How to Meet Your Goals in 10 Not-So-Easy Steps!

I'm a very goal-oriented person, but also easily distracted and not always organized. Here's what I've learned over the past few years about setting better goals, and my goals for 2017:

1. Don't Compare. This is the hardest for me because I'm naturally competitive and use that to motivate myself. However, it is too easy to make unfair comparisons to people whose lives differ greatly from ours. Am I going to compare myself to a novelist who writes full time? No. Comparing to someone far more productive than yourself creates internal backlash. Always compare yourself to yourself first, and then to other people at a similar level of output. This will start you out right for the next steps:
2. Depend On Yourself. Set goals that depend on you, not on an agent or publisher agreeing to publish your work. Shift the focus of your goals to how many places you submit, or, for a bit of humor, how many rejections you get, like this 100 rejections goal. 100 rejections means you've submitted 100+ places, and that's the point. With longer projects, there's always word counts!
3. Know Your Output Level. As you get a baseline of experience tracking your writing speed and other measures of output, you'll be able to set reasonable goals. Know how much time you have and how fast you write, and how much time or how many steps a project needs before it is complete. Remember that real life WILL get in the way at some point, so leave time for that. I wrote 50k+ for NaNoWriMo and then barely met my 15k goal for December. I knew I'd need to do holiday things and give a little time to other projects that I didn't count.
4. Know What Motivates You. Do you reward yourself when you reach a goal? And remember to let your completed art to be a reward in of itself, too. If your writing is not intrinsically rewarding, either you've hit a temporary bad spot, or your life and/or writing may be out of balance. Word counts motivate me so I find ways to use them even when I'm revising.
5. Set Short-term Goals. Break projects down into manageable steps. Instead of thinking only "I'm going to publish this fantasy series!" (eek!), breaking it down into word count goals and the revision steps needed after that brings a big project down so you can wrap your head around it.
6. Revise Your Goals. We're all human and we all make mistakes. Maybe we get to the end of a word count goal only to realize that the draft needs 30,000 more words, which has totally never happened to me ever. Also, we're all human and have to live on this physical plane where we need food and have to work or raise kids and then goodness forbid something tragic happens. Or maybe you hear about a short story deadline and you have the best idea for an entry. Don't be afraid to revise your goals in order to make room for opportunities or to acknowledge that you're not superhuman (bummer!).
7. Set Flexible Goals. Long-term goals are important for flexibility. That way, if you don't meet your short term-goals, you can see that you've at least made progress, if not as much as you wanted. But you don't want to be revising your goals all the time--that's a sign that you're chasing after every new idea or you're setting your goals way too high (because life!). One way to avoid adjusting your goals all the time is to have a "goal" and a "super goal." The super goal is that high goal you know you can reach if all the stars align, like if my toddler sleeps at night. The regular goal is something that allows for life and all that, but still means that I didn't spend all month procrastinating by magically finding other things to do besides write. 
8. Organize. I Guess. Last year I attempted to organize by moving all my files off every device and unto the cloud. I was tired of having to switch devices to find the latest draft of a project or a file I needed to submit, plus I didn't want to lose files in a computer crash. What I didn't do was organize every single file in the cloud to make everything as perfect as I want it. I wrote a novel instead. So, organize enough that you can find what you need, but don't use organization as an excuse to procrastinate, either. Thanks to search features, I can find the files I need, and websites like Submissions Grinder help me keep track of short story submissions. I use my google calendar to set alerts for deadlines and for reminders of projects I don't want to leave behind. My other organization accomplishment last year was to create media files for each published and soon-to-be-published work, so that when I want to reach out to beta readers or give potential readers a purchase link, I know where to find it.
9. Be Nice To Yourself! Do you know what bites? Not meeting my goals! A lot of this advice boils down to being nice to yourself. Sure, you want to push yourself, but that doesn't mean you have to be mean about it! Set reasonable goals and if life really kicks you, revise your goals. Meeting reasonable goals gives you the confidence and experience needed to know when to take a risk - like NaNoWriMo, or pushing a new project into the mix.
10. WRITE. You can't meet your goals if you don't write! You won't know your output level if you never output. Yoda says there is no try! You can conceivably publish fiction without setting goals, but you can't publish anything if you don't write. Use goals as motivation and focus on the process of writing itself, on sitting down and typing those words. 

