Suzanna's Writing and Reading Goals for 2023: October Update

  

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It is that time of year where I update my goals and begin thinking about my goals for next year. 

Here are my writing goals for 2023:

1. Write 100,000 words in 30 days as part of a NaNo project (Camp in April, Camp in July, or NaNo in November)
1. The plan is in motion. I have my word tracker and two projects planned so I can reach 100K.
2. Write at least one children's book in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.)  
1. Will move to 2024.
3. Write at least one new short story.
1. Been thinking about one. Need to find the first paragraphs of a draft.
4. Edit at least one short story from my undergrad days.
1. Still sorting papers.
5. Write at least one new poem each week.
1. I've written some poems but not where I'd like to be with this one.
6. Put together a poetry collection.
1. Still a dream at this stage.
7. Work on the draft for writing a nonfiction book about the day job.
1. One of my NaNo projects!
8. Work on the draft of the graphic novel.
1. Second of my NaNo projects!

Of course as a writer, I also need to read.

1. Read at least 10 children's books in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.) and focus on one category each month and then rotate. (72 read of 60 children's books)
2. Read at least one book of short stories each month. (2 read of 12 short story collections)
3. Read at least one book of poetry each month. (5 read of 12 poetry books)
4. Read at least one literary magazine each month. (2 read of 12 literary magazines)
5. Read at least one nonfiction book regarding the day job each month. (15 read of 12 nonfiction books)
6. Read at least one graphic novel each month. (17 read of 12 graphic novels)
7. Read a total of 150 books in 2023. (203 read of 150 books)
8. Participate in every Kindle Reading Challenge this year and get at least 90% of the badges. (The hardest one for me is the perfect month where you read every day in the month.)
1. I have earned 100% of the achievements for all of the 3 completed challenges: the New Year Kindle Challenge (January to March), Kindle Spring Challenge (April to June), and Kindle Summer Challenge (July to September). I have 9 of 15 achievements for the Year End Kindle Challenge as of October 31.

Reflection so far on this year's goals. I'm shocked at how much I have read. I finally got bit by the audiobooks bug, so I have been invested in reading more than on Kindle or paper copies. Do you have a favorite audiobook?

I have, sadly, reached more of my reading goals this year than my writing goals. I'm still sorting my art studio space, and I'm hoping to organize my books and set aside what I'd like to read each month. Here's to hoping to a productive NaNo in November and some creative time in December.

What are some of your writing and reading goals for 2023? What are you going to do with the last quarter of 2023? How are you preparing for NaNo?

Suzanna's Writing and Reading Goals for 2023: January Update

 

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It is that time of year where I make some new goals and check in on my progress so I can adjust. Hooray! I absolutely love making goals.

Here are my writing goals for 2023 and progress update from January:

1. Write 100,000 words in 30 days as part of a NaNo project (Camp in April, Camp in July, or NaNo in November)
1. Right now, this is in brainstorm mode as to what I want to write.
2. Write at least one children's book in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.)
1. I brainstormed but have not started a first draft yet.  
3. Write at least one new short story.
1. Did not write one word.
4. Edit at least one short story from my undergrad days.
1. I am looking for them in my paperwork piles. 
5. Write at least one new poem each week.
1. I wrote one poem. I am working on making this a weekly habit.
6. Put together a poetry collection.
1. I am looking for them in my paperwork piles to start editing and sorting.
7. Work on the draft for writing a nonfiction book about the day job.
1. I have not continued the draft, but I am collecting information to assist with this project.
8. Work on the draft of the graphic novel.
1. I am researching how others have created graphic novels, and creating a plan for how to accomplish a new draft.

Of course as a writer, I also need to read.

1. Read at least 10 children's books in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.) and focus on one category each month and then rotate. (8 read of 60 children's books)
2. Read at least one book of short stories each month. (0 read of 12 short story collections)
3. Read at least one book of poetry each month. (0 read of 12 poetry books)
4. Read at least one literary magazine each month. (0 read of 12 literary magazines)
5. Read at least one nonfiction book regarding the day job each month. (6 read of 12 nonfiction books)
6. Read at least one graphic novel each month. (0 read of 12 graphic novels)
7. Read a total of 150 books in 2023. (17 read of 150 books)
8. Participate in every Kindle Reading Challenge this year and get at least 90% of the badges. (I have earned 8 achievements so far and I am on track to get a perfect month this month.)

What are some of your writing and reading goals for 2023? How did you do in January?

Why Children's Books?

There is just a certain magic children's stories. Some of my favorites are ones like Beauty and the Beast, Oh, the Places You'll Go, and The Giving Tree. I have many, many favorites, but why do I like them so much? Is it because I read them a zillion times growing up? Is it something about the characters or the story itself? Or the fact I can read it twenty times in a day?

Why are part of my 2023 goals focused on reading, and writing, children's books?

1. Write at least one children's book in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.)  

     1. Read at least 10 children's books in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.).

It is something that I've been thinking about for a while. There is a mystery to how books so small and with so few words can be such a big part of why I read and write today. Maybe focusing on children's books will make my 50 K novel and graphic novel projects become more manageable.

Not that I want the mystery to be 100% solved, mind you. I want to explore children's books and see if I can write them. 

What are some of your favorite children's books?

Suzanna's Writing and Reading Goals for 2023

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It is that time of year where I make some new goals. Hooray! I absolutely love making writing goals.

While I did not quite finish unpacking all of the boxes from my move, I did make significant progress. I am hopeful that in the next two-ish months, I will not have a single box in sight because they will comfortably reside in the closet or the recycling center. I found a lot of surprising things (two booklets of stamps!) and stuff that I am embarrassed to share on the internet. Cough. Needless to say, not everything survived and might be in the landfill or recycling center.

Here are my writing goals for 2023:

1. Write 100,000 words in 30 days as part of a NaNo project (Camp in April, Camp in July, or NaNo in November)
2. Write at least one children's book in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.)  
3. Write at least one new short story.
4. Edit at least one short story from my undergrad days.
5. Write at least one new poem each week.
6. Put together a poetry collection.
7. Work on the draft for writing a nonfiction book about the day job.
8. Work on the draft of the graphic novel.

