June Goals

Somehow, it’s June already. Summer is weeks away, as is the midway point of the year. I’m sure I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing.
 
May Goals
1. Start writing something new.
Kind of. I’ve been fooling around with side stories to old projects. I still haven’t figured out what I want to work on next.
 
2. Edit the web serial and improve it.
Did this. Well, I edited. I’m not exactly sure I improved it.
 
3. Figure out what I want to do next for my last WIP. It’s not quite ready to be looked at by others, so I want to get it there.
I didn’t do this, as I haven’t been quite ready to look at it. I may need input from others.
 
As I thought, pretty much nothing. Some months you just have to get through.
 
June Goals
1. Start posting the web serial again, and keep working on it.
 
2. Do something fun and distracting to recharge.
 
3. Work on getting beta readers for my WIP. Opening up to people with my work is hard, and I need people I can trust. So yeah. This is quite a task.
 
What do you want to do this month? Where do you look for beta readers?

May Goals

Ugh, April was just wildly unsuccessful. Just another one of those months I’ve been having for the last fifteen years or so.
 
Ugh.
 
April Goals
1. Keep searching for beta readers for my book. It’s almost like people have lives outside of me or something.
Still working on this. Like I said, wildly unsuccessful.
 
2. Work on writing the new WIP I’ve decided I have to write right now this very moment.
I did this. I’m sure it’s not any good, but I got around 40K.
 
3. Update my etymology page, even though after a year I still can’t get the damn formatting right. Seriously, I HATE new Blogger.
Did you see they’ve screwed with commenting? Now I’ve got that to deal with, and heaven forbid they just fix post formatting! I WANT TO ADJUST PARAGRAPH SPACING DAMMIT! Without that stupid "Normal-Paragraph-Heading-Subheading" crap. And Also without it crashing on me!!! I used to be able to just paste my etymology list in from Excel and it was perfect, but nope, they had to wreck that. I have to copy it in from a Word file and because it’s a Word file, it screws up the formatting, but what else am I supposed to do when I have well over a thousand words that I’m not typing in and spacing one by one???
 
Kind of devolved into a rant on that last one. I think I have some stuff to work out. Which I wouldn’t if I could just use Old Blogger!
 
Okay, enough of that before I unleash another rant…
 
May Goals
1. More beta reads. Still need more people.
 
2. Finish new WIP. This one will hopefully be easy.
 
3. Work on an new draft of my query letter. And watch it become obsolete almost immediately. 
 
So that’s what I want to do for May. Though I’m tempering my expectations.

October Goals

It’s October! While I usually love this month, well, it is 2020. Although I suppose I am living each day in growing terror as the election nears. That’s not really a fun terror, though.
 
Ugh, let’s focus on something less awful.
 
September Goals
1. Work on word usage. I overuse an embarrassing amount of words and phrases.
There are still a bunch left, but at least I did something.
 
2. Get WIP beta reader ready.
It’s pretty there. Probably as close as it’s going to get, anyway.
 
3. Look back on the last ten years because holy crap, that’s how long I’ve been blogging.
If it was any year but 2020, this probably would have been a lot more interesting to do.
 
And that’s that. I did a lot of what I set out to do, but could have done better. It was kind of a tiring month to exist in. So what should I do this month…
 
October Goals
1. Find some beta readers for my latest WIP. I hope some of my friends are still available.
 
2. Update my blog’s etymology page. I really should have done this last month!
 
3. Work on something. Anything.
 
Here’s hoping October is successful and not a nightmare reaching its pinnacle. What do you want to do this month?

July Goals

We’re on the downswing of the year now. I’d be more excited if we weren’t slowly sliding into a dystopia.

Now I’ve depressed myself.

June Goals

1. Get more beta reads for WIP 1. I still have a lot of questions about what works and what doesn’t.

Could still use more.

2. Distract myself from the above by working on all the notes for the other WIP.

Okay, I totally worked on something else instead, because of course I did. I also spent a lot of time working on one of my goals from, like, May or something. Again, because of course I did.

3. Update etymology page. I don’t want to forget!

All up to date as of the first week in June!

Yaaaay. Anyway, what should I do this month?

July

1. Edit one of the many projects I have in the works. Also start planning for the story I want to write this year.

2. Work on edits from the beta notes I should be getting.

3. Do some posts in advance to get ready for my blogging break next month. That’s right, I plan ahead.

What are you planning to do this month?

June Goals

Well, another month bites the dust. Was it more successful than April? Marginally. Not that it didn’t have its own pain-in-the-assery to deal with.

