Debra takes a look at her writing process.
I am not a beginning to end writer. Usually, when I have an idea for a story, I know how I want it to begin, and I know how I want it to end, but I generally have no idea of how I'll be getting from one to the other. Sometimes, I'll have ideas for key scenes that I'll jot down as notes. More often I'll just write and see where the story takes me. The more I get into it, the clearer things become, and soon the story takes shape.
With my current WIP, I have definitely followed this system. I wrote the first chapter and a bit beyond. I have the almost-to-the-end scene written, and I know what needs to happen for the HEA. But what I have in between are just a bunch of scenes. What I'm missing are the connections to draw those individual pieces together to make a story. I need to figure out how and why my characters are going to change throughout the course of the story. I have a pretty good handle on my heroine's motivation, but nothing as solid for my hero.
What I need to do is really dig into my characters' emotions. It's those deep POV gut-wrenching moments that are missing and making my story more like stand-alone vignettes rather than a smoothly flowing narrative with a cohesive plot and characters arcs. It's time to get beyond the superficial and see if I can actually make something of this project.
There's my goal. My conflict is I'm still not motivated to actually sit down and do anything about it. What I need to do is a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the story. It's been way too long since I've even looked at it. So that's my short-term goal for today. Like a homework assignment, I'm going to set myself the task of sitting down and reading through the mss. Hopefully, that will get my creative juices flowing. The right mindset is definitely a good place to begin.
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
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Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Looking Back at a Resolution/Goal
Debra reviews a goal she set back in November.
Back in November I posted about a resolution/goal I wanted to accomplish with my writing. The excerpt from the post is this:
So, my resolution/goal is to do a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the intricate ins and outs of the story, add to the word count, polish up the mss again, and submit it to my editor at TWRP right after the first of the year. The Press closes for a couple of weeks over the holidays, so I figured that was a good time frame. It also gives me time over the upcoming holidays when I'm off for two weeks to actually spend time with it.
Now it's a little over a month later and two days into the new year, and I am happy to report I am actually making very good progress on my goal!
I printed out the mss and did a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the story. Check.
I've done some polishing and editing. Check.
And I've added about 2500 words to the story, which means I'm about halfway to the 5000 I need to add. So, half a check.
All in all, I am feeling pretty positive about the progress I'm making. It's nice to be in a writing groove again.
Things left to do are:
Bring the word count to the 65,000 required for print at TWRP.
Finish edits and polishing.
Submit to my editor when the Press reopens next week.
Then I'm hoping that even though it's a busy time of year for me in my 'real' life, now that I'm in a groove again, my muse will continue to speak to me and I can make some headway on my WIP "One Great Night".
I wrote down from somewhere the acronym SMART. As in you need to be SMART when making goals. They need to be:
S - specific
M - measurable
A - action-oriented
R - realistic
T - timed
With my first set, I think I've met all of the SMART requirements. For right now, the work on the WIP is a bit more open ended, but worth putting out there in a motivation sense. Hopefully I can tighten up that goal and apply the SMART tactic to it as well.
How about you? Any writing goals for 2014? And do you have a system you follow for making your goals and checking them off when you're done?
Until next time,
Happy Reading and Happy New Year!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Back in November I posted about a resolution/goal I wanted to accomplish with my writing. The excerpt from the post is this:
So, my resolution/goal is to do a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the intricate ins and outs of the story, add to the word count, polish up the mss again, and submit it to my editor at TWRP right after the first of the year. The Press closes for a couple of weeks over the holidays, so I figured that was a good time frame. It also gives me time over the upcoming holidays when I'm off for two weeks to actually spend time with it.
Now it's a little over a month later and two days into the new year, and I am happy to report I am actually making very good progress on my goal!
I printed out the mss and did a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the story. Check.
I've done some polishing and editing. Check.
And I've added about 2500 words to the story, which means I'm about halfway to the 5000 I need to add. So, half a check.
All in all, I am feeling pretty positive about the progress I'm making. It's nice to be in a writing groove again.