Of course as a writer, I also need to read.

1. Read at least 10 children's books in each category (board book, concept book, early reader, wordless, transition books, narrative nonfiction, etc.) and focus on one category each month and then rotate. 
2. Read at least one book of short stories each month. 
3. Read at least one book of poetry each month. 
4. Read at least one literary magazine each month. 
5. Read at least one nonfiction book regarding the day job each month.
6. Read at least one graphic novel each month. 
7. Read a total of 150 books in 2023. 
8. Participate in every Kindle Reading Challenge this year and get at least 90% of the badges. (The hardest one for me is the perfect month where you read every day in the month.)

What are some of your writing and reading goals for 2023?

June Update on 2022 Goals

  

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I posted in December 2021 some of my 2022 writing goals.

Six months into 2022, let's check my progress.

1. Unpack from the move. 

    Hooray! I have some boxes left to unpack. I am still figuring out how to organize my studio, and I have made significant progress in unpacking several stacks of boxes. Any tips on organizing paper? Marie Kondo and Clea and Joanna have been helpful, so I have been working through their systems to get myself organized. Labeling shoe boxes of art supplies was more satisfying than I anticipated. 

2. Get my writing office set up.

    Not exactly what I want my final set up to be, because making rainbow pen holders has been on the list for a while. It is nice to see my fountain pens again and get back into writing letters. It has been much too long.

3. Schedule bi-weekly write-ins with my people.

    Well, I have scheduled some write-ins with my people, but I was definitely not consistent. With the office set up, and adjusting to my new job hours, I hope to have more write-ins in the next three months.

4. Show up to scheduled write-ins.

    I showed up to the ones I scheduled. I have not been able to attend others that my friends have scheduled due to work schedule changes.

5. Sit down and plan what project I will tackle in the new year.

    I am definitely focused on working on my graphic novel project and a Beauty and the Beast retelling at some point this year. I am combing through my old NaNo projects to see what projects I would like to start rewriting and editing. The plan is to work on the graphic novel project during July Camp and then outline the Beauty and the Beast retelling, probably for November NaNo.

6. Plan my next NaNo novel. 

    In the works. My plan is to see what happens in July Camp, and start planning for my November NaNo project. I want to try Save the Cat, StoryGrid, and The Hero's Journey for July Camp, and then make a decision from there of how I will plan my November NaNo project.

7. (Maybe do Camp in April and July).

    Ok, I am going to be doing July Camp NaNo. So I will be working on my graphic novel. I did not participate in April due to switching jobs in April. 

8. Make writing a daily routine. 

    Not quite there yet. It will be easier to dig into a writing routine once unpacking and studio organization is more polished. In the meantime, I will write during the bi-weekly write-ins. 

What are your tips for organizing your writing spaces? Any special ways that you organize/sort/display paper, like writing drafts and rounds of edits?

Celebrating 2021 and Preparing for 2022

 

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Well, here we are, days away from saying goodbye to 2021 and saying hello to 2022.

I accomplished a lot of my career change goals, all the while dreaming of the good ol' days where I could write my morning pages daily, and then work on some poems, stories, novels, and graphic novels. With the major shifts in my life, 2021 did not see a lot of writing. I did complete NaNo successfully, which re-ignited my desire to figure out how to balance my career with my passion for writing.

First I need to unpack from the move. Get my writing office set up. Schedule bi-weekly write-ins with my people. Show up to scheduled write-ins. Sit down and plan what project I will tackle in the new year. Plan my next NaNo novel. Maybe even do Camp in April and July. But most importantly, make writing a daily routine again.

How was your 2021? What are you planning for 2022?

Creating a Writing Routine...And Sticking With the Game Plan

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Do you want to write (fill in the blank) and you've been trying for (length of time) to write your project? But to begin with, what is your current project? What has your current timeline looked like in the past and what does your current writing routine look like for a current project?

Here's my example.

So I have been working on this character's story since 2011 when I combined two short stories into a novel, and I made several attempts at a novel draft. Then I took a graphic novel workshop in 2015 and now the story is a graphic novel. I created a script and just need to decide how to organize the mini stories into a cohesive or somewhat cohesive graphic novel so I can start the sketching and final stages.

My goal is to take the graphic novel script and rearrange my outline, then do sketches, then final artwork. 

Writing Routines that Worked for me in the past

1. Getting up early and working on current project prior to work. 

2. Working on lunch break.

3. And...I have not usually been successful with working on a current project after work. Just too tired. 

So that means that working on the project before work is my best bet. 

Coming up with a Game Plan

Since this is my first graphic novel, and I am a self-taught artist, I am unsure of how long it will take to complete this project, let alone the fact that I have been working on this story for a solid decade, as of this February 2021. 

What are your steps? What needs to happen first?

My steps include:

1. Organize the script.

2. Create sketches.

3. Feedback from beta readers who are fellow artists.

4. Create sample final pages.

5. Feedback from beta readers who are fellow artists.

6. Create final pages.

Tracking your progress

I'm a huge fan of bullet journaling and I have been experimenting with daily trackers. My initial goal will be working on my project every morning before work for 30 minutes and to work on my project on my days off for an hour. Once I have settled into this routine, then I can revise my progress and game plan as necessary.

How do you tackle your writing routine and game plan for a current project? What has worked for you in the past? What works for you now?

Resetting the Goal Clock: 100 Rejections Again

My mother and I recently had a very eye-opening conversation. It involved my lifelong tendency to set gloriously unachievable goals for myself as well my recent mental health diagnosis from the doctor (bipolar II).

Phew. I haven't really shared that diagnosis with anyone before online — not officially, that is. But there it is. I wasn't keeping it a secret so much as waiting to see if it was true, because I've had so many diagnoses and the only ones I trust are depressed and anxious. I've been bipolar, I've been borderline, I've been OCD, I've been it all, and nothing has stuck. This new one felt real, though, but I wasn't about to go announcing it to the masses until I knew.

