2016 Goals & Deadlines

Okay, now that I've gotten a little more organized from the holidays and have set some deadlines and goals for the year, I am going to post them as a way of motivating me to meet them more and hold myself accountable. So far with my new little schedule I've been doing pretty good. Let's hope I keep this up!

Here are my 2016 Deadlines, so far. Some of them aren't set that are further in the year, so I'll change some of it later on depending on how things go in the first 6 months of 2016.

As some of you may know, I'm still editing my first completed book BRING ME TO LIFE, otherwise known as BMTL. I really need to get my butt on finishing the 2nd draft and go through more edits of it until it's ready to send off to agents. For some reason I have worked good on it and then stopped working on it for months at a time just to come back and get back on a good schedule. Let's hope this is the last of it and I work through until the end!

I'm also working on editing both of my completed rough drafts at once. BMTL and my 2015 NaNoWriMo novel, working title of SECOND CHANCE, or just known as SD.

Currently I'd like to finish the 2nd drafts of both BMTL and SD by April 3rd. In March I'd like to start prepping my next book  with the plan of beginning it on April 1st for Camp NaNoWriMo. I haven't set a word count goal for April yet, nor have I figured out which of my ideas I'd like to work on during this month for Camp NaNo.

Depending on how the first draft goes on my new WIP I'll start in April, I'd like to have it finished by the end of July. I'll begin edits on it in September, hopefully, and also be working on final edits of BMTL and SD between April and September with the hopes of beginning to query in October. And, of course, I'll be prepping for my November novel for NaNoWriMo in October as well.

So far that's my schedule and deadline! I have monthly and weekly goals, as well. I'm going to get back to work and try to keep my blog updated and come up with some fun posts soon! And, of course, I'll be posting my February goals at the end of this week.


What are your 2016 goals/deadlines? :)

Happy writing!

NaNoWriMo 2015

I have failed, yet again, at keeping this updated. It seems every December comes around and I plan to keep this updated and on top of things. Each time I fail. This time I'm not going to promise to keep this updated. But I am going to try my very best to. Sometimes I try to think of things I can post to keep everything updated and on topic, but then I never get around to actually doing it until I have news.

I do have news and a few updates. One involves something I actually didn't fail this year. That would be NaNoWriMo! After all the years of attempting NaNo and letting life get in the way and getting stressed at being behind on my word count schedule and quitting, I stuck with it and WON! I originally wasn't going to do NaNo this year because I am still deep within edits for BRING ME TO LIFE. But a new friend in my NaNo FB group talked me into it and I decided to put BMTL to the side for now and start a new book. I started on the 5th of December, five days into NaNo, and I am so happy that I did! Not only because I won, writing 50, 000 words in one month, but because I finally started and finished my second completed rough draft!

After finishing BMTL, I started a New Adult Paranormal Romance. I got pretty far and I love the story. But work got in the way and I stopped working on it. I do hope to pick it up again at some point, but since finishing BMTL I wasn't able to finish a book I started. Until now. :)

My NaNo project was super fun to write and something different than what I normally write. It's an Adult Romance. Usually I write Young Adult or New Adult, but this story came to me and I had to try my hand at it. It's also different because usually I always have some form of magical or paranormal element in my books, but this is just straight up romance in the world we live in with none of that added in. I've tried many times to write a book with no magical or paranormal elements in it and every time I end up adding something. So this was sort of a challenge for me, but also super fun to write and every night I couldn't wait to get started and work on it.

I finished 50K before NaNoWriMo ended, but didn't complete the rough draft until December 2nd at nearly 55K words. Currently I've been calling it SECOND CHANCE, but that will obviously change at a later date. I always try to give my projects a name so I don't just refer to it by it's genre or my character's names, but I suck at titles, haha.

I'll be adding more as soon as I can on BMTL and also SC. BMTL is still currently in the 2nd draft stages. I've currently set it aside to work on editing SC since I know I can probably get through it faster and work on querying it, then I'll hopefully pick edits back up for it and also start working on SC's 2nd book. My goal is to have the 2nd draft done by April in time for Camp NaNoWriMo in April.

If anyone ever has any questions, feel free to ask! :) Also, how many of you participated in NaNoWriMo?

