The Importance of Strategic Goals

During April, I received two blog awards: The Liebster Award from Suze of Subliminal Coffee, and the Very Inspiring Blog Award from Mel Chelsy of Writings, Musings & Other Such Nonsense.  As part of the condition of accepting the awards, I'm supposed to answer a series of questions and share seven things about myself. As anyone who's been following me for any time will know, I'm a bit of a rebel when it comes to rules. Consequently I'll answer one of the questions and in the process share a little about myself. Suze asked the big question:

What are your goals?
When I first started writing seriously in my teens, my goal was to become a published author by seventeen. That age became twenty one. Then I gave up on age when that deadline slipped by as well. In my mind I became a failed writer. It didn't matter that I'd had short stories and art published in a variety of small magazines. It didn't even matter that I hadn't finished my manuscript. I thought I was serious about my writing and yet I hadn't achieved my goals.

Making manageable goals
So I changed my goals to something more manageable: Finish my manuscript. Before that point I'd been writing my manuscript off and on for seven years. It took me a further two years to finish it. My next goal was to get the wretched thing published. So without any industry knowledge, without the use of critique partners, and only one pass of editing, I sent it off to a total of nine publishers—all 600 pages of the thing (ah, the fearlessness of the ignorant). Not surprisingly I received only rejections and gave up.

All that glitters is not a goal
Many years later I came to realise that my goals weren't goals after all. They were wishes. A wish doesn't make things happen except in Never Never Land. Helpful goals are much like a business plan. Sounds boring, even painful, and lacks the magic of a wish, but a plan is far more effective.

Effective goals require a strategy

If I want [this] by [this date],
then I need to do [these] in [this] much time.

To write up a strategic set of manageable, measureable goals, I first needed to know what I wanted. I want to get published. Sure, but how do I want to get published? Authors have so many options these days: traditional, small press, self-publishing, agented or unagented. Even if I want to keep my options open, there are some things I first needed to do:

1. learn about the industry
2. learn about the craft
3. write a sellable manuscript
4. write the killer query
5. nurture my online presence
6. relearn to be fearless and send those queries
7. keep writing.

Each of the above points can be broken down further into a manageable strategy to achieve completion. And each point is a milestone. For example, finishing an outline is a milestone worthy of much rejoicing. If you're anything like me, you'll need your milestones. They give a great sense of achievement and they tell me I'm another step closer to achieving my dreams.

This post is getting long, so I'll stop there with a mere taste of what a true strategic plan looks like. Perhaps I didn't answer Suze question after all that, but I'm sure she'll forgive me.

What is your dream? How have you planned to make that dream come true?


Mel's book Adversarius, Shadow of the Rose: Book One is now available in paperback on Amazon

 

A-Z Reflections

This was the third year I took part in the A-Z Challenge. The first year I did an A-Z of writing tips. The second year I did an A-Z of photography, and this year I let my geek out. I had a whole lot of fun reminiscing about all the books, movies, TV and games that influenced me into the geeky person I am today. I think I may have surprised a few people.

In all honesty, I want to continue raving about those favourite stories and activities. I’m not sure yet how I’ll incorporate that into my blog, but time will tell. I’ll work something out.

The things I learned from the challenge:
1. Scheduling. When time is tight, which it invariably is during the challenge, setting up a regular routine to get everything done is essential. That means scheduling. It was the only way I got through the challenge.

2. Planning. Another essential element, closely related to scheduling. As the picture shows, I wrote up a list on a single page of my notebook. Sure, it’s messy, but that was all I needed. It gave me direction and focus. And it meant I wasn’t scrambling around in a tizz trying to work out what I was going to post about each day.

3. Comments. I learnt I could visit everyone on the blogsphere while also online playing World of Warcraft, specifically while waiting in queue for the next raid or dungeon. Who knew?! Talk about a brilliant revelation! That means I can get more writing done during the day!

4. Followers. I gained more than I expected since I didn’t go out searching for new followers during the challenge. That was a happy bonus!

Final thoughts about the challenge:
I still came across the word verifications. They tend to be an indication of bloggers who are new, since it’s something you have to go find and turn off. I also still came across super long posts. Some were fascinating so I didn’t mind, but others could’ve been shortened. By a lot.

My favourite during the challenge:
Clarissa Draper. Wow, girl! Your theme rocked! Sure it took a little extra time to work out those puzzles and codes, but it was like a treat at the end of the day. And to my absolute surprise, I squeezed into the top five of her visitors who correctly worked out the solutions. I won a $10 gift voucher for Amazon! Thank you so much, Clarissa!