Review of 2016 Goals:

1. Revise opening of Dragon Islands - 50%. I did revise (a lot!) but plan to revise again and technically don't have an opening scene right now. (I have two... This was before the great migration to the cloud!)
2. Finish and submit short stories. 100% I have 7 pieces and 20 rejections. This was a huge deal to me as I've been focusing quite a bit on Dragon Islands.
3. Some kind of NaNoWriMo. 100% I surprised myself by changing my mind from doing revisions to writing the next book in Dragon Islands, and it was absolutely the right choice at 65k since Nov 1.
4. Improve my platform for Premeditations. 100% My publisher recently thanked me for 'not giving up' on my chapbook. See, many authors and publishers act like a book is dead after a few months to a year. But that doesn't fit my long-term goals. I felt like I could have done more when Premeditations came out, but I saw no reason for that to be a permanent mistake. I learned more about marketing and long-term planning.
5. Reviews and blogging. 100% I review 1 magazine a month for Tangent Online, and on top of that, I wanted to review more on my blog, keep up with Pendragon Variety posts, and release regular content both here and on my homeschool blog. I mention this because I think periodically about giving up, but I didn't. I even sold an article or two to homeschooling magazines. Done!
6. SURPRISE GOAL! At the beginning of the year, I had no idea I'd write, illustrate, and self-publish a children's book, Charlie Cat Does NOT Like Halloween. It's been a long-term goal of mine to write picture books and this year I did it! 

2017 Goals:

1. Release Charlie Cat Needs a Break on Thanksgiving.
2. Write another Charlie Cat book.
3. Finish drafting the Dragon Islands series. (Continue logging word counts).
4. Revise the opening to Dragon Islands and send the first book to beta readers.
5. Write, revise, and submit more short stories for 30 rejections.

Ahhhh, so scary! A year is a long time to plan for! Anything could go wrong!

Or things could go right. Hmm.

Here's to a great 2017!

#Nano Blog Hop

Welcome, new followers!

Are you part of the #NaNo social media hop? Let me give you a quick run down of who I am:

• Science Fiction & Fantasy Author 
• SFF Reviewer
• Children's Author/Illustrator/Educator
• Homeschooling Mother of three children, 7 & under
• Errant Podcaster*

Wow, am I enjoying this blog hop already! I'm "meeting" at lot of new people and already seeing many that I have a connection with through fandom, favorite genres to read and write, and parenthood.

See something you like? Join my Readers Club newsletter to keep abreast of all the awesome that is me. I won't spam you with random journal-esque entries and you can unsubscribe at any time. I'm teaming up with another author for something special to celebrate Premeditations' bookversary, so now's an opportune time to join! (Read an excerpt from Premeditations courtesy of my publisher.)

Follow me on Facebook for somewhat more noise, such as my reviews, and add me on twitter for much more noise, including retweeting my favorite authors and random things about kids.

Can't get enough about kids? Follow my homeschooling blog for reviews and releases geared towards the younger crowd. (Join my Readers Club and click the appropriate box to sign up for cool kid stuff!)

And don't forget to tell me a little about yourself! With all the new people I'm meeting, I'd hate to lose you in the crowd. If you've read this far, I bet we have something in common, so leave a comment or tweet me!





*My microphone bit the dust recently and I have three loud kids, but I still love to follow podcasting authors and maybe some day I'll narrate again (sniff!)

Author Mailing List, Activated! Sign up!

Since Premeditations came out, so many people have come to me and told me that they were interested in my work but missed several of the announcements on social media.

With facebook algorithms especially, sometimes social media doesn't cut it, not when you want to be the first to know and take advantage of time-sensitive things like preorder discounts. I also have a few appearances I'm scheduling right now and I would hate to have fans miss them because of these issues.

All this to say that I now have an author mailing list! I will never send you spam, but only one-time announcements when a book or story is published, when it becomes available in another format, or when an appearance is coming up.