Things left to do are:
Bring the word count to the 65,000 required for print at TWRP.
Finish edits and polishing.
Submit to my editor when the Press reopens next week.
Then I'm hoping that even though it's a busy time of year for me in my 'real' life, now that I'm in a groove again, my muse will continue to speak to me and I can make some headway on my WIP "One Great Night".
I wrote down from somewhere the acronym SMART. As in you need to be SMART when making goals. They need to be:
S - specific
M - measurable
A - action-oriented
R - realistic
T - timed
With my first set, I think I've met all of the SMART requirements. For right now, the work on the WIP is a bit more open ended, but worth putting out there in a motivation sense. Hopefully I can tighten up that goal and apply the SMART tactic to it as well.
How about you? Any writing goals for 2014? And do you have a system you follow for making your goals and checking them off when you're done?
Until next time,
Happy Reading and Happy New Year!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Thursday, November 21, 2013
A Resolution
Debra is looking ahead to the new year.
Now if you know me at all, you'll know I am all about giving each holiday its due. Each needs to wait its turn, and one can't jump in front of another. I stick to this rule especially regarding Thanksgiving and Christmas. With Christmas decs and other merchandise in the stores before Halloween, it's easy for Thanksgiving to get skipped over. This makes me sad. So I have a hard and fast rule about not thinking about anything that has to do with Christmas before Thanksgiving.
That said...today I was thinking WAY ahead about a New Year's Resolution. Or maybe it's more of a goal.
I have a completed mss sitting in my computer doing nothing. It was one I'd queried and received a request from Harlequin for and then...nothing. Never heard from them even to say they'd rejected the story. I tried following up with an e-mail, and still nada. Well, it's been well over a year since the submission and several months since the follow up, so it's time to move on. It's doing absolutely no good collecting figurative dust sitting on the hard drive of my computer.
So, my resolution/goal is to do a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the intricate ins and outs of the story, add to the word count, polish up the mss again, and submit it to my editor at TWRP right after the first of the year. The Press closes for a couple of weeks over the holidays, so I figured that was a good time frame. It also gives me time over the upcoming holidays when I'm off for two weeks to actually spend time with it.
I'm going to need to come up with some type of progress meter or check list type system. Having something visual in front of me helps to keep my goal focused and in mind. And I'm thinking some type of reward for accomplishing this particular resolution/reward might also be in order! Whatever works, right?
And I'm hoping Thanksgiving will forgive me for thinking so far ahead...
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
FREE this week on Kindle, This Feels Like Home.
Now if you know me at all, you'll know I am all about giving each holiday its due. Each needs to wait its turn, and one can't jump in front of another. I stick to this rule especially regarding Thanksgiving and Christmas. With Christmas decs and other merchandise in the stores before Halloween, it's easy for Thanksgiving to get skipped over. This makes me sad. So I have a hard and fast rule about not thinking about anything that has to do with Christmas before Thanksgiving.
That said...today I was thinking WAY ahead about a New Year's Resolution. Or maybe it's more of a goal.
I have a completed mss sitting in my computer doing nothing. It was one I'd queried and received a request from Harlequin for and then...nothing. Never heard from them even to say they'd rejected the story. I tried following up with an e-mail, and still nada. Well, it's been well over a year since the submission and several months since the follow up, so it's time to move on. It's doing absolutely no good collecting figurative dust sitting on the hard drive of my computer.
So, my resolution/goal is to do a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the intricate ins and outs of the story, add to the word count, polish up the mss again, and submit it to my editor at TWRP right after the first of the year. The Press closes for a couple of weeks over the holidays, so I figured that was a good time frame. It also gives me time over the upcoming holidays when I'm off for two weeks to actually spend time with it.
I'm going to need to come up with some type of progress meter or check list type system. Having something visual in front of me helps to keep my goal focused and in mind. And I'm thinking some type of reward for accomplishing this particular resolution/reward might also be in order! Whatever works, right?
And I'm hoping Thanksgiving will forgive me for thinking so far ahead...
