It’s four days into the new year… and I’m already behind schedule! It’s easy to feel that way, but my time was well spent – over the holidays I was able to enjoy a lot of great time with my family, as well as a best friend who came into town for a brief visit.
Although I didn’t take as much time off from my day job as I would have liked (or should have), I did get the chance to goof off. The girls and I caught up on some animated movies (The Croods, Despicable Me 2, and Rise of the Guardians), and I saw Black Fish (very good, but hard to watch), and 47 Ronin (not so good, and equally hard to watch). I also had my fill of bowl games, a little bit of University of Louisville basketball, far too much food, and even a couple of family games of Munchkin. I also got to watch all my girls navigate Skyrim’s mammoth world, and my two younger ones slog together through the depths of Diablo 3.
Somewhere in all of this, I also got my goal planning for next year, now this year, done.
So now it’s time to get back into rhythm and get the words flowing. The current WIP (folder name “Texas”) has hit the 200 page mark. I’m looking to get this draft nailed down by the end of February. I’ll put it to bed for a few weeks, and then take a second hack at it and try to have it to my agent by the end of May. If I can do it faster, that’s great, but I think the current schedule is feasible. That’ll give me the summer to work on revisions, and hopefully have it out the door on submission by the end of September, so I can start the next book (folder name “Castle Rock”) around October (my “folder names” are the folders on DropBox where I store my WIP drafts – I usually don’t come up with a title until I’m well into the book, or even finished with it). The Fall to Spring cycle of getting a book done, and then a Summer editing/revising period, has worked the last two years, so that’s what I’m going to try and stick with.
Another thing I think I would like to tinker with this year is a screenplay, just to try my hand at the format. It’s probably silly to spend time on something when I haven’t even mastered my novel writing yet (as if, I suppose, one ever can), but I like the idea of trying out some different “muscles” and adapting some of those techniques for my books. I also hope to get to a writer’s conference at some point this year, and finally, join a regular reading/writing critique group.
Plenty on the horizon as far as my writing goes, and maybe even a few other things I can sneak in. Can’t wait to get started…
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