Subscribe to my author mailing list:

Thank you for all your feedback!

I really appreciate my followers on social media and on this blog, too. You will continue to see reviews in those places that you won't see on the author mailing list. On facebook and twitter you'll no doubt see our homeschooling antics as well. Carry on!

I was productive except for Dr. Who

After a flurry of editing, submitting, reviewing, etc., I treated myself by catching up on this past season of Dr. Who. By no coincidence, this coincided with a week where the kiddos woke up an hour early, didn't nap, or went to bed late every day of a week. They are back on schedule now, and so am I! I have been finalizing the ebook for Pendragon Variety - Issue #1 - In Memory of Dragons. Copyediting and ebook coding has been a wonderful adventure. I'll let you know when it's for sale!

Me on the interwebs:

YA Report: "Never" by K. D. McEntire

YA Report: "Cascade Effect" by Leah Petersen
OSC Intergalactic Medicine Show #33 (May/June 2013)
Fantasy & Science Fiction - May/June 2013
(The above review was mentioned at Blackgate.com!)

I just received an acceptance for one of my flash submissions! More details to come.

Cross Promotion takes TIME.

Sometimes I forget how much time cross promoting across my social networks can take. That is, until I take an entire afternoon to catch up!

Each individual thing - posting to G+, twitter, Pinterest, writing this blog, sending emails and checking dates for upcoming reviews - most of that takes less than a minute, by itself. It sure does add up, though!

I think it's a great thing to do. I think that promoting the same link on different days can be a benefit, too. I only wish that it felt more like, well, like writing. Also, I have this terrible luck with technology because I'm fairly proficient at the user friendly stuff, but not expert enough to avoid or quickly solve the normal but annoying delays and hiccups. Today Pinterest acted up in my Chrome browser and it felt like it took forever to bring up firefox, log in, and do it there. It probably only took a minute, but, yanno.

I'd probably be less frustrated if I had planned for the evening to go like this. It was more like when you start the clean the living room but then notice something amiss in the kitchen but then notice something in your bedroom... and then you complain that it took you "all day" to clean.

So, this is a complaint and a reminder to myself: sometimes you just need to schedule an hour or two for 'advertising'! It's a necessary component to being a part of the online writing community!

Everyone is Sick! But...

Thankfully, I'm the only one not horribly ill, so although I should be sleeping in case tomorrow starts woefully early, I just had to write today! At the beginning of this ick I pushed through several reviews that I needed to write by a deadline, and I was really excited about starting a totally new and different kind of project and then... the REAL sickness came on. Unfortunately, cleaning up puke does not provide inspiration for anything I'm working on right now, haha.

But, like I said, I'm lucky enough not to be sick myself. So I've shortened my writing time, but I'm still determined to have it. 1000 words today on this middle grade adventure story. I've always wanted an excuse to research South and Middle America more after studying it a bit for my Spanish minor in college. Such a fascinating place! And the middle grade part? Well, that's a more recent obsession of mine. A week ago a friend forwarded me a call for submissions to a kids magazine. What she didn't know is that I'd been toying with and taking notes on kids books ideas for the past two months. I thought I might make the attempt some day, but not this soon! I gotta say. It's been fun.

The New Year is kinda Bumpy

I started writing every night again beginning last weekend. Unfortunately I have already hit a night that was a bust (last night). We all still have the crud and our one year old can perform an amazing trick where he stands up in his crib with his eyes closed but still cries when I leave the room. With stubbornness like that, he's going to win at life in the future.

I strive to show the same kind of tenacity. That doesn't necessarily mean by writing every night. Sometimes you have to cash in a night of rest in order to get the productive week that follows. But a stubborn writer might do something crazy like read an ARC in less than 24 hrs as she waits for her voice to return, or brainstorm an epic fantasy series while staring at the stubborn baby until he falls asleep.

30 rough scene summaries so far. That's probably only half of what I'll end up with. Carry on, stubborn baby. Carry on.