How did you go during the challenge? What did you think of my theme? Any surprises?

#AtoZChallenge

10 Stages of Story Development

1. The idea. It could come from anywhere. It could start with a character, a place, a scene, or simply a vague concept. I often have more than one idea, especially when I’m actively looking for them. I’ll write down all my ideas in a notebook.

2. World-building. Sometimes the idea will start with the world first. If I fall in love with the setting/world then I will pursue it further and set up the history, the politics, the ‘rules’. Even if these details don’t make it into the story, they are important to think about. The world will often dictate what kind of story it wants to tell.

3. Character development. I start thinking about the characters and give them names, appearances, traits and desires. Sometimes the characters will come before the world, depending on where the idea starts.

4. Character arc. For me the main element that drives my stories is character so I think about the character arc early on. This is where the plot begins to develop.

5. Outline. This is where I work out a beginning, middle and end. I used to just wing it, but I found I had to do a lot of rewrites to get it right. Outlining reduces those rewrites and it helps me to see the big picture before I get caught up in the specifics.

6. First draft. This is the mad frenzy of pushing out the story onto the page. I usually set myself a goal of 7000 words per week if I’m being kind to myself, or 10 000 words per week if I want to push myself. I prefer to push myself, because my best writing happens when I don’t have the time to over think everything.

7. Break. This is where a break is essential. It’s a good time to start expanding on other ideas or to write a few short stories.

8. The read through. Also essential. I think it’s important to read through your novel from beginning to end many times over the course of development.

9. Editing. This is when I allow myself to slow down and take the time to get the wording right. I look at pacing, motivations, sentence structure, chapter length etc. 

10. Critique partners. I’ll send out my manuscript to trusted critique partners and friends. Then I repeat stages 7-10 until I’m happy with the story.

How do you develop your story ideas?

Thanks to Suze at Girl Wizard for tagging me where we were supposed to tell 10 things about ourselves, but I adjusted the rules. I’m such a rebel.

Also thanks to L. G. Smith for the 7x7 Link Award. Again, being the rebel, I have linked back to her blog, Bards and Prophets, and ask that you visit and say hi from me.

The Plan that’s NOT a Resolution.

How often do you make a New Year’s resolution and then break it? Every Year? Me too. So, this year I’m not going to make any resolutions. Instead I’ve mapped out a plan (Shh, it’s all in the semantics).

I looked back on the year that was and thought to myself, yep, 2010 was a brilliant year. While I may not yet have a book contract, I did continue to get some stories and articles published. I met so many wonderful new friends through social networking. I’ve learnt so much and I’ve grown as a writer.

So my next obvious question is how can I make 2011 even better?

This is my plan:

• I will read more books
• I will edit the two novels I wrote in 2010
• I will start to send out queries on those novels
• I will write another draft for a new novel
• I will continue to learn and relearn the craft and the industry
• I will persevere.

All that might sound like a lot, but if I keep writing first drafts, I’ll get nowhere. If I keep editing, revising, polishing, I’ll get nowhere. If I remain inflexible and throw all my hopes into just one story, I’ll get nowhere. And so my plan is to push forward. I won’t have time to listen to that ever present voice of doubt. I’ll be too busy writing, learning, improving.

What grand plans do you have for this year?

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A quick shout out to Ishta. I wanted to officially thank her for sending me a signed copy of Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr as a prize in a blog competition. Please, go visit her great blog and say hi from me.

NaNoWriMo: To Plan or Not to Plan?

November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

This is the first year I’ll be taking part, although I have a friend who’s participated every year since 2005. If you’d like to be my writing buddy, I’m signed in as LynFaw. Just click here.

Earlier in the year I had decided to wing it and see where the words would take me, but working on my current WIP reminded me of the downfalls of this method. Writing can slow down when we don’t know where we want to go next. At one point I hit a wall that took two weeks to budge. If I want to finish a new novel for NaNo, then I can’t afford this kind of set back.

In the past I’ve tended to plot a little ahead as I go, but I’ve never tried a full outline before. I’ve always turned my nose up at this method and proclaimed it wasn’t for me. I expected it would dull my creativity. In truth I’ve discovered the opposite.

I’m more willing to try different plot tangents for the story because it’s less work to write a quick outline. I can see whether or not it works and throw it out if it doesn’t. When November hits and it’s time to write the novel, the outline won’t stifle my creativity, but instead give me freedom to concentrate on how I tell the story.

How much do you plan a new novel before you begin to write the words? How open are you to try new methods of writing?