What was I supposed to be doing this month?

May Goals

1. Start making notes for my other WIP, because I feel more enthused about working on that project than my other one.

I did do this. Now I have, like, four hundred. Oi, rough drafts.

2. Hopefully actually get to the notes on WIP 1 this time.

Yes, I finally finished these. Time to find some more beta readers.

3. Find something to do to recharge myself creatively. I have no idea what, though.

I came up with a stupid project to keep myself entertained. It was a lot of fun and I was able to get through all my notes.

So I got more done, but still. What a freaking month. And now we’ve got summer on us.

June Goals

1. Get more beta reads for WIP 1. I still have a lot of questions about what works and what doesn’t.

2. Distract myself from the above by working on all the notes for the other WIP.

3. Update etymology page. I don’t want to forget!

That’s the plan, anyway. How I wish this was ten years ago when there were all those blog events that connected people. I had a bunch of beta readers back then!

Anyway, what do you want to do this month?

December Goals

What a mess this month was. As anyone who follows me on twitter is aware, I got sick after Thanksgiving. Boy, did that suck. Anyway, back to the goals.

November Goals

1. Keep searching for beta readers.

At least this wasn’t affected by me being sick. Still could use more.

2. Get up to 40K on my new WIP (already at about 18K, so this is certainly possible).

I wasn’t able to meet this goal. I was on track until I got sick. I had to use all my energy to do the stuff I had to do instead of the stuff I wanted to do. It was such a bummer.

3. <shudder> Thanksgiving.

Ugh, I’m so glad this is done.

And that’s it for November. What about December?

December Goals

1. Hopefully get beyond 50K in the WIP.

2. Update my etymology page before it gets out of hand.

3. Ugh, now we have Christmas.

So that’s what I’m planning for the last month of 2018. What are you going to do? Any holiday/end of the year plans?

November Goals

Less than two months left in the year. How did this happen? What was I even supposed to do last month?

October Goals

1. Start with the beta reads. And as a corollary, don’t have a panic attack from the beta reads.

I actually didn’t do this because everyone I knew was busy or vanished somewhere into the aether of the internet. The blog-o-sphere isn’t as active as it used to be.

2. Figure out if I’m ready to start a new WIP.

Considering I started it, the answer would have to be yes.

3. Try to distract myself from the beta reading/imminent doom.

Kind of unnecessary.

Seriously, the beta thing was such a bust. There are like three people who owe me reads who are just plain gone. Plus the last time I did this, there was still a lot of those blog events people hosted where you could find a bunch of like-minded people to exchange stories with. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen one of those.

The above is kind of feeling like a big old pile of excuses, so let’s just move on to next month:

November Goals

1. Keep searching for beta readers.

2. Get up to 40K on my new WIP (already at about 18K, so this is certainly possible).

3. <shudder> Thanksgiving.

So that’s what I want to do this month. What are you up to? Want to do some beta reading (you can email me here)?

Beta

It’s the scariest month of the year, so I suppose it’s appropriate that this should happen this month. It’s been years since I’ve had anything at the point where it needs beta readers. And though this sort of thing ramps up my anxiety levels to eleven, it must be done.

Do you want to read a book and give feedback on it? Are you good with female driven YA Fantasy (it’s not medieval fantasy either; closer to future fantasy)? Then by all means, shoot me an email. I could use the assistance.

I’m looking for everything. Any problems you may find, whether it’s the fact that I keep accidentally inserting double spaces into places or issues with overall story coherence.

If you’re interested, you can email me here. Or just leave a comment that I can reply to, because that’s what I do anyway. I’ll try not to scream. Much.

What I Learned from Beta Reads

Or, Things I Can’t Believe I Messed Up While Writing, OMG, I’m So Embarrassed.

1. I forget words kind of a lot. Well, it’s every few pages, which seems like a lot to me.

2. No matter how many times I went through my MS, my beta readers will still find grammatical errors. I’m sure it happens to everyone, but man, I felt like I was new at the whole putting words on paper thing.

3. “Accidently” is a word somehow. (My reaction can best be summed up as o__O) And of course I used it. This is why you need beta readers. Because Word has some messed up excuses for words in its dictionary.

4. My favorite way to emphasize something, besides using adverbs, is by saying “managed to”. I could get away with that phrasing once, maybe twice, but any more and it becomes one of those bumps that knocks the reader out of the story.

Seriously, I wanted to crawl into a hole of shame after this. I should get more people to proofread because I do not trust myself after this.