Holiday Crud

The good news about being sick is that I finished an exciting ARC in less than 24hrs. The bad news is... Well, I hope my notes on it make sense tomorrow. ;) Hopefully I'll have more to report on next week since I'll be restarting my evening writing sessions between now and then.

Or ELSE, future me. Or else.

(Happy Holidays!)

Why NaNoWriMo isn't in December

Merry Christmas, every one! I hope you are having a relaxing and/or productive holiday. Personally, I'm going more for the former and not so much for the later. My writing depends on routine, so having family over and having the kids' sleep schedules all wonky means that I'm not going to stress about writing every night, not until schedules return to normal. This wasn't initially a conscious decision because I tend to plan for the best possible scenario and then wonder what went wrong. This time it was me and the baby being sick that went wrong. Going to bed at 7pm with the kids kinda kills nightly writing time. ;)

I am at some good stopping/shelving points in many of my projects and I have a specific day that I expect to restart my nightly writing sessions. I find that choosing a restart date is important for me. Until then I am charging my batteries and brainstorming in stolen moments. I'll probably start back up with a focus on editing (and submitting). The story I was working on for NaNo isn't finished but could use some more brainstorming. The plot turned out to be more far-reaching than I originally intended, and I'm not sure I'm ready to table some of my other projects for that one yet.

Writing Week in Review

There is no excerpt or flash fiction piece today because ohmehgerd I reviewed so many things. My review of "Apollo's Outcasts" by Allen Steele is already out here, and you can look forward to three more YA Report reviews and their associated interviews, as well as another magazine review for Tangent. The total word count is that of two short stories, all in a week, and I think my head my explode. It also serves as proof of how much I love reviewing and how different the writing process is from writing fiction. I can't imagine writing the drafts for two short stories in a week because it would be harder for me to switch gears between the two stories. But maybe reviewing short story magazines is giving me exactly that kind of skill, because those reviews are actually a collection of about 6 shorter reviews that I write at the same time.

I also wrote a few children's books and polished and submitted one. I sent it out with the Christmas letters as part of a psychological trick where I told myself I was going out to the mailbox any way. It's been years since I submitted anything by snail mail because I am a firm believer in email subs, but young children's books are different.

AND I managed some beta reading. Sheesh. Who am I? Am I going to pay for this super productivity by flopping about next week? I don't plan to.

It was a packed writing week that stretched my abilities and self conception. So many reviews. Researching the children's book market.  Kicking myself in the rear and submitting any thing. Forget New Years resolutions, I'm already doing it!

My Goal is to work on my Goals...

That Wednesday deadline for my goals went a little soft. I thought we'd be moved in by then and we're not. Today was also C's 3rd birthday, so not making the Wednesday deadline pretty much guaranteed that my goals wouldn't be ship shape before today.

Ah, well. I am happy to report that I've still be doing writing related things on my "break", mostly reading. Tonight I am working a little on YA reviews for sffwrtcht. My interview of Stephen Wallenfels, author of POD, came out on the 12th, and the next couple weeks are looking a little thin due to a gap of books that interested me. Quantum Coin just arrived in my mailbox, and I just finished Shadowfell, not to mention Splendors and Glooms, so there are plenty of reviews in the queue!

I do still feel that I need more defined goals for this next writing marathon, so I'll be throwing some wet bullet points and seeing which ones stick to the wall.

The Last Day of Writing Marathon!

What did I do for my last day of my writing marathon last night? (Day 90!) I took notes on a new story idea and started reading a book I am already loving, to review later. It has been a successful 90 days, and now I am giving myself until Wednesday to slack off and come up with my game plan for my next 90 day marathon.  This time around, I only had one rule: 15 minutes of "writing," and that included almost anything related to writing, prose or fiction. I started with a handful of goals, some of which I met, like my goal to edit and submit work. Next time, I'll show you what my goals are from the get go. I may also add another rule or two. Any suggestions?

I'm excited about the move and about my next set of goals. Although I probably won't be done with arranging things in the house by Wednesday, I think these extra chores will be balanced out by the benefits of the new place, including the fact that there are no stairs. My knees have hurt since the baby was born almost a year ago, and pain drains a person's energy. Plus the computer will be better situated so that whoever is using it is not bothering other people.