So this conversation with my mother, it was in mid-December, and it was about New Years' Resolutions, and it was about Bipolar II, which includes episodes of hypomania, which involves feeling invincible. Feeling like you can take on the world, no problem, easy peasy. Write a book a month? No freaking problem, buddy. Cause you're the king of the world. Conqueror. Hero. Borderline almighty.

Until all that energy fizzles out. You hit a roadblock. Someone says no. Your bottle of prescription meds is empty and the pharmacy is closed and the weather is cold so instead of getting a refill you crawl into bed and you sleep and it's been 24 hours since you took your meds and, well, shit. 

A whole nasty cycle begins, and now you're not on top of the world but being buried alive in the center of the Earth, and it takes every ounce of strength to claw your way out. Fingernails broken and covered in dirt and you can taste blood in your mouth but at least you're not buried anymore, right?

Until next time.

So what does that have to do with writing? What does that have to with getting 100 rejections in 2018? What does that have to do with anything related to Operation Awesome?

The thing is, so much of last year was coming in and out of Bipolar II cycles. From depression to slight hypomanic states to deep, incredibly deep depressive episodes. At the beginning of the year I set these lofty goals for myself and I was so disturbingly confident I would meet them all.

This did not happen. I met not a single one of them.

I wrote no new novels. I did not read 52 books. I did not meet any more of my literary heroes. I did go to book conferences. 

Finally, I had made a goal here on this blog that I'd seek 100 Rejections by Dec. 31, 2018.

I'm pretty sure I got to 10? Maybe. If that.

And not because people said yes. Because I didn't ask. I didn't write. I hardly could, it seemed.

But the thing that I did in 2018 is that I survived.

I don't know why last year was so hard for me. I've managed to work full-time, even longer hours, while writing and having a social life and watching TV/reading books. But for some reason, 2018 was the year where all I could do was work and maybe watch TV and read and then be depressed. And the watching TV and reading (I mean, except for the four months when I literally didn't crack the spine, electronic or physical, of a book) was the only way to not be depressed.

Y'all, I promise this is relevant. 

Here it is: sometimes you have to reset the clock. You make a goal. You surge forward. And you just...you don't make it. For whatever reason. Maybe it's your fault — maybe you have been dropping the ball lately. Or maybe it's not even your fault. 

Life hits us with unexpected circumstances sometimes. It's out of our control. The thing that I remind my friends, even those who don't have mental illnesses, is that there's always going to be things that hit them out of the blue and, for periods whose length I truly cannot predict, and it'll knock the wind out of their sails.

And that. Is. Okay.

Life is unpredictable. Sometimes it's possible to speed along and do it all. And sometimes it's just about surviving. Putting one foot in front of the other and making do.

I've been in such a long, long, long extended period of making do. To be honest, I don't know when (or if, really), I'll snap back into vibrancy. 

All I know is that...I'm gonna keep trying. One foot in front of the other, yes, but also, goals.

When I fall, when I fail, I'll just reset.

Therefore, for 2019, one of my goals is as follows:

Score 100 Rejections Across All Writing Submissions 

Fingers crossed. Check in soon.

What are some of your goals you're working on in 2019 that you've had to reset, maybe even multiple times?

A Depressed Writer: I've Been Dropping the Ball

I've been meaning to write this post for ages — since the end of September, at least. Or that's when I first had it scheduled. I probably could have penciled it in even before then, though.

It just seems like I've been floundering everywhere lately. No matter how great my intentions and my desire to be healthy, whole, balanced, productive, happy, I seem to keep shirking at least one if not most of my promised duties.

There's just so much that I wish I could take on and commit to:

• Work full-time so I can pay my bills, have a fulfilling career, make friends with a totally new set of people I never would have crossed paths with otherwise but whom I adore. 
• Write all the time, jotting down ~1,500 words a day on whatever novel I'm drafting and still have time to pen the occasional essay, plus my weekly blog post here, as well as on my personal blog...and don't forget the poems!
• Read allllll the books! The new ones that come out every week in YA, my preferred age category, as well as the occasional foray into Adult. But I also have so many friends who are writers, and I want to read their manuscripts! Oh, and don't even get me started on all the biographies, memoirs, history books, and celebrity humor books I want to devour...
• Socialize literally every day of the week, either before or after work and for at least four hours a day on my "weekends." I'm an extrovert, so being around others energizes me, and it's the best way for me to process my life, but it's also one of the ways in which my mental health stays regulated. For some reason I need human contact to stay mentally healthy.
• Sleep, like, eight or nine hours a night and wake up fully refreshed.
• Watch TV and have other "down-time" to do fun stuff that's hobby-like...including, you know, finding a hobby for the first time in my 25 years. Guys, I don't have any quirky talents other than writing and being snarky. Which means the way I pass the time in my off hours is to keep working, and bite the heads off my friends. Not that I don't enjoy it, I just think maybe they don't, you know? 😂
• Self-care! The basics plus whatever fun advanced stuff there is, like go for a manicure, get a haircut, go shopping...whatever!

That's my list. For the past few months I've consistently succeeded at not shirking one and only one of those bullet points: the job one.

Granted, it's a ridiculously important one! I'm never gonna be one to tell you not to prioritize your career, not just because it's a responsibility you've agreed to but also because of the aforementioned it's how you pay your bills and keep a roof over your head, clothes on your body, food in your belly. But there are seven items on that list! I'm doing one? Something's wrong here.

Again, I've been trying to write this post for almost two months. And somehow, two months later, I still don't know what I'm trying to say with it. 

Except I guess, here I am, confessing: I'm failing this. I'm overworked, overcommitted, under-energized, stressed out, harried. I haven't written in ages. I decided I would do NaNoWriMo this year, and here it is the 19th day of the month and not only have I not so much as announced my novel, I don't even have a freaking title for it!

Self-care? What's that! I shower sometimes. I drop my clothes off at the laundromat. That's about it.  

