An unorthodox goal

Saturday was my second PLRW meeting, the Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers, our local affiliate of the national Romance Writers of America.

I may have mentioned earlier, but at every meeting, members state a goal. The goal gets published in the newsletter and the next month, you must tell the group whether or not you met the goal and you get a smiley face or a frown face in the newsletter based on your performance.

I thought my goal was ambitious: successfully revise chapters 5-8 and get my schoolwork done. I did that, with close to two weeks to spare, but have spent almost three weeks on chapter nine now and it's not getting any better.

So, with the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, the Great Expectactions writing contests and my own expectations... I set an unorthodox goal and I made it official.

To adjust my attitude and write for fun.

Because I have met every ambitious goal I set for myself recently. And it's not helping.

My constitution

I know my next blog entry isn't due until Monday, but I'm inspired. I attended my first quasi-official PLRW (The Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers), the local chapter of the Romance Writers of America. In the previous meeting of this group I attended, I found them amiable, nurturing and very serious about their writing. While they may not all be published, they all work toward something, which I don't always feel is the case with some other writers I know.

So, they set goals every month. And announce them. The newsletter editor publishes them and then she asks the following month whether or not you met your own goal. I am competitive. I am deadline oriented. This is a good thing for me.

I said I'd finish revisions to chapters five through eight of my second novel.

The speaker today was member Nisha Sharma. She spoke about applying Asian time management techniques to your writing. I had to leave earlier because of my daughter's dance class, but she really got my applying the same skills I normally use it my own life to my writing. I won't go in depth about her talk, because its her talk. But here's her web site:

http://nisha-sharma.com/

Now the first couple steps of her system involve writing a letter to cheer yourself toward your goals for the new year. Here's mine:

We’ve had a great few years with the wonderful support of family. I think you’ve managed to make positive steps toward reinventing yourself when many of your colleagues from the journalism industry are still bitching about not having a job.

I think you’re a tad crazy for going back to school, but you’re setting a good example for your daughter and stimulating your own intelligence, which will come through in your writing. So with all of this going on, keep with the writing. I know you keep wondering if realistically writing is an endeavor that makes sense, but it makes you happy, as your husband says, and your husband likes when you’re happy. It will come together.

Then she said to set goals and list them in priority order. Here are mine:
Finish revisions to book two
Query/web/network
Finish the "prequel"
Begin revisions on book three

Next she instructed us to make a plan of how to do these things and assign a reasonable time frame. So...

Finish revisions to book two
HOW: revise at least a chapter a week
have daily uninterrupted writing time, no Facebook, email, or iPod, or drinks
TIME: the book should be finished around 25 weeks, or six months. Get the book cleaned up by July-- though Spring Break should be the time to REALLY move it forward

Continue/ramp up trying to ‘sell’ book one/agent/ Web?
HOW: network with folks, read more, internet research
TIME: -- submit a query a week, minimum two a month

Prequel/market as paranormal romance
HOW: chapter outline, then revise beginning to get in swing, write synopsis and use this piece as the center of your membership in PLRW/RWA
TIME: before the PLRW may workshop, have a synopsis and a chapter outline for that manuscript, and July is devoted to the prequel, writing

Begin revisions to 3
HOW: read in August, not before. Outline the third manuscript as succinctly as possible by the end of August.
TIME: August and fall 2010

This almost seems doable, doesn't it?

Contemplations on Contests

So, I've never entered a writing contest. Until last night. Last night I sent an entry to the North Texas Romance Writers Great Expectations. Not sure why. Perhaps because I plan to join our local RWA in another week. Perhaps because it's time to do something and I'm not sure what.

At the same time, an agent blogger I read talked about Amazon's breakthrough novel contest and knocked it, because the winner is "stuck" with a $15,000 advance and a publishing contract with Penguin. As an agent, he feels an author could do better with representation.

Now, I'm a newbie. I've only been rejected about ten times and I don't even have a manuscript "out" at the moment. My queries are all tucked nicely here at home for the holidays. I'm trying to meet people and make that personal connection to get the right agent because mailing out unsolicited queries seem like a waste of postage in today's environment. But, I could be wrong.

But if I entered Amazon.com's contest, and I won, would I "be content" with what Penguin has to offer. I thought about this, for about five seconds, and realized the answer.

A resounding "Hell, yes."

$15,000 isn't much. But it's more than I made at my job last year. It could pay for that extended vacation in France. It would not mean quitting my job. It would not mean a Mercedes convertible. But it IS more than I've made it writing thus far. I think the total from my fiction career weighs in at about $1500 and that's from editing other people's books, not mine.

And it's Penguin for God's sake! Penguin could offer me $20 as an advance and I'd treat the family to a meal at Sonic and we'd celebrate. We're not talking about a POD publisher or some small press. It's Penguin.

The alternative? To keep sending out queries to people I meet at conferences, networking in writers groups and with published authors, and reading and researching and praying.

That $15,000 sounds pretty sweet.

But one thing about the Amazon contest bugs me. Even before they determine the first round of survivors, they want the whole manuscript. This makes me very uncomfortable. First chapter, I'm okay with that. But the whole kit and kaboodle. To Amazon. Not happy with that.

Is it worth the risk?

I'm not sure.

Writing Contests & Writing Goals

I have several writing goals for 2010, after having made progress but not considerable success on my 2009 goals.

I'm going to join RWA-- Romance Writers of America-- for two main reasons:

• I have attended meetings of the local affiliate (Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers) and I like them. They also seem to encourage each other and prod each other.
• My work has romantic elements, and I know I could write more romantic fiction, and be good at it.

In the past, I was a member of HWA-- Horror Writers of America-- but they have time limits on how long you can remain an associate member. This of course means you have time limits to get published, or lose your membership. As someone still seeking a genre, or perhaps of mixed genre, I haven't done enough work to get published to make that kind of leap. The HWA does offer a superb network of information though, so I'd like to get reacquainted with them some day.

I'm a paranormal chick lit writer. No doubt that what I write is aimed at women. And I tend to include that fashionista style universe that flies well in chick lit. But with lots of sex, paranormal, violence and some suspense.

So, I've saved some info on contests. I want to enter a few. Why? I'm not sure. For exposure? Practice? Feedback? To say I'm doing something? (To waste money?) To get closer. To motivate myself.

I need to renew my subscription to Poets & Writers. That magazine was chock full of real info for writers. Not just how-to tidbits and wanna-be writing info like Writers Digest. I always hated Writers Digest. I liked the Writer. It was a good middle-of-the-road publication.

But I digress. These contests. I haven't read some of this potential submissions for probably eight months or more. My (first) manuscript was originally 167,000. It's now about 92,5oo, and I can't even tell they're missing. I say "about" because it's 92,646 I think... but I've already cut about 50 words from the first five pages.

The process never ends. Writing means constantly facing your inadequacy or your victories every day. What seems like a victory one day can seem grossly inadequate six months later...