The only downside? We won't have internet. Well, I'll have my data connection on my phone. That might mean I'm only posting in the blog once or twice a week. I'll still have a computer and may actually get more done.

Rant: Happy Endings.

I finally finished the Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thorton. You can probably guess by the title what the trilogy did not have.

To be fair, the books had plenty of foreshadowing, warning me that the ending might be less than rosy. There's a prophecy at the beginning of the book that I conveniently forgot about, which comes up at the end as a thumbed up nose to the poor main character. There's more than that to clue the reader in throughout all three books. Each book is full of folk tales from the land and very few of them end happily. At best, the protagonists of these tales end up in a zero sum ending. And, just like in many of these tales, our hero has her prospects stolen away by a nearly random accident. It was a bit like watching Wash die. Strike that -- it was exactly like watching Wash die! Except that Wash wasn't the main character of Serenity. Harumph.

I suppose I require happier endings from the stories I read. Especially when they are so long, and believe me, the Bitterbynde books are long. I can put up with a fatalistic or depressing ending for a very good short story, but if I invest the time it takes to read hundreds of thousands of words following a single character through her romance, then, yes, I want a happy ending.

So, on that note, I've started reading Outlander for the first time. I'm already loving it, and between that and the Bitterbynde Trilogy, by the end I'll be able to write a novel full of characters that say things like "ye ken". Maybe I can top it off by watching Brave when it comes out? It's the year of the Scotts for me!

Thoughts: Target Audience

Some time over the last five years I slipped from one target audience group to a wholly different one. It's no real mystery how this happened. I went from college-and-working to little-kids-are-work. Yet the change in my reading tastes was slow and subtle, and so it was only recently that I noticed the absoluteness of it.

I grew up on epic science fiction and fantasy. While I have always enjoyed stand-alone novels more than a 10 book series, my tastes still leaned towards the intricate detail of worlds not our own, whether they be the Time Tombs on Hyperion (Dan Simmons) or The Land, a possible hallucination of Thomas Covenant (Stephen R. Donaldson). These are books where immersion and a dictionary are both key. One such book I had picked up four years ago, adored, and only just now got a-hold of the sequels. I loved it so much that I mailed it to a friend for her to read, then years later had to ask her the name of the book because my memory would never deign to hold such a trivial detail (ha). The book/series is "The Ill-Made Mute" of the Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and it was my first introduction to such things as seely and unseely wights.

The problem with re-reading this book is that I no longer have the patience for such exquisite detail, nor for a meandering plot. The books that I enjoy now are generally YA because I revel in the shorter format, in plots that get to the point, and (I thought I would never say this!) worlds more closely based on our own. My life style is so different now than it was when I would keep a list of words I didn't know on my bookmarks and look them up later. Now, I must be prepared to be interrupted, and that means that I need a little more direction from the author in terms of "this here is important" versus the "well isn't this a nice world-building sidequest". It is partly the baby brain, yes, but it is also a different perspective on life. Now every waking minute is a minute that I could be "doing" something, like playing a game with my kids or loading the dishwasher. This creeps into my recreation, too, so that I expect my books to always be "doing" things, or three things all at once. Jump off that galloping horse and unto the next plot point, thank you very much! Sometimes I don't even need to know what color the horse is. And while I still love for the protagonist to visit alien realms, I also appreciate it when exposition and description of scenery can be kept to a minimum, such as with urban fantasy. Lawdy, I never thought I'd be pleased to read a vampire adventure romance!

I haven't entirely lost my reading roots. I'm enjoying the Bitterbynde Trilogy, just not as much as I would have back then. There's a bit more speed-reading involved. And, to be fair to my current self, who is coming off as a bit of a ditz, I remember thinking even back then that a page-long list of imported goods coming in on the air ships is a bit much. When I get to these parts, my words-per-minute is that of a sprinter rather than a marathon runner. (Did any one else skim bits at the end of LOTR? Any one?). Some day I hope to also read the end of the Thomas Covenant series, which is just now drawing to a close. Sadly, the last time I tried to catch up, the dense vocabulary and amazing level of concentration required was beyond me. I set the book aside when, in chapter 3, I opened up the book and got through a single paragraph before the baby started to cry. I still love these books, but I get it. I get why some people wouldn't even bother, and will never bother, and would rather pick up something less ponderous. And I like being able to read three YA genre books in the same time it would take to read one epic fantasy.