A manicure, a salon, shopping? Ha! When my clothes get worn through I order new ones online and hope they fit. 

I do watch too much TV, but that's just because I can't work and sleep all the time, and I'm too tired to read or write in the other hours. 

What I'm saying is: I've dropped the ball, hard. In fact, I've dropped it so hard, I honestly don't even know where it rolled off to. It's entirely possible I dropped it out of the subway on the bridge during a thunderstorm like a month and a half ago and it was swept away to the depths of the East River.

At the same time, I also managed to stay alive. And that's a shockingly big deal. During the same two months I've been thinking of writing this post about how I've failed, I missed an appointment with my doctor and started becoming truly depressed. Eventually I ran out of medication, which exacerbated the depression.

TRIGGER WARNING: discussion of mental illness and suicidal ideation/attempt to follow for the next two (2) paragraphs. Please skip to the *** if you will be triggered by that discussion!!

I reached the lowest point, of wishing I were dead. Of wandering around wondering how to become so. And then a few hours later...I saw someone try to die. In a manner I had often fantasized about acting upon, three years ago 

It horrified me, it sent my body into shock, but once I recovered from that (thanks in part to knowledge that the person was somehow physically safe), I was jolted into a renewed desire to take care of myself.

*** So here I am, a few feet above that rock-bottom, feeling lucky to be alive and realizing that, okay yeah, I did drop the ball, but I also survived. 

I believe I'm what's considered highly-functional depressive, which means that no matter how bad things get, I keep on trucking — until suddenly I don't. My depression doesn't disrupt my day-to-day very much, until it does in a big way, with, say, a hospitalization. People at my jobs often haven't even known I'm diagnosed unless I tell them or there's a crisis.

But it's a reality, and because I am high-functioning, anything that isn't strictly necessary for survival gets shunted to the side. As much as writing is part of my lifeblood, it doesn't quite pay my bills yet. So my novels, my essays, my blogs...they go to the back burner.

I hate that. 

At the same time: I refuse to beat myself up for this reality. I did not choose to be depressed. I did not walk into it, I did not do anything to bring this diagnosis upon myself. I'm 25, and I'm imperfect, but I'm doing my best.

Have I been dropping the ball? Yes.

Am I going to strive to pick it back up again, starting now? You bet.

This image is only relevant because it's of me (hiiiiii friends!!) but also it's of me in New York City and honestly? That has always and likely will always mean conquering to me: my fears, the struggles of not getting a job, and freaking high rent. 

Hey. Love you guys. If there are any areas where you feel like you're dropping the ball, I want you to know it's okay to show grace you yourself. Life is hard, and busy, and there's demands on our time. We're in this together. 

What's some advice you wish someone would give you, that you'd love to pass on to someone else? Share in the comments!

Oh, and if you are dealing with depression or another mental illness and wish to speak with someone, I urge you to reach out to a friend, local doctor, therapist, trusted family member, or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, which is available 24 hours a day in the US at 1-800-273-8255.

In Search of 100 Rejections by Dec. 31

Y'all remember way back in early March when I publicly declared I was striving for 100 rejections in 2018?

Well. That has gone...not swimmingly. As it turns out, not writing anything for three months actually decreases the number of projects you can have rejected! Who would have thought, am I right?

On a serious note, I have counted only eight (8) rejections so far this year. Which isn't to say I haven't had more, because I'm sure a few slipped through the cracks of my depression during the last few months. All that number really proves is that I haven't been submitting and pitching like I had planned.

Of course, one drawback is the fact that my novel progress has been, how to put this nicely...painstakingly slow. I wrote a combined 3,000 words for June and July combined. None so far in August. A handful more in May.

You can't query an unfinished manuscript, and seeing as I was already nearing 20,000 words in a re-written but fairly polished draft by mid-March, I was filled to the brim with confidence that I would finish it off and be able to begin querying by mid-summer.

Maybe there's something in here about "the best laid plans," or whatever, but that feels more pontificatory than anything, and I'm...not in the mood to lecture myself. Or you.

I actually think my slow progress on the novel is due to a few factors, including the "middle slump," the fact that I'm suddenly working full-time again, and the freezing nature of fear.

Which is what I want to explore here: fear, and how it freezes us. And this time, not the fear of failure.

The thing is, as a writer, I'm used to "failure." I've been submitting my writing since early 2014, and had the bulk of it rejected until late 2015. Since then, I've been active as a freelance essayist, and while I've had multiple acceptances, I still regularly get rejected, both from new publications and from ones I have a relationship with already.

I queried my first novel beginning in January 2015, and out of 30+ queries, I received two partial requests. Neither went anywhere.

Failure, as a writer, is an intimate acquaintance of mine.

I'm not afraid to query ALLIE MAE DOESN'T GET THE GUY because I don't want to look its failure in the face.

I'm afraid to query this book because I believe in it. Because I have hope and faith and belief that maybe, just maybe...this will be the one to succeed.

I had that belief in my first book (hence, why I queried it) but it turns out it was massively misplaced. The next two books I wrote and edited never reached a place, plot-wise or writing-wise, where I was confident in querying them.

But this one? This one I believe in. I believe in the story itself; I believe in the characters; I believe in the themes and motifs and the small yet defining personality traits of my protagonist; I believe in the writing.

I also definitely believe in pretty aesthetics!

And I'm terrified of being proven wrong. Terrified that I'll finish it, that my critique partners and beta readers will love it and promise that it will snag me an agent. Terrified that I'll send it out to agents and nothing will come of it.

That I'll be disappointed. And that I'll turn that disappointment upon myself, shape it into a knife pointed directly at my heart.

You idiot. I can't believe you thought you were good enough. I can't believe you thought you would ever be good enough.

I swear, I can already hear the mocking words, reverberating in my brain, if I send this book out, heart high, and my hopes are dashed.

So, yes. I'm 25,000 words into my novel, and I'm frozen with fear. I've spent the past few months telling myself I needed to finish the book because maybe, just maybe, this would be the one. And all that pressure has me caving.