Until next time,
Happy Reading!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
FREE this week on Kindle, This Feels Like Home.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Goals
‘They’ tell you that writers should set goals but I’ll start by saying that I don’t usually set specific goals for myself.
I’m aware that many writers decide on word-count or page-count goals - it might be 500 or it might be 5,000 words a day, or it might be a certain number of pages.
What, I wonder, happens when they don’t achieve their goal? Do they feel guilty or frustrated? Do they feel pressured to achieve that magic number of words or pages? Is their writing dictated by the goal rather than by what they’re actually writing? In other words, does the goal become more important than the story? And, maybe the most important point, are they concentrating more on quantity than on quality?
Writing 5,000 words a day means you could complete a 75,000 word novel in 15 days. Even 1,000 words a day would complete it in just over a couple of months. Nice idea! But I can’t work like that. Although I took part in NaNo and completed the ‘goal’ of 50,000 words in a month, I was very aware of how the quality of my writing deteriorated. That story will need a complete re-write.
My ‘goal’ is simply to write the best story I can. Okay, maybe that’s not a ‘measurable’ goal as such - except that I think I CAN measure it. I know when I’ve achieved what I want to achieve, whether it's an emotional experience, a build-up of suspense/tension, or simply a word picture of a scene. I know, too, when something doesn’t ring true and then I work at it until I’m satisfied with it. Sometimes I can write 1,000 words in a day; sometimes I’ll agonise over just 50 words. I once read: For a writer, ‘that’ll do’ is not an option. Maybe my goal is never to say ‘That’ll do.’
I’ll be interested to hear whether you set goals and, if so, what kind of goals?
I’m aware that many writers decide on word-count or page-count goals - it might be 500 or it might be 5,000 words a day, or it might be a certain number of pages.
What, I wonder, happens when they don’t achieve their goal? Do they feel guilty or frustrated? Do they feel pressured to achieve that magic number of words or pages? Is their writing dictated by the goal rather than by what they’re actually writing? In other words, does the goal become more important than the story? And, maybe the most important point, are they concentrating more on quantity than on quality?
Writing 5,000 words a day means you could complete a 75,000 word novel in 15 days. Even 1,000 words a day would complete it in just over a couple of months. Nice idea! But I can’t work like that. Although I took part in NaNo and completed the ‘goal’ of 50,000 words in a month, I was very aware of how the quality of my writing deteriorated. That story will need a complete re-write.
My ‘goal’ is simply to write the best story I can. Okay, maybe that’s not a ‘measurable’ goal as such - except that I think I CAN measure it. I know when I’ve achieved what I want to achieve, whether it's an emotional experience, a build-up of suspense/tension, or simply a word picture of a scene. I know, too, when something doesn’t ring true and then I work at it until I’m satisfied with it. Sometimes I can write 1,000 words in a day; sometimes I’ll agonise over just 50 words. I once read: For a writer, ‘that’ll do’ is not an option. Maybe my goal is never to say ‘That’ll do.’
I’ll be interested to hear whether you set goals and, if so, what kind of goals?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Getting it right in 2011
First off, as you can see, I'm wearing the fashionable crinckle look dunce hat for today because I forgot to post on Monday: great start as a newbie around here!
Anyhoo, writing goals for 2011. Hmmm, what are they?
I guess:
1) Complete a sequel to historical novel written 2010, simply because I love this period in history, plus secondary characters from the first novel screamed for their love story to be told.
2) Try to secure a publishing deal for at least one of three contemporary romance novels languishing on a pen-stick.
3) Keep bashing at literary agents’ doors: the present one I’ve hammered on still firmly padlocked.
4) Pray a December 2010 subbed mainstream romantic suspense comes up trumps.
5) Failing all the above self-publish my own work 2012.
Any-which-way authors are expected to contribute time and effort to Internet/radio/articles etc., re promoting and advertising their own wares, so what’s the difference in time ratio of going it alone? I would rather the novels read than left archived on a pen-stick.
;)
F
;)
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