So, I'm crossing off most of my old "to read" list and catering to my new interests. Let it have time travel or dragons, but let it also be quick and fun! Bring on the summer fey and the werewolves and the things that make Harry Dresden grumble about the White Counsel in his sleep.

Brainstorming is not Writing

Since I talked a lot in a recent post about all my accomplishments for the year, it's only fair that I mention a failure. Just before NaNoWriMo, I posted about a story that I was writing "by the seat of my pants" even though I'm typically more of an outline person. While it did help me get back into the joy of writing, that story sputtered out almost as soon as the post went live. So, for NaNoWriMo, I tried an approach more in line with my natural tendencies, to great success. First of all, I used "write or die" to hammer out in half an hour what would normally take me all day between taking care of the wee ones. I find marathoning the most useful for longer stories, to minimize distractions. For flash fiction I'd rather take my time with each draft, minimizing editing.

Secondly, I outlined using the notecarding method. If I ever want to pick up that other story, that's what I'll have to do. Let's keep the bulk of the brainstorming in the brainstorming phase, shall we? Otherwise I'll be all "oh, look! A butterfly!" And then write a flash piece about it. But the point is that my WIP will still be sulking in the corner, pointing an accusing finger at me. Or, by this point, billowing away as dust in the breeze. Dust under a million butterfly wings!

This Year, Next Year

Despite moving and having a baby, this year has not been a total loss writing and podcasting wise. Here's what I've been up to both here on the blog and elsewhere, and what I'm planning for next year:

• TNG Reviews. I had made it my goal for the year to write TNG episode reviews every week and that I have. It has been great practice for writing nonfiction and for posting regularly, to a deadline. I found that I prefer to write a bunch at once and schedule them ahead of time. As such, the reviews will continue for the beginning of 2012, but I plan to close this chapter of the blog in the spring. I'd like to finish TNG and get to DS9 ever in my life. Plus, I have something else to review now!
• YA Book Reviews - I’ve been writing the YA Report at SFFWRTCHT. Bryan Schmidt, scifi author and orchastrator of the weekly #sffwrtcht chat on twitter, runs author interviews and the like on the associated blog. I do a small part of the work, writing reviews and interviews for the YA Report column. From now on I'll be posting here to let you know about these reviews! Here's what's up so far:

• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
• Ian McDonald Interview
• Plannesrunner by Ian McDonald
• K.D. McEntire Interview
• Lightbringer by K.D. McEntire
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• NaNoWriMo - My biggest fiction writing achievement this year was with NaNoWriMo. I set my goal at 25k based on my most productive days since the move and the baby, and I outlined ahead of time using the notecard method and the suggestions in Scribe's blog, Ink Stained Scribe. The final piece of my success was my use of Write or Die. I'm hoping to edit this novella (The Real Woman) in January. The whole family has been sick for a month, prompting a break from such endeavors, but the real culprit has been holiday shopping. January is a new year!
• Pendragon Variety Podcast - I haven't been able to join in on the recordings, but I've been doing a little bit of work on the backend, like uploading the mp3 files. These ladies are pretty funny and insightful, and there are some changes coming next year, so go check it out*! The Ladies have also been involved in a reading of A Christmas Carol.
• Theory Train - I've mentioned before that I'm staff on this specific magazine. Recently I helped judge submissions and now issue 3 is out! Keep us in mind if you're looking for something short to read or submit.
• Lesson Plans - I used to work in afterschool education and now I'm planning on homeschooling my own kids. They're only two and zero, but that's not too early for lesson plans! I've been writing math activities and looking into teaching at a homeschooler's coop. Bet you didn't know that!
• Pendragon Express - We had a great time at *! I started a newsletter for the project, but it's been a bit on hold. What I really need is local people who want to run tables and small events to represent independent publishing. I'd love to play backup, helping prepare displays and talk to authors and the like, but I can't be the main person going to these events. Please let me know if you're interested because otherwise the entire project will need to go on hold.
• Flash! Next year I'm hoping to get back into writing flash fiction (regularly. I did write some!) and participating in the drabblecast forums. I thoroughly enjoyed being an active forum member there and I miss the people and the flash fiction - both my own and theirs. And I loved podcasting flash, and even have a mic appropriate for it. Flash fiction fits best into my current life style, what with two small kids, so my obsession with trying and failing with longer forms doesn't make sense. Folded Word might be releasing an anthology of my flash next year. Why not stick with what I know? Here I come #flashfriday and @dribblecast ! I would also like to submit any of said flash any where by the end of the year. Perhaps I'll refine this part of my goals at a later date. ;)
• Questions for Writers (tag QfW). My amusement with this has ended! This is not currently in the plans for 2012.