So now we’re at the point where I turn things over to you. What’s your most embarrassing mistake? Anyone ever heard of “accidently”?

WIP It Good

It’s time for the WIP It Goodblogfest hosted by DL Hammond and Elise Fallson, which means it’s a special Friday post.

Hi everyone from the bloghop! If you’re looking to swap beta reads/critiques and don’t detest first person present tense, I’m here.

WIP Title: COLLAPSE

Word Count (projected/actual so far): 90,000/90,000

Genre: YA Dystopian/apocalyptic

How long have you been working on it?: A little over a year.

Elevator Pitch (if you came across an agent in an elevator ride, what couple of lines would you use to summarize your book): The world is ending. Society is crumbling. Cassidy, however, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Brief Synopsis (250 words or less): World temperatures are sky-rocketing and society is on shaky last legs. Cassidy is witnessing it all firsthand. But she isn’t the type to let a little thing like the end of the world do her in. Of course, the life she once knew is gone, replaced with something vastly different from high school and a boring suburban life. Bullies used to be a problem for her. Now she’s slightly more worried about being gunned down by people she once called “neighbor”, and whether or not her brother will die from an asthma attack because they can’t get to a doctor. Her father says keeping the family safe at the expense of everyone else is the right thing to do and she believes him…except for the one niggle of doubt when she sees the people gasping their last breaths in triple digit temperatures. It may be a question of who breaks first, her or the heat.

Are you looking for a Critique Partner?: Yes!

Are you looking for a Beta Reader?: Also yes!

WIP It

Like the Devo song. They were on Futurama. That’s how I know them.

One of my 2012 goals was to join in more blogfests. As you may or may not recall, I did one, which was less than I did in 2012 and thus a total failure for me. Not that I’m broken up about it, but still. It’s pretty weaksauce on my part.

Anyway, I finally found one that made me get off my lazy butt and join! DL Hammons and Elise Fallson are hosting the WIP It Good Blogfest on May 31^st. On that day, everyone shares the following:

WIP Title:

Word Count (projected/actual so far):

Genre:

How long have you been working on it?:

Elevator Pitch (if you came across an agent in an elevator ride, what couple of lines would you use to summarize your book):

Brief Synopsis (250 words or less):

Are you looking for a Critique Partner?:

Are you looking for a Beta Reader?:

And we meet up in hopes of finding new CPs and Beta Readers, something I mentioned I was looking for.

This is perfect : ). I hope to see you there!

Betastic

It’s that time in my book’s life cycle where I have to send it out into the cold, cruel world (you’ll see what I mean in Saturday’s post) to be brutally slaughtered. I mean critiqued. Isn’t it weird how slaughter is laughter with an s at the beginning?

Anyway, I already have one really good beta reader (did you know I forget words all the time? Because I didn’t), and I’m not worried about losing her. I beta read for her and when she published, she sent me a copy of the book. I think that’s like getting married for beta readers. She was the first person who read COLLAPSE besides me and her notes gave me plenty of ideas to make things, in a word, better.

How I would love to believe that this one critique is all it needs to be mind-bendingly awesome. But it might be prudent to find other people willing to read it. I just hope I have the same luck as I did when Julie first asked me to beta read for her and promised to return the favor. My other interactions with betas has been…unfortunate. To sum up, one fell ill, one disappeared from the internet, and the third just hated my MC.

So. That’s where I am right now. If anyone is interested in beta reading/critiquing, let me know. So there are no surprises, it’s a YA dystopian and written in first person present tense. I know, how trendy. But it’s how I like to write. I’m always happy to return the favor, as long as you don’t disappear on me. Then I might have to hunt you down.

May Goals

Wow, May already. Things are really getting beautiful out. It’s nice and sunny, but I’m not dying of the heat. I can leave the windows open without being deafened by crickets. It’s really and truly spring now! Except in Minnesota and Colorado. You’d think they were in the southern hemisphere or something.

April Goals

Goal 1: Get COLLAPSE out to some beta readers!!! I get so nervous about sharing my work, so this is going to be a hard one. There are still some word issues, and maybe some with pacing and the like, but I feel like I procrastinate too long on things like this. Anyway, getting feedback will help me figure out what needs to be done.

            Done, if by “some” I meant “one”. However she’s a good beta reader who already gave me some things to fix, so I’d call this a win.

Goal 2: Start following more blogs on Tumblr. I think I’ll keep this as a weekend project so it won’t interfere with my writing.

