Category: Year in Review

goals, Paradise Lost, Writing, Year in Review

Annual Statement of Goals, 2017 Edition

M.E. Garber

Ah, here we are sliding into the new year with nary a mistake dating a check or letter so far! This must be a good omen, right? That or my brain is setting me up for a massive fail later…which I wouldn’t bet against, but also which I won’t be thinking about just now.

It looks like last year worked out pretty well for me. My short story sales and submissions went down, because early on I focused on the novel(s), letting short fiction slide. It distressed me quite a bit–still does, in fact–because I’ve become used to the “instant gratification” of short story sales instead of the “delayed gratification” of novel writing. For the longest time, it seemed to me that I just wasn’t getting anywhere. It took my husband commenting that “you know, you didn’t get as many submissions or acceptances as you’d hoped, but look, you wrote two novels last year” before my brain realized that, duh, yeah, I hadn’t been lazy or non-productive. Just “differently productive.” And this year, last year’s productivity will come to fruition.

2016: Highlights in review

  • Submitted Book 1’s opening for Taos Toolbox
  • Accepted to & attended Taos Toolbox
  • Edited Book 1 prior to workshop
  • Edited Book 1 after workshop!
  • Revisited overall trilogy plot
  • Wrote Book 2
  • Wrote at least 8 new short stories (Gah! I never tallied those figures so I can’t tell you–or myself–exactly how many!), 6 of them in Codex contests.
  • Became a Writers of the Future Quarter 2 Finalist (!!!!!)
  • One new story sale, one story “near-sale” [market went on hiatus 😦  ]
  • 6 stories still on submission at the turn of the year.

So, here are my writing goals for 2017

  • Start Book 3 of my Jess Stow trilogy
  • Finish Book 3 of Jess Stow
  • Edit ALL BOOKS of Jess Stow, and send to editor
  • Final edits of entire trilogy
  • Get covers created (OMG–so exciting!!!!)
  • Publish Jess Stow books
  • Finish planning and plot-breaking Unspoken, my next, stand-alone fantasy novel
  • Start writing Unspoken
  • Participate in Codex short story writing contests for at least 5 new stories
  • attend Paradise Lost Writers Retreat

In fact, my advanced plan is to have Book 3 finished before Paradise Lost (end of April), which I can do if I average 5000 words a week on that novel. The Weekend Warrior contest is going on now, which takes a lot of my time over the next 5 weeks–but I’m still committed to this insanity plan. So you might not see me here or on any social media much until after Paradise Lost.

In other words, it’s going to be a busy year. I hope I come out at the end of 2017 as pleasantly surprised by my writing productivity as I was last year. And to you all, I hope the same. Happy reading, and happy writing!

 

goals, Paradise Lost, Writing Workshops, Year in Review

Welcome, 2017

M.E. Garber

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a lovely, peaceful holiday season, and are ready for the challenges and hopes of the coming year. Husband and I celebrated quietly, at home together–the first time we’ve done so in our adult lives. It was a marked change, and honestly, this year was a welcome one, as well.

In addition to celebrating the holidays, I kept writing, and I am pleased to announce that I met my goal of finishing Book Two of my YA urban fantasy trilogy on December 30th! Hurray! We celebrated by eating dinner out that night (more hurray!). Since then, I’ve taken a “vacation” from writing, simply enjoying long naps and late mornings, walking the dog and conversations with friends and family. Very nice. Even the weather has cooperated, staying partly sunny and above-average in warmth, so sitting outside feels perfect.

Later today, I start on Book Three, which is outlined and ready to go. And so am I! I’m excited to get on with Jess’s adventures, seeing and living the world through her eyes. She’s a witch, and one of my favorite parts is exploring her magic–how it works, what it does, how it feels. So much fun!

Once Book Three’s first draft is done, I get edit them all (as soon as I typed the final words on book two, my mind started thinking, “hmm, you know, I should really punch that up back there, and maybe over there, too. And if I only tweaked that, then this will really shine…”). And then, lo and behold…I’ll get to send them off to my editor, after which, I’ll edit again! 🙂 Eventually, though, they will be available–my goal is by the end of the year, but I’ll be sure to update you here before that point.

In addition to all this fun, I’ve started playing around with an idea for my next novel, a stand-alone secondary-world fantasy, currently using the working title of “Unspoken.” AND, I’ve registered for the Paradise Lost Writing Workshop, where I’ll not only see lots of writers I know from Viable Paradise and Taos Toolbox, but get to meet other writers while we all work on our books and stories. I get a lot of “creative energy” out of these things, and really hope that Paradise Lost will help me plot-break “Unspoken,” so it’s ready to begin once the Jessamin Stow books are finished.

I’ll make my annual year’s end summary and new-year’s goals posting soon–probably later this week. But for now, I’m easing back into a normal working life again. Which means I need to get writing.

But first, for the coming year I wish all of you comfort in your souls, strength in your wills, and health. Blessings on us all.

Magic of the Everyday, Writing, Year in Review

First Quarter Update

M.E. Garber

It’s been a busy 3 months so far in 2016, and I thought I’d share some of my writing life and goals here, both to keep me motivated and to keep me honest. (And maybe to motivate some of you, as well? I can hope.)