What are your goals? What were your goals last year and what did you accomplish?

Vivid Imagery: Thinking Without Words

Let me share with you a mental pre-writing exercise I do to improve my imagery. I’m not much of a visual person, so I need to consciously add visuals, and I’m lazy, so I like any thing that theoretically shortens the editing process. Your reasons for trying this out might differ.

So here’s what you do. Sit where there are no distractions and close your eyes. Wear noise reduction head phones, if need be. Now, think about one of your stories. Alternatively, you can see whatever idea comes to mind, or you can start with an image that doesn’t have any attachments. Whatever you’re thinking about, begin banishing all thoughts that contain words. Refuse to even let the words finish forming. Focus on visuals and movement, and anything that doesn’t lend itself instantly to speech. Think without words.

If you just thought, “That’s crazy!” Well, of course it sounds crazy. Crazy is a word, and the word part of your brain thinks of itself as essential to your very being. Words are, after all, the main vehicles by which you communicate ideas to others. Don’t believe me that there is a word part of your brain? It’s called Broca’s area. (Cue Rainbow! The More You Know...) Linguists have a running debate on whether the language you speak shapes the way you think - but the point is, we CAN think without language, and you probably think differently when you think without language’s influence. This can lead to the kinds of ideas that normally wouldn’t even occur to you. Perhaps it will be the germ of a new story, or perhaps you’ll finally light upon something that makes that villain extra memorable.

Example: While practicing this exercise in preparation for this post, I saw a tabby cat with swirls for stripes. Next, a bird with triangles for feathers. There are so many ways I could chose to go with that. Main characters in a children’s book? Golems in a fantasy story? Constructs in steampunk?

And yes, I am essentially asking you to see things that aren’t there. So go to your quiet place, close your eyes, and see what you see.

Pantsing: Scene by Scene

Usually I outline the plot from beginning to end before I set pen to paper (or...fingers to keyboard?). The outline might only exist in my head. It might be short, or vague, or sport a few large holes, but it will contain at least a beginning and an end. I like to know where the story’s headed so that I have a goal to shoot towards and so that I have some idea of how long it’s going to take me to get there. It’s these two things that keep me slogging through to the end of a first draft. At least, this is what I tell myself. Part of my success with outlining is just that I’ve made it a habit, and habits are maintained by, well, by doing them.

Then I took a six month break from writing fiction. I had just been through a move and it had completely obliterated the forward momentum I’d had on a large writing project. I switched to editing a short story and had to abandon that, too. I was suffering morning sickness and “looking forward” to moving some time before the baby was due. Frustrated, I decided that it would be better to take a purposeful break than to feel ashamed for accidentally not getting any thing accomplished*. But now that the break is over, I find myself writing... differently. It’s a bit like how I used to write before I decided to take writing seriously and develop My Way of Doing Things. But that’s not necessarily bad. It feels good to rediscover my roots.

My root is the scene. I used to think that my writing root was the characters, but it’s not. The characters are like the little tendrils that break when you mercilessly yank that pansy out of the pot for replanting. They grow to fit the container you put them in, and they regrow after you brutalize them like the heartless, character-murdering god you are. The scene, on the other hand, is how you present to the reader not only the characters but all the other good stuff, like car chases. And the Big Idea. You know, whatever there’s room to include.