But.

But what if, instead, I don't finish the book because it will get me an agent. What if I flip the narrative (again). What if I finish the book because it will help me reach my goal: 100 rejections by December 31.

Again I find that looking at rejections as notches in a shield and not "the worst possible outcome" helps. I don't know how or why. I just know that it reframes the issue, and suddenly I'm not afraid of them.

Each rejection is a sign that I tried. That I flung myself out there, vulnerable and unafraid, and yes, I was turned down, but you know what?

I tried. I faced my fears. And even if they think they won, I know they're wrong. Because the way you defeat fears isn't by proving they were unfounded. It's by proving they can't hold you back.

What is something you're afraid of in your writing journey...and what steps, small or not, can you take to try to prove your fears won't hold you back?

H is for Having Goals #AtoZChallenge

It's been more than a month since I wrote my first post for Operation Awesome!

This is important to note simply because that first post was about my writing goal for the year: to garner 100 rejections in 2018.

At the time, I had received three (3) rejections.

As of today, I've received four (4).

This is not, as one may be inclined to hopefully assume, because everything I've submitted has been accepted. Ha! I really wish. I've also only gotten about four acceptances for articles and one poem.

The reason my rejection rate is so low is simple: I haven't been submitting. I haven't been pitching. I for sure haven't been querying! No one has had any reason to reject me, therefore, I have not been rejected.

This is not a win, my friends. I know that for me at least there can be this idea that if I'm not being rejected, that's a win, but the truth is, in this industry? It goes nothing < rejection < acceptance.

In other words, if you're not getting rejected it means you're not trying. [And by "rejection," yes, I know so often publishers and editors don't send actual rejections, so 100 percent, if someone ignores you, that's a rejection and it counts.]

There's a lot of reasons for why I haven't been writing, pitching, and getting rejected as much as I'd wanted to. For one, there's the fact that life never turns out the way I plan it in my calendar. Every night, I go ahead and schedule "to-dos" for the next day, giving myself 30-minute blocks of time to work on a task, and then 10 minutes in-between tasks. On paper, I can be super productive. In reality, I sleep in, spend too much time on Twitter, don't feel like completing a certain task, watching "Friends" instead... I am human, and I cannot be productive 100 percent of the time.

I'm learning that that's okay! So I've scheduled in break times! Ha, yes, I literally put "watch Friends" or "watch YouTube videos" on my schedule. It makes me feel good.

Of course, the biggest reason ties into my post last week: I've had a bad year for mental health. It's been insanely rough. I haven't sat down to draft my novel in almost two months. I've barely written a word of an essay. It's all I can do to manage these weekly posts. Which, I'm super glad I have to do, because writing is how I survive.

I have a goal. Having a goal is the first step! I'm halfway there. It's just that the step from "having" a goal to "acting upon" said goal and then finally "achieving" your goal is yawningly wide.

I'm hoping that being open and public about what I want and how I'm struggling to achieve it will help. You know, public accountability and all that.

Hopefully by this time next week, I'll have a new rejection to chat about, or at least will be able to rave about all the work I got done. <3

Working Toward a Goal: 100 Rejections in 2018

Common, and good, writing advice often takes the form of setting a goal: a reasonable goal, that is. For example, I could set a goal that I'll get published in 2018, but since I'm currently unagented and still a few drafts away from querying, that goal is not just outlandish, it's also out of my control.

A more reasonable goal would have been: query the book by the end of 2018. That's something that I can manage, something that is within my power, and something that's necessary, because I'll need an agent in order to get traditionally published, which of course is the dream.

This year I'm aiming for a somewhat lofty goal: I'm aiming for 100 rejections. If you want to know the reasoning for that goal, I'd urge you to check out the piece by Kim Liao that, as far as my internet digging can discern, laid out the original goal.

Great, now that you've read her wonderful piece and know the background, I'll explain my process for this goal.

So far, I'm really not doing a great job of meeting it.

We're two full months into 2018, and I've only garnered three rejections! I've had personal essays rejected from Racked, Seventeen.com, and Electric Literature. So, as far as places that are rejecting me, I'm pretty comfortable with these three; they're all outlets where I would love to publish, and a rejection from them merely means that I'm aiming high enough.

It's the number of rejections that bothers me. Three, just three!

It's low because, to be honest, I haven't pitched that many things this year. Oh, in the beginning of January, I had the most lofty of ideas! I was going to go on a submitting rampage, sending out a barrage of poems, essays and queries that would overwhelm the literary world. Sure, most of them would be rejected. But you learn something with every rejection: you learn that maybe this piece isn't ready yet, or that maybe you should have sent it to someone who's more suited for it, or that whoops, that publication is closed to unsolicited pitches!

Each rejection adds to your knowledge of the field of publishing. More importantly, if you submit high quality material and it's rejected because it just doesn't fit, or the publication doesn't quite have the room for it, but the editors still like your work, they'll invite you to pitch again. They know your name by now. They remember you as that writer who does good stuff, yes, and maybe, if the stars all align and smile down upon you, there will come a day when they need to assign a specific piece and they reach out to you.

Honestly, I have a great excuse for having fallen so far behind on my rejection goal this year. I've not been well for much of the year, and that's made it hard to  make progress on my writing. But! I'm re-committing to my goal! To submit, to query, to pitch...to send out a flurry of words and hope for some to land, but to rejoice in the ones that don't because, hey, they're just adding to my goal!

I'm going to check in with y'all monthly, with an update on what I've submitted and how many new rejections I've garnered. Hopefully, my journey will inspire and encourage you to send your words out as well!

Motivation for Procrastinators

my actual motivational stones

I'm always on the lookout for motivational tools that I can get behind, something that can nudge me in the right direction without being a drill sergeant about it. I'd seen those pretty inspirational stones for sale before, but usually they cost more than I wanted to pay. So, when I found one at a thrift store for fifty cents (maybe even twenty-five) I picked it up. It was black and shiny and said "DREAM" in lovely white serif font. Now, I knew that a rock really couldn't inspire me that much... unless perhaps I kept it around my work area and looked at it all the time. So, I decided to set it in front of my keyboard and hope it would inspire me.