            Mostly a fail. I followed a couple of new ones, but I find Tumblr a little hard to navigate. Although I’m reminded how many months (namely, a lot) it took me to really get into Twitter. It also didn’t help that I had some other stuff to deal with that kind of interfered with my ability to get stuff done.

Goal 3: Work on notes (and maybe some sort of, shudder, outline) for my new project, which is actually a rewrite of an old project. This should satisfy my urge to do something new. I’ve got some good ideas brewing. It will be nice to sink my teeth into writing again.

            Mostly done. I have a couple of end chapters left, and I definitely want to have the ending in mind before I start to work on this. And I do, pretty much, but I like to be exact about things.

So, not bad. I really could have done better, though, especially with that Tumblr thing. Social media is hard for me sometimes. Anyway…

May Goals

1. Get COLLAPSE out to more beta readers. I do want to fix some things from my reader first, but that shouldn’t take more than two weeks.

2. Actually follow some more blogs on Tumblr this time. This shouldn’t be that hard! Your weekends are wide open, self!

3. Start on rewrite. Maybe. I’m not sure if I’ll have time, but it would stop me from worrying about beta reads. It’s hard sending my baby out on its own!

April Goals

All right, let’s see how I did…

Goal 1: Check for sight, smell, sound, touch and taste on every page of COLLAPSE. This means I’m highlighting and checking every descriptive phrase to make sure it’s A) good and B) correct. Basically, more microediting. I’m thinking this will take a while.

            Yep! Did not take half as long as I thought it would, so I was able to get through this and partway through a completely different editing pass.

Goal 2: Tweet every new entry on the Spamfiles. Update my Twitter profile to include it (the profile’s long overdue for an updating anyway…).

            I think I may have missed tweeting once or twice, which is kind of shameful since there’s only like eight tweets a month. So I guess this one is a “mostly”.

Goal 3: If I have time, more word hunting in GLITCH. I have nothing pithy and amusing to add to that.

            I guess this would be a failure because I had the time, but worked on other things instead. At least I wasn’t screwing around all of the time. Most of the time. Some times. I did something, okay?

Not bad. Not a full success but I was kind of feeling burnt out this month. It’s getting to the time of year when I usually start on a new project, but since I want to focus on old ones this year, I’m getting a bit antsy. Anyway, what will I do this month?

April Goals

Goal 1: Get COLLAPSE out to some beta readers!!! I get so nervous about sharing my work, so this is going to be a hard one. There are still some word issues, and maybe some with pacing and the like, but I feel like I procrastinate too long on things like this. Anyway, getting feedback will help me figure out what needs to be done.

Goal 2: Start following more blogs on Tumblr. I think I’ll keep this as a weekend project so it won’t interfere with my writing.

Goal 3: Work on notes (and maybe some sort of, shudder, outline) for my new project, which is actually a rewrite of an old project. This should satisfy my urge to do something new. I’ve got some good ideas brewing. It will be nice to sink my teeth into writing again.

And that’s my major goals for April. What are you guys up to this month?

Reflections 2012

Way at the beginning of the year I made a list of goals I hoped to reach by the end of the year. I…have a bad feeling about this.

1. Finish editing GLITCH.

            This includes working on all the notes I have, more beta reads, more critiques, checking word usage, finish making it make sense, making sure it all pops like firecrackers, another grammar check, and the final polish. There’s probably more but I’ve blocked it from my mind for sanity reasons.

            Sigh, I didn’t finish, although I did make a lot of headway. Overall, I’d put it at 90% done, but unfortunately without much input from beta readers (so it's probably a bit less than that in reality). That last one isn’t so much my fault as bad luck. I’m hoping this year I can find someone who doesn’t get sick, disappear, or absolutely hate my main character.

2. Write another book.

            Maybe two if I do NaNo again this year. I’m not quite sure what it is that I’ll write (one of the consequences of being a panster), but I had one of those magical sparks that might be Something Good. If it’s still in my head in a few months, I’ll see where it goes.

            Yep and yep. Like in 2010, the second book was much shorter only about 40K, but since the first one is close to 100K right now, I think it’s okay.

3. Start editing above book.

            I only say “start” because GLITCH has a lot more edits to go through and I want to really finish it. So…many…edits.

            Yes, I’ve started. Sadly, I’ve probably neglected GLITCH more than I should have, although it was more than laziness that made me do so.

4. Write a query letter for GLITCH.

            And it has to be good! This will have to be sent to be critiqued too.