The interesting thing about my scenes is that I also plan these in advance, even if “in advance” is only ten minutes beforehand. Envisioning scenes in my head is simply how I think about my stories most of the time, and although details such as exact wording will change once it’s actually written, I never find myself staring at the proverbial blank page. I do this because I can’t stand the idea of wasting time, so I’m brainstorming through scenes when I’m doing things like getting ready for bed or waiting at the doctors. If I give up on a story, it’s always at a scene break. That part hasn’t changed.

But now, instead of these scenes following an outline, they follow what I can only describe as developing action. I’ve got a basic world idea, a main character, and a theme. The more scenes I write, the more characters and events I have to draw from for following scenes. I think of two characters together, or a theme like, what would this character think about such-and-such? and from that come the scenes in my head. Then, before I actually write the scenes, I try to eliminate any that don’t have enough forward action. By forward action I mean any kind of discovery, decision, or action that has significance for the theme of the story and/or the main character. Compared to my usual method, this is flying blind. This is writing [i]too early[/i], before I know how the story will end or even who all of the main characters are. Example? After writing in it for a week, I finally have bad guys.

Part of me is screaming - how can I possibly finish a story like this? Won’t I paint myself in a corner at some point, or run out of ideas? But then the rest of me is enjoying myself. I’m banging out 1000 words a day after 0 words a day for six months. And since I naturally tend towards short fiction writing, 1000 words a day is a pretty good haul for me**. 2000 words is when I go buy myself (and my toddler) ice cream.

I suppose I won’t know how I feel about this New Way until I see how the project turns out. In the mean time you can take bets on if this hobbled-together method will have me cursing myself by Christmas, or if I’ll turn out with a workable first draft. If I do, maybe I’ll find some way to refine the method or explain it in more detail.

Does this sound like any thing you do? What works and what doesn’t, for you? Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of you will give me a heads up for what NOT to do when writing by the seat of your pants. Ready, set, COMMENT. Do your good deed for the day.

*Technically I wrote a couple thousand words during this break. That’s kind of like saying that you exercise at work by walking to the water cooler.
**Seriously. The first draft of this post was 1000 words and it felt like the longest thing ever.

Why "The Hunger Games" Trilogy Is Excellent

... It made me cry. So very few things make me cry. Out of all the books I've ever read, the only other ones that have brought tears to my eyes have been "Bridge to Terabithia", despite already knowing the ending, "Stranger in a Strange Land", and (cough) "The Lord of the Rings," although I'm not quite sure why for that last one.

To give some perspective: Other things that have made me cry include the beginning of the movie Up, but not the ending of Grave of the Fireflies. Meat Loaf's song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" is banned in my household because it makes me break down EVERY TIME, but I can hear "Seven Spanish Angels" (Willie Nelson and Ray Charles) and "The Little Girl" (John Michael Montgomery) without batting an eye.

And then of course there are plenty of non-comedic things that are excellent but don't make me break down into tears. You probably already know that the Thomas Covenant series is one of my all time favorites,* but that never elicits any tears. Neither did "A Boy Called It" despite it being a true story about horrendous abuse. I still hold these books in high esteem, but there's something special about the ones that actually make you sniffle (...or sob). So, what makes something a tear-jerker? What's the difference between a novel that has sad, dramatic scenes and one that actually makes your bottom lip tremble?

And why am I SUCH a girl? (Just kidding!)

*If you don't already know this, then you haven't been listening to Pendragon Variety (.com)

And Now for Something Completely Different!

After a month of just Star Trek (and a baby picture or two), I'm going to back to the previous once-a-week schedule, and on top of that, post about anything else. Like, that #flashfriday thing that I like to participate in? Or Pendragon Variety? Or Theory Train? Pendragon Express? All of those things that you haven't heard about in at least a month.

In fact, I've got a piece of micro-fiction for you now:

Birds chirped sweetly in the gray morning air, stirring a rumble from underneath the roots. "Who dares wake me?" demanded the tiny dragon, practicing.