It was a lovely thought, but I didn't feel as inspired as I hoped I would. Eventually I realized a stone with the word "DREAM" on it, wasn't going to make me productive. I needed another word. I had to find another stone! I trolled Ebay (another wonderful way to spend a potentially-productive writing day) for such a stone, and eventually I found one. It was mottled white and said in no-nonsense depressed san-serif, "CREATE". This was it! I was sure that this stone, paired with my 'Dream' stone, would help me to finally see my goals through.

Guess what? It didn't. I still have those stones sitting in front of my keyboard, nudging at my conscious mind to DREAM and CREATE, but they mostly just make me feel guilty for not doing it.

This is a classic procrastination tactic, and I am a classic procrastinator. Did I really believe two stones would be all the catalyst I needed to launch into productive mode? No. Did I think it was more fun to search Ebay for more clutter I don't need than work on my current project? Yes. At least, at the time I did.

Procrastionation is an ugly, greedy, short-sighted mistress. It steals your time - time  you could be using to do the things you love. For me, the only way to beat procrastination is to remind myself on a regular basis what I really want and what I need to do to get there. The rest is about breaking down those To-Dos, and scheduling them, which I'm really bad at.

I seem to work best spontaneously. I spontaneously clean, spontaneously cook, spontaneously write. The key to getting myself to be productive a little more often is to psych myself up. Anything I want to do, when I think about it and how much I love it, or how great I'll feel after it's done, I become inspired to do it.

Here are the tips I've read that actually work for me:

1. Encourage yourself. Remind yourself how fun whatever you want to accomplish is.
2. Be passionate. If you aren't that into it, you're not going to want to do it. Find your passion for it, whatever it is. 
3. Imagine the goal finished and how great it will look/feel/sound/taste. (good for chores)
4. Break a big goal down into smaller tasks. Perspective makes all the difference.
5. Give yourself a time limit/deadline. This helps especially when it's something you don't really want to do. If you know you only have to do it for _ hours, it's not so bad.
6. Treat yourself. Give yourself an incentive to get the work done, and celebrate when you do. This might be going out with friends, writing a celebratory blog post, watching a tv show you love.
7. Surround yourself with people who encourage you to accomplish your goal, or people trying to accomplish the same goal you are. This is the writing community, so you won't have to go far before you run into someone who's also writing a YA set in the civil war, or a contemporary romance set in a bakery.
8. Dump the negativity. If someone - even a writer friend - makes you feel talentless, stupid, or doubtful of your skills, get away from that person. Accomplishing big goals is hard enough without naysayers trying to trip you up. 
9. Start. Just do the thing. It isn't that big a deal. Really. 
10. Repeat steps 1-8 and keep going. 

We are not stones, and the impulse of creativity/productivity is not inert. It is motion. It is fire, and it pulls and pushes and makes you very uncomfortable until you take action. So take action now. No amount of gentle, happy words telling you how great you are can beat that. Go to it!

New Year's Resolution for Writers

I love making New Year's resolutions. I am not so great at the keeping them part, but boy do I love envisioning all the amazing things I'll do in the new year. Usually by now my resolve to keep my resolutions has faltered. If you're like me, I hope this serves as a resolve-booster for you!

My resolutions are often nebulous ideas, such as "work out more" or "be more serious about writing," which I think is why I fail to keep them. Let's be real, if I go for a run once in 2016, I will achieve the "work out more" goal. But it won't help me change my life in a meaningful way, which is what I'd like my resolutions to do.

Possibly the one resolution that every writer makes is this one: Write more.

This is a good resolution, but it's vague (and as writers know, vague is bad). We need to be more specific. Do you want to be more consistent and write every day, even if it is a scant amount of words? Or do you want to increase your output, and say, finish two first drafts this year instead of one? Either way, make it measurable, and then find a way to measure it! Scrivener has great internal tracking tools. Accountability buddies are also great.

Writing more, editing more, querying more, self-publishing more--all of these are excellent goals to strive toward. The world needs more stories. So, writers, let's make our resolutions quantifiable, measurable, and the kinds of things that will transform us in 2016 into the writers we want to be.

2015 Writing Goal Tracking Spreadsheet - Done and Ready to Download!

Sorry for the delay, but I think I'm finally done. For this year's spreadsheet, I modified my NaNo Tracker spreadsheet into a year-long version. With this version, you just have to enter your total word count at the end of each day and the spreadsheet calculates everything for you--total words written each day, total for the month and year, remaining words to meet your goal for that month, etc.*

Enter total word count in the green column and the spreadsheet does all the work for you.

In addition to a sheet for each month, the workbook includes a setup page with the options to enter a later start date and a starting word count. I've also included a stats page so you can keep track of how you're doing for the year.

I've created three separate workbooks to allow you to set a daily, monthly, or annual goal based on what meets your individual needs. Click below to download.

Annual Goal
Monthly Goal
Daily Goal

Please note, the spreadsheets are locked. You will only be able to modify the green cells. These are the cells that drive all the formulas. To protect my work, I will not be giving out the password. If you have issues downloading or getting it to work, please let me know either in the comments or by email, and I'll send you the file(s) directly.

I think I've worked out all the bugs*, but it's possible I missed something. If you find that something doesn't work like it should or if you have any questions, please let me know. Happy writing! :)

*Spreadsheets were created with Microsoft Excel 2013. They may lose some functionality with earlier versions of Excel.

The Art of Letting Go

In preparing for the New Year (Abby is right--the future is coming soon!) I've been thinking about the baggage I'm carrying into it. Not just literal baggage (I'm on a holiday trip as we speak), but the mental baggage too. Often, it can become heavier than we realize, and a lot of times we don't know why we're even carrying it.

It's...so...heavy...

Luckily, unnecessarily heavy baggage allows me an opportunity to assess whether I can let it go.