Updates & December Goals

I know, I know. I disappeared again! But I had good reasons; moving, work, everyday life, oh, and having a baby! On November 9th at 9:17 PM our second son, Elijah, was born weighing 7lbs, 2 oz. He was a month and four days early from his due date. Even though he wasn't supposed to be here until around December 11th, he is perfectly healthy and a definite joy. :)

So since I've been home  I've had more time to work on getting things organized and on track again with editing. Really trying to crack down and kick these edits in the butt. I haven't been working on writing, but I will as soon as I'm done working on this round of edits. Trying to focus on getting BMTL as clean as I can so I can query soon.

I've also been in search of a new long-term critique partner. So that's been taking up some of my time too.

I'm thinking of starting to post goals on here to be held accountable. I have this thing where I work great on something for a little bit and then somehow screw it all up and go into a funk of not working on anything for months at a time. I'm tired of doing that and just want to get on track and keep working with serious intentions of getting published. When I am able to find an agent to be represented by, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'll have deadlines that I will need to meet and be serious about. So I need to get my butt in line and work as though I'm already represented and with deadlines.

I've also been trying to be more active in two writing forums I'm in, one is Agent Query Connect which I absolutely love and is a great help, and also Absolute Write. AQ Connect is filled with people serious about getting published and some are already published or represented. You can get help with Queries, synopsis, basic writing questions, publishing questions, and just everything you need in order to land an agent and getting published. An amazing place to get feedback on everything. And Absolute Write is filled with talented writers from all genres and types, not just novels. It's a little more laid back. Both are great places that I highly recommend.

Sometimes on the forums in AQ Connect we list our goals for that current month, a few serious ones I had on mine for the month of December was:

1. Figure out where I left off in editing - This I've already done, so it's scratched off my list!
2. Get everything organized and on track.
3. Create an editing schedule with some deadlines.
4. Finish edits for chapter #3-#8.  - So far chapter 3 and 4 are done.
5. Get back to working on my blog! - Working on this now, obviously. :P I want to try and post something at least once a week. Maybe I'll work on posting my progress each week for now to help keep me on track.

Hope everyone is doing great! Happy writing & editing!

BMTL Update

I know I haven't updated since March 21st, but I've been busy with edits and planning all things story related and it's just been madness! You never really know how much work you have to put into a novel until you actually finish one and the real fun begins! 

My critique partner has helped A LOT and she's introduced me to Susan Dennard's blog and her amazing Writing Advice Page. She has amazing advice on there from writing your book and all the way up to writing synopsis and query letters and agents and critique partners/beta readers! Everything is so detailed and it helps A LOT. Some of it may make me hyperventilate and stress, but it also takes a lot of stress on wondering, "What comes next?"

Her revising steps have really helped a lot. I've never been to this stage with a story before, so it's all new to me. I've followed her steps so far and have kind of created my own twists to some of it. I'm almost up to the point where it's time to get down to business and start working on the second draft. 

And not only that, but I have some other news too. I've always wondered how authors were able to have different books or series going at one time and though I'm still freaked out about that, I think I kind of understand it now.

Normally I'm a one book gal, but since I'm in the revising stages right now for Bring Me To Life, and it's my MAIN focus, I'm also working on outlining BTML book two to get that rolling and on top of that there has been a book idea in my head for months now. Since maybe around December/January and more has come up in that and now it's up to the point where I basically know what happens in all three books for that trilogy. I actually have more things worked out for the first book right now than I did when I first started BTML.

So on the side I've started planning it too. I'll be working on it, but if it starts getting in the way of my editing BMTL and on the planning stages of BMTL's sequel, then I'll have to put the other idea on hold, since, like I said, BMTL is my main focus. 

I may have a synopsis up soon for BMTL, I made myself a deadline--which I can't remember right now, I'll have to check my calendar--for it so I should be on that soon. :) 

I don't really want to say much about my new project yet, though. So maybe in a couple of months I'll be able to mention it. All I can say is so far I think it may become a trilogy, and it's paranormal with some romance, but romance isn't the MAIN focus. 

So stay tuned! And happy writing! :-)

Rough Draft = Done

Yep, you see the title right. The rough draft of BMTL is DONE! I finished it at 11:52 p.m. on March 19th. This is a BIG deal for me, I've never finished a book before. NEVER. I always start them and then get new ideas in the middle of writing them and then POOF, I change over to the other.