            Through something out of my hands (a book with the same title and a similar plot point), I’ve decided not to query GLITCH right now.

5. Send out queries for GLITCH.

            I hope. If life gets in the way again, I may have to resort to death. Of myself, others, all life in the universe…whatever gets in my way the most.

            Same as above. I’m disappointed about that, but I don’t think it’s query ready anyway. Not being ready is a big failure on my part.

6. Make significant progress towards taking over the world. Do absolutely nothing that will elicit international scrutiny.

            You saw nothing.

            Heh heh heh.

7. Join in more blogfests.

            I think it will help make more blogging friends and that’s always fun.

            This was an utter failure. I didn’t join a single one after the Mini-Platform Building Campaign last February! I’d like to say it’s because I didn’t see any that interested me, but in truth I think it’s just because it’s hard for me to be social, even online. Sigh…resolution not achieved…

So overall, I completed about fifty percent of my goals. A failing grade, yes, but only if you don’t scale. Does life grade on a curve? I sure hope so.

Tips for Being a Good Critique Recipient

Of course there’s another side to it. If you want people to help you, there are rules you need to follow, too.

1. Be polite.

            This is part of the golden rule of be kind to others and treat them as you would like yourself to be treated. You want readers to be attentive to your work and responsive, right? Well, it’s a lot harder to ignore a polite inquiry than it is a note attacking them for not getting your characters.

2. Don’t overload.

            They’re busy with their own lives just like you’re busy with yours. You don’t want to send them your whole book and wonder why they haven’t responded. Pick a schedule that they can keep up with and you can work with. This might be something like thirty pages per day or a hundred a week or even just thirty a week. Their own work has to come first, and I’ve heard some people have these “children” they have to take care of.

3. Be patient.

            Again, they’re busy. It’s not just readers who should stick to schedules. You might be anxious to hear what they thought of your chapters, but don’t give them a nudge unless the deadline has passed.

4. Reciprocate.

            If your beta readers ever ask for your help, the considerate thing to do is to give it. They took the time to read your work and you should carve out time in your schedule to do the same. Critiquing is a two way street.

5. And follow the same guidelines when you do.

            It’s no good to agree to beta read and then ask for three times as much time or to refuse to give the detailed responses you asked for. Basically, when it’s your turn to beta read, you follow the guidelines I gave last week, too.

And those are my tips for being a good critiquee. Anything to add?

Polishing and a Request

Now that I've finished sewing up the plot holes, I'm working on the actual writing in my book. It's hard! I think the read aloud is helping with it some, and searching for words that end in -ly tends to cut down on adverbs (how I wish Word had a feature to search word types), but there's only so much one set of eyes can see. If you've been working on a project for nine months with few interruptions, you tend to lose your objectivity.

Does anyone out there enjoy dystopian/post-apocalyptic and feel like reading a semi-polished,unpublished novel? Because I've put off getting outside opinions long enough. It doesn't have to be a full crit or anything (although I could probably use a few of those, too) just an opinion on readability and coherence. And I'm always happy to return the favor, either now or at a later time. If you are interested, you can contact me via my profile (scroll down a bit and click on link under my pic).

And now, back to the read aloud...

More Scheduling

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to do "Favorite Fridays," where I highlight some of my favorite, not writing websites and other things (books, movies, television...whatever I can come up with). I figure, hey, the weekend is coming, so you might as well have something else to distract you from writing.

Anyway, in writing news, I'm still busy editing my post-Apocalyptic-ish YA novel, but I still don't think it's ready to be submitted yet. While it's good, I worry about things like "do the characters' actions make sense?" and "are their voices distinct?" I definitely need more opinions from beta readers and critique partners. I haven't had any luck finding new partners yet (although my friend Choices will be up on her feet and ready to read soon, I hope) and was wondering if there were any good websites out there to connect CPs and readers. I've looked at a few of the forums on Yahoo (I think it was Yahoo anyway) but didn't have much luck there.

Boring post today, I know. The next one will be fantabulous, I promise.

Contest fever

Sorry, nothing interesting to blog about today. I'm pushing through to finish revisions so I can get my book out to beta readers, revise some more, and then get it out. Speaking (or writing) of which, if anyone actually does read this and wants to read my YA/Dystopian, leave a comment. I'm sure I'll have more luck with twitter (well, I hope so).

There is, however, another contest going on. Elizabeth Briggs (Lizwrites on twitter) is giving away a bunch of books from San Diego Comic Con. Anyone interested, enter here. Super cool of you, Liz!