish first draft of 2nd Novel by 4/30/2011(so it is done before RWA National Conference. Action plan: keep an eye on word count while writing the first and final drafts to avoid the time-consuming cut process.  However, a certain amount of cutting makes the book tighter.)

Finish final draft of 2nd Novel by 9/15/2011 (Action plan: this is my Cherry Challenge book so it needs to be completed and polished by the deadline which I think is mid-September. Goal will be to cut about 10% and end up with a book of somewhere between 100 – 120K words.)

Send 2nd Novel to Beta Reviewers by 10/1/2011

Participate in NaNoWriMo 2011 to start draft of 3rd Novel (50K words) on 11/01/2010. (Action plan: Starting 9/16/2011, begin research for 3rd novel.)

Send 2nd Novel out to Agents by 12/1/2011 (Action plan: Starting 10/01/2011, work on Query Letters and Synopsis.  Research agents and determine appropriate guidelines for each.)

Overall Writing Goal

Overall, my goal for writing my second book is to better understand and improve my writing process so that it doesn’t take me as long, requires less rewriting, and results in a better “draft.”  As I incorporate more lessons learned and craft techniques, my writing and my writing process should both improve significantly.

Blog Goal

I’m not going to put undue pressure on myself by stating that I’ll post once a week or once a month. My goal is to post when I have something interesting to share, something that might help others.  I’ll focus on the craft of writing and what I’ve learned in a course, workshop or by reading a new craft book.  If you have any book about writing that you’d like to recommend to me, please post it in a comment.  If it helps me, I’ll blog about it.

Happy Writing,
Kristine

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