Currently I have 9 submissions out, two of which are reprints (weeee–a “writer’s dream” of mine; reprints!), while another two are originals that have made it to their respective second rounds. I gotta say, I’m pretty amazed at this, since I’m “transitioning” to long-form writing. But flash fiction contests are  good for my soul, and those stories often are edited up to short story length, post-contest. And thus I have lots of submissions. Which is also good for my soul, and my sense of “being productive.”

I gave myself 7 big writing goals for the month of March, being a pretty hard task-master on myself. I completed 5 of the tasks, and am midway-through a sixth. The seventh I let slip. But I’m not too upset; after all, these weren’t simple little things, and life was very “inconvenient” this past month, meaning I was squeezed for time and mental bandwidth. Not an excuse–just not letting my brain weasels start racing through my head shouting that I’m “not being dedicated enough.” (Stupid brain weasels!) I’m actually quite pleased with how I did, all considered.

One of my life inconveniences this past month was indeed a 2-day stint of brain weasel super activity, combined with 2 back-to-back rejections, which pretty much made me wonder why I ever thought I could string 2 words together with any elegance or clarity. (Yeah, it happens, but it’s over now. I’m fine.) I was buoyed by the support of my peers, both my VP cohort and some writers from various other groups. If you were kind while I (or any other writer) was down and blue, thank you.

Speaking of transitioning, I did finish a draft of Jessamin Stow. The YA novel is now at a beta-reader. Book 2 of the trilogy is ready to begin, all outlined and pretty and just begging me to dive in. I’m eager to start, and yet hesitant. My synopsis is lovely, my outline so nice. Now I have to risk “ruining the perfection” with my first drafting process, which is never as beautiful as I’d like. I simply can’t go from “idea” to “final draft” without making a bit of a mess in the middle, and those Brain Weasels just love shredding me when I do. Still, this is the week I’ll begin (but that’s a subject for the second quarter roundup).

Fine weather and longer days of springtime mean more daylight, more enthusiasm, and more time doing things outside, which also helps my energy levels, both mental and physical. I find nothing more energizing to my writing than, ironically enough, taking a weekend away from writing to work or walk outside, do gardening, lose myself in pleasant chores like heavy weeding (I’m looking at you, Boston fern attempting to eat my palm tree!) or cooking, or even (gulp!) spring cleaning inside. While I’m putting my physical environment to rights, my mind is freed from the tyranny of logical thought and instead makes intuitive leaps that later present to my writer’s brain as thought-out and logical conclusions. Pretty nice.

It’s not been all second-looks and blooming flowers, of course. Since the year began, I’ve had 13 rejections, including those 2 that really stung! Lucky #13–it means I’m due for an acceptance, right?

If so, I’ll keep you posted. How’s your year going so far?

Reading, Rejection, Writing, Year in Review

My Writing 2015: A Review

M.E. Garber

OK, so here we go at last–my year’s writing in review. I really like these posts, because whenever I start the research for this, I’m pretty glum, thinking that I haven’t really done “all that much” or “all that well” for the year. I mean, I could’ve done so much more if it hadn’t been for x or y, and I expected to get so much more accomplished on project z. I usually feel pretty much like an abysmal failure.

And then, I run the numbers, and begin to cheer up. You can’t argue with the stats (well, you can, but you’d look pretty foolish).

In 2015, I made about 51 submissions. From those, I garnered:

  • 5 acceptances, including my first reprint! (wheeeeee!)
  • 1 “no response” (boo! market closed)
  • 1 withdrawal
  • 3 still pending
  • 12 personal rejections (a couple very complimentary)

Then I looked back at last year’s stats and saw “54 rejections, 23 personal, 6 acceptances, 4 pending.” Hmm, less writing than last year? That’s not good, right?

But it is good. Because this year I also finished the first draft of the novel I didn’t finish the year before, and began figuring out what was broken on it and how to fix it (a major chore, since it’s my first really completed novel). On top of that, I planned and wrote a novella and have detailed outlines for the next two in the series, which I hope to self-publish in 2016. So in effect, I’ve finished 2 novels this year, and planned a couple more, in addition to all those short stories submitted. See, this is looking pretty impressive now, isn’t it? 🙂

My 2015 goals were to:

  • finish the novel (check)
  • revise novel via outline (check)
  • write at least 12 new stories to submission stage (check)
  • do concept ideation and outlines for novella series (and double-check, since I exceeded this by writing the first draft and started editing it before the year was out! Go me!)

See why all this is cheering? I didn’t do badly at all, did I? I really love the stories I wrote, and the markets I was published in. I came pretty darn close to a couple more sales at really awesome markets, and am gratified and amazed by that (especially when I see the quality of the stories that did get accepted!), and I continue to be supported by the conviviality and community of both the Codex Writers’ Group and my VP 17 cohort, as well as some lovely people here on this blog. Having good peeps to see you through the tough times=gold.

Thus I come to the end of this posting, cheered and fortified to continue onwards in my writing, and questing towards publication “glory.” (Um, yeah, whatever. I just want to keep improving, keep trying new things, and maybe see some tangible signs of success here and there.)

For the new year (which, yes, is already getting a bit long in the tooth, I know), may all your nouns and verbs agree, and may none of your participles dangle! Happy reading and writing and carrying on with good living!