But I stuck with this idea. This idea was THE idea. I couldn't have stopped writing it even if I wanted to. I can't wait until I get all the revisions done and the re-write and get it all fixed up and pretty to send it to agents. I want to be able to share this story with everyone. I want everyone to know my characters as well as I do. Care for them as much as I do.

I'm still in shock I finished. I've been working on this non-stop basically for nearly four months. The 28th of March would have been four months. The deadline I gave myself was July 1st! And I beat that by a little over three months.

I've decided to give myself a break from it until Monday. My son's 2nd birthday party is on Sunday and we've been so busy with that and getting things ready for our new bedroom suite to come in! I've been dreaming of a small break, but now that I'm on it, I don't know what the heck to do! 

I had so many things running through my mind. Getting caught up on shows, catching up on some reading (Though that's impossible!), relaxing, going to bed early. But hardly any of that has happened! I can't seem to turn my mind off. I'm twitchy wanting to grab my printed out copy of my manuscript and attacking it with a red pen.

But I'm going to wait until Monday. 

My next step with this book is, like I said, going through it and attacking it with a red pen. I'm going to go through it, make notes. And then I'll go through my wonderful critique partner's notes and add all of them together, and then start working on the outline for the second draft.

Once that is done, it's beta reader time! :) And then I'll keep going through the process of it until it's somewhat ready to be sent off to Agents. Super nervous about that. My heart is starting to beat really fast just THINKING of that. But I just need to remember that I won't get anything done and start working toward my dream until I send it to them. And it only takes ONE yes. :D

Hopefully I'll start getting better at updating this blog! I've been so with it so far. Hopefully I'll update soon!

Almost There!

Okay, so I suck at updating a writing blog. The only blog I have ever been able to keep up with and update is my book reviewing blogs. That's a bit sad. But anyway, the last time I updated about being at my halfway point, it was January 6th (42 days after starting this rough draft) and now two months later (Almost four months after beginning) I've reached 70K, which was my goal.

I'm currently past 72K now, and I still have a bit more to write. I only have about six chapters left that I had planned and an epilogue, so after then the rough draft will be...done. That's so crazy! I'm so excited, but also amazed and shocked and my anxiety is kicking in.

I have a new critique partner, who is AMAZING, and I still have Michele Byrd looking over this rough draft. They are the only two people who have seen anything of this rough draft so far, and I can't wait to finish so I can get started on the second draft. I plan on going through and reading it and making thousands of notes and then creating one huge novel outline, and then re-writing it.

*cue anxiety* 

It's going to be a lot of work,but really worth it in the end. :) Once the second rough draft is done, I'll probably start picking up some beta readers to read it, so if anyone happens upon this blog and is interested, e-mail me!

Hello, Halfway Point!

I've been writing this book for exactly 42 days and I've hit 35K, the halfway point to my word count goal for this book. I am so...amazed at how much I've written in a little over a month. In my deadlines, I would have hit 35K in between the weeks of Feb. 11th through Feb. 17th and  Feb. 18th - Feb. 24th. But it's happened on January 6th at 3am.

I am not going to go into panic mode. Oh my God.

One Month!

It's been a month since I start my new WIP (work-in-progress) and I am farther than I expected to be. My best friend and writing buddy, Michele Byrd, and I have goals/deadlines for each week (You can see January's deadlines on the sidebar.) and then an ultimate goal to have at the end of the month. We try to at leastwrite 3,000 words a week, but we've been doing a lot more than that each week.

Our goal is to try and have our first rough draft done by July 1st, but it definitely looks like we'll be finishing before that. We've given ourselves six months to complete the rough draft. Our deadline for January 1st was to have at least 12, 000 words and we're past that.

I'm thinking I may post updates at the end of each month on the progress of this WIP. It's current title (Won't be the actual title, it's just a name I gave it from a song that is on the playlist and matches it well. :) I was tired of calling it just WIP.) is Bring Me To Life. So If I say Bring Me To Life or BMTL I'm talking about my current WIP. :)

But anyway, my goal was to be between 12K and 15K by January 1st and my current word count as of 1:15pm December 30th is 24, 646. I will update this on January 1st with my final word count for the month.

Also, I'm horrible at knowing what to tell about myself, I tend to ramble, so I may look up some interview/survey type things and add them to the blog throughout the week or so.

Update (01/01/13): I finished December 31st, 2012 with a total of27, 288 words. Officially in February deadlines, a month early!