Elsa definitely had the right idea.  

It got me thinking of things that take my brain energy on a daily basis. Sometimes it's social networking. Other times it's graduate school. But if I'm being honest, most of the drainage comes from my full time librarian job. On my other blog, I've documented some of the library questions I get, ranging anywhere from the mundane to the just plain goofy. (If you'd like more, Mental Floss recently posted some pre-internet questions from the New York Public Library). 

There is a lot I like about my job too. But when I'm able to separate myself from it, strip away what I don't need, it allows me to focus more on my writing and inner sense of well-being, both of which I intend to put front and center in the coming year. To do that, I need to ask myself the following:

1. What am I holding on to, and what makes it important?

2. What will happen if I decide to let go of things that might not be as important as I'm making them?

3. How can I prioritize what's important over the other stuff that isn't?

The first step I took was going dark on my other blog in December. As time goes on, I may be more selective about what I post there, at least until I get enough fiction writing under my belt to support the platform I've built for myself.

The second step I took was making a list of conferences I hope to attend. Google Docs is a great place for to-do lists, and if you need ideas on how to organize and prioritize, Getting Things Done is an excellent book.

Finally, per Abby's advice, I'm setting measurable goals for the coming year. Currently, I'm editing an old project and drafting a new one, and my goal is to have something submittable and polished by the end of 2015.

So what about you? What are you holding on to? Is it helping you? And if not, are you ready to let it go?

Setting Effective New Year's Resolutions

Can you believe 2015 is next week?! The future is upon us, people. ;)

For many of us, the start of a new year means it’s time to set some resolutions, so I thought it might be helpful to go over a few things that will help us set goals we can actually achieve. I like the S.M.A.R.T. goal method. If you google S.M.A.R.T. goals, you’ll find many variations on this method, but this is what works for me.

S – Specific: Focus on one or two small things for each goal. Making your goal too broad not only makes it difficult to maintain but it can also make it too daunting to complete.

To give you an example, I recently bought a new house. (Yay!) And when I say new, that’s not just new to me. I mean brand-spanking new. It was kind of miracle it all worked out and seriously the best Christmas present I’ve ever received. We’ve been very blessed this year.

Anyway, so new house means keeping it sparkling and pretty is all on me (and the teenage minions, who are selective about their helpfulness). I can’t blame past owners for something not being maintained correctly or the build-up of dirt and grime. If I want it to look good in ten years, I have to take care of it. The problem is I’m a terrible housekeeper. Really, really terrible.

I’ve set the same goal many times: Be better about keeping the house clean.

This goal has never worked because my focus was too broad, and honestly, the idea of keeping an entire house clean overwhelms me. And when I’m overwhelmed, my brain is very good at ignoring the issue, whatever it may be.

So when we moved in here, I set two very specific goals with the idea that I would add to them as time went on.

•          Never go to bed with dishes in the sink.
•          Do one load of laundry per day.

I admit the laundry one has been the harder of the two, and a lot of times I end doing two loads ever other night or 4 or 5 loads on Saturday. In my defense, I really hate laundry. That’s a good excuse, right? ;)

The dishes goal is the one that has made the most difference. We’ve been here a little over a month and there has only been one night I’ve gone to bed with dishes in the sink. This goal has given me something specific to focus on without overwhelming me. It’s been interesting to see the ripple effects. My kitchen is almost always clean and my mornings are much less stressful. It has even affected my budget. It’s much easier to come home from a long day of work and figure out dinner when the kitchen is clean. My desire to just go out and grab some fast food has diminished significantly, which, in time, should also have a positive effect on my waistline. :)

M – Measurable: Are you able to measure your progress over time?

My goal to do my dishes is a daily goal, so it’s very easy to measure. If the dishes are clean before I go to bed, mission accomplished. But not all of our goals are going to be this simple.

Let’s say you want to set a goal to complete two manuscripts this year. First you would need to make it more specific. What do you mean by complete? First draft? Revised and ready to query? And then you would need to set guidelines to make it measureable. How many words/pages do you anticipate in each manuscript? If you plan to have them revised by the end of the year, when would they each need to be completed to make it through your beta readers so you have time to revise? Based on your writing schedule, how many words/pages would you need to complete during each writing session to reach that goal? This not only gives you a final measurement for successfully completing your manuscript, but it gives you some smaller (and less overwhelming) goals to help make sure you’re staying on track to reach that larger goal.

A – Attainable: Is this something you have enough control over to make it happen?

It can be tempting to set a goal for something like getting an agent or getting a publishing contract. These are great things to aspire to, but you have very little control over the outcome. Sure, you can revise and tweak your work to make it better and in the process this will most likely make you a better writer, but no matter what you do, you can’t control the market and you definitely can’t control the tastes of the agents and publishers. Sometimes, I think even they don’t know what they want.

It’s best to stick with goals where you can put in a certain amount of work and know that you can make it happen. Maybe make a goal to query a certain number of agents or small publishers, or make a goal to get your query into the best possible shape. Goals like these could very well lead to an agent or a publishing contract, but they don’t focus all your success on something you can’t control.

R – Realistic: Are you biting off more than you can chew?

This is the one that usually gets me. When I’m setting goals, I am invincible. If I want it, surely I can make it happen. All it takes is the will to do it. Yes, this applies to life in many ways, but some things are just not possible. I know some people can pump out a new draft every one or two months, or write 10,000 words in a day. This is not a possibility for me. I have to schedule time just to get an hour of creative time every day. 500 words per day is more realistic, maybe even 1000 per day to push myself. Setting a goal that’s too high would only overwhelm me and make me avoid it, and as a result, cause me to fail.

T – Time-bound: Did you set a date to complete your goal?

Setting a deadline for completion of your goal helps to keep you focused and on task. Resolutions are often set for the whole year, but setting deadlines for certain aspects of a long-term goal, like a daily writing goal to reach an annual word count, can help you stay on track and keep it from getting pushed aside when other things come up.

And I wish there was a way to add a C in there. Maybe it’s silent—SCMART? ;) C is for Challenge Yourself. Don’t take the easy route. Look for ways to improve and make your life better. Achieving your goals will be so much more satisfying if you do.

So, what about you? Anything to add? Are you a resolution setter? What are your goals for 2015?

Create Happiness

I've been reading both personal resolutions and writing goals, and I've decided to combine mine into a single guiding principle:

Create happiness.

Creating happiness means:

I will make the things that makes me happy. It may be a novel, a picture book, a short story, or a drawing -- if I am expressing something, that is enough.

I will make things to make others happy. Writing what I want does not mean I'm talking to myself. I can't guarantee that everything will be published -- no one can! -- but I'll think of what a reader or viewer would like and write for them. 

I will try to make other people happy. First is my family -- I won't let my goals and struggles get in the way. I will aim to make them happy, and I will also reach out more to others as well and grow the circle of the people in my life.

I will create happiness in myself. I can't make problems or sadness disappear but I will strive to appreciate the good that I have and live in the moments I have been given.


How much clearer it would be to post a word count goal! Reach it or fall short, words end up the page either way. But creating happiness is only a principle, and it's ambiguous by design. 

The worlds we write carry over into the real world, for ourselves and our readers. I aim to increase my creative output this year without shutting the door. Mine will not be a refuge or flight from real life, and I will not let writing be a struggle that wears me down. I hope to find flow, joy, and peace in the creative process and create greater happiness in myself and others.

About Kell Andrews:  Kell Andrews writes picture books and middle grade novels. Deadwood, her middle-grade contemporary fantasy about a cursed tree, comes out from Spencer Hill Middle Grade in June 2014. 

Goal, Motivation and Conflict: Phoebe North

As a recovering poet, words come easily to me. I've long been able to luxuriate in scene descriptions, laying out the intricacies of my world for readers. And yet no matter how beautifully written my early novels were, readers of them were often puzzled. Though there was some semblance of a plot present in those books--my characters moved from one scene to the next--there was often a sense of narrative disconnect. It was years before I realized why: my characters lacked clear motivation and goals, and so my stories were therefore lacking in forward momentum.

To writers who are plot-driven or character-driven, the idea that one's protagonist and even secondary characters must want things might seem to be self-evident. But for me, it wasn't. Asked to describe my characters, I would often say something like, "She's shy, passive. More a listener than a doer." That's not to say that one can't write passive characters, but even shy people want things: to be understood, to make friends, to talk to the cute boy in the band without turning red as a beet. In truth, I was using these passive characters as a shield to avoid areas of narrative that challenged me. My wallflower characters kept me in my comfort zone, the place of pretty words and places. But they didn't lead to good books.

Now I try to keep my characters' motivations at the forefront of my mind in drafting. In any manuscript, your protagonist, particularly, must have overarching desires. These are often grounded in familial background or childhood. Your character might want fame (because they were ignored); they might want love (because they were an orphan). In each scene, these desires will manifest themselves in different ways. In one, your heroine might want to steal a magic ring from an evil wizard--but this is probably rooted in her desire to liberate her people from an evil empire. In every case, awareness of a character's macro desires over the course of a novel informs a character's micro desires in any given scene.

And it's through these micro desires that conflicts arise between characters. Your evil wizard might want to hold on to the ring because she's power hungry (perhaps due to feeling powerless, always standing in the shadow of her more powerful sorceress sister). Knowing this will add life to your narrative--depth. These character conflicts are what keeps a narrative moving and developing organically, and what persuades a reader to stick with you through the novel's climax.

It's a funny thing; now that I've learned to focus on character motivation, I don't have a lot of time to let my characters chew the scenery any more. I'm too focused on telling their story to fritter my wordcount away.

PHOEBE NORTH was born on her sister’s fifth birthday–December 26th, 1983. She spent the first twenty-two years of her life in New Jersey, where, in the shadows of the Watchung Mountains, she lugged innumerable library books home to read in the bathtub, at the dinner table, in front of the television, and under the blankets with a flashlight when she should have been asleep.

She was a dork: obsessed, variously, with Star Trek, Star Wars (who says you can’t love both?), renaissance festivals, The X-files, Andy Kaufman, Alien Nation, dragons, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. In high school, she dyed her hair every color you can think of–but a Tenctonese can’t hide her spots.

After college, she departed for warmer climes, enrolling in the University of Florida’s MFA program to study poetry. But it was in Gainesville that she learned to embrace her inner dork. After studying children’s literature with scholars Kenneth Kidd and John Cech, she started writing books about magic and love and aliens for teenagers. And realized she loved it almost as much as she loves Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

She now lives in New York State with her cat, her husband, and many licensed novels. She likes to cook, watch Degrassi, sew, take her cat for walks, and, of course, write. Despite many soaked pages, she still loves to read in the bath.

She is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary. Her first novel, STARGLASS, is forthcoming from Simon and Schuster in July of 2013.

 

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My darling daughter,

Know that I never would have left the Earth if it hadn’t already been doomed.

The generation ship Asherah coasts through space, bound for a planet its passengers have never even seen. On the eve of their arrival, sixteen-year-old botanist Terra discovers that her orderly society has fractured. Walking home one night through the long-abandoned engine rooms, she witnesses the murder of an innocent man. Now, called on by the Children of Abel, a group of rebels intent on destroying the High Council, Terra must prove her mettle–assassinate the ship’s rising captain. In order to carry out her task, Terra must betray her father, deceive her teacher, and challenge everything the Council has ever taught her was true.

The rebels think that Terra has nothing left to lose. But when she falls for Silvan Rafferty, the boy that she’s meant to kill, Terra learns that “doing your duty” isn’t always as easy as it seems.

Advanced praise for Starglass:

Murder, rebellion, and spaceships done right: Phoebe North’s STARGLASS gave me the best kind of chills. I can’t wait to see what the sequel has in store.

-Jodi Meadows, author of Incarnate

Preorder STARGLASS from the following retailers!

Indiebound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble