Outlining the First Draft

Sam had a great question yesterday...

When you outline for the first draft do you outline in terms of Scene and Sequel or do think about that after the first draft is written? 

Scene and sequel, totally. More scene than sequel though. Structure is my most useful tool in my writer's toolbox. (POV is second) It allows me to focus on what drives a story and keeps me from wandering aimlessly off. I'll tweak that after the first draft of course, and tighten the book up, but I plan my novels by what happens.

For those who don't know, scene and sequel are the building blocks of any story. (learn more about this in depth here) A scene is basically the section of the story in which your protag is trying to achieve a goal. When that goal is resolved (good or bad) then they have a sequel. They react, think about what just happened, and decide on what to do next, which sets up the next scene goal.

I totally use this structure when I outline, because outlines (for me) are all about plot. The outline is what happens in the novel. They stuff the characters do. I'll toss in the character growth as well if I know it, because motivation is what determines the goals, but my outlines focus mostly on the external actions.

I dug around and found my original outline for The Shifter. I'll show the first three chapters here so you can see what I did and how this led me to write the actual chapters. It might be interesting to see how little I actually did before I wrote the book.

CHAPTER ONE

Opening Scene:  Nya is stealing eggs, nearly gets caught and uses her talent to get away. She’s seen by two League wards. She goes to her sister to get rid of the pain and, while leaving, is spotted by the wards. An Elder is there and insists she come speak to him.

You'll notice how little "story" there is in this. These are exactly the events that transpire in the final book. It took me around 4000 words to show all this, but these are the plot events. From a scene and sequel standpoint, it breaks down like this:

Scene: Nya is stealing eggs and gets caught. Her goal is to find something to eat. Uses her talent to get away is the sequel/new goal. I don't spell out the actual sequel part here, but after she's caught, she reacts, thinks about what to do and then does it (uses her talent). That leads to a new problem (she's seen by the wards) which she solves, but I don't have that in the outline. Next big goal is to get rid of the pain, which is the new scene and new goal. When she leaves her sister (there's a goal there but I don't state it because at this point I didn't know why) she runs into her next problem. She's spotted by the wards. The stakes go up because now an Elder is involved.

All of this is about what Nya does. The why isn't even mentioned yet, but I was thinking about all that as I wrote the actual novel. That's when those things developed for me.

CHAPTER TWO

She talks to him, lies about who she is. He tries to touch her and she flinches away. He tries to grab her, does, is surprised, and she manages to escape. She runs into the crowd but he doesn’t chase her. She’s scared, but hungry, and goes to find work. She doesn’t and goes home. But she missed paying her rent and she’s been thrown out. She doesn't know what to do next, but then sees someone following her.

Again, event for event, almost exactly how the final chapter plays out. (Aylin is introduced in the final, but she doesn't show up in the outline) It's about what Nya does. I figured out why she did it and sometimes even the results of those actions in the actual text.

CHAPTER THREE

She evades the follower, but now she has nowhere to go. She spends the night somewhere. Next morning, she’s determined to get work so she can eat and get back a room. Some accident happens (ferry sinks? Something world related) and a lot of aristocrats are hurt. Big run on the League. Nya helps a few and heals some. She meets Tali that evening. Tali is scared, there are rumors flying around the League and people are asking questions. More that something weird is going on. More apprentices are gone, right after the big healing of the aristocrats. Nya tells her about being followed. After Tali leaves, Nya gets grabbed.

This is where things start to vary from the final book. But overall, it's the same basic events. I decided on the fly that Nya just evading the follower and going to bed was boring, so I moved up her meeting with Tali to before the accident. That way, I could lay some groundwork that something was going on a lot sooner. You'll also notice that the big major event that is kinda the lynch pin of the whole book isn't even fleshed out yet. "Some accident happens." Until I got to that part of the book, I had no clue what that was going to be. I also had no idea who was following her or why. That all came later. But I knew somebody was going to be after her because of what she did and who saw her do it.  

My outlines are, obviously, very open-ended, but you'll also see there's enough structure to let me know the types of events I want to have happen. Actions, stakes that cause problems, trouble that changes plans. I know what Nya is doing and that will lead her to the important plot events. I have no clue how she might do that or even why she needs to at this stage.

I used to do a very strict outline. I manged to find one of them for a book I trunked.

CHAPTER ONE - RUNNING

Scene 1: Intro Nadine and show her problem. She doesn’t want to go to Tellus. Outline her reasons and her relationship with her mother. Show what her final growth will be by what she’s afraid of not being able to do.

POV: Nadine

Goal: To convince her mom not to go.

Internal Conflict: Her mother has decided that they need to start over on a new world to escape painful memories. Nadine thinks Mom is just dragging her away from the only place she’s ever been happy. She wants to stay where she can be reminded of him, and remember him. She’s afraid that moving to Tellus will make her forget him.

External Complication: They have a fight, but they never finish it because the protest gets violent, proving her mom’s point.

Climax: The protesters get violent and say they’re going to blow up the ship. Nadine gets hurt.

As you can see, this is very different. And for me, a total failure. It was too structured, and required me to do too much thinking on the front end. It really stiffed my creativity because I tried too hard to make the book fit what I wrote in the outline, and I'm not that kind of writer.

I used to do an even more structured outline, and actually had the sequel info. I wish I still had an outline for that, but those were trashed long ago. I'll fake it though.

CHAPTER ONE - RUNNING

Scene 1: Intro Nadine and show her problem. She doesn’t want to go to Tellus. Outline her reasons and her relationship with her mother. Show what her final growth will be by what she’s afraid of not being able to do.

POV: Nadine

Goal: To convince her mom not to go.

Internal Conflict: Her mother has decided that they need to start over on a new world to escape painful memories. Nadine thinks Mom is just dragging her away from the only place she’s ever been happy. She wants to stay where she can be reminded of him, and remember him. She’s afraid that moving to Tellus will make her forget him.

External Complication: They have a fight, but they never finish it because the protest gets violent, proving her mom’s point.

Climax: The protesters get violent and say they’re going to blow up the ship. Nadine gets hurt.

Sequel: Reaction: Fear and pain.

Thought: Is scared she might die, even madder at her mom.

Decision: To run away

New Goal: Nadine plans to get off the ship before it launches. 

This made me crazy, but it did teach me a lot about how a novel flows. It really made me think about how one scene transitions into the next and what worked as a good goal and what was just fluff goals. I remember writing stuff just because I needed a goal for my outline, and then making that happen even though it was a terrible idea. And a boring one. However, if you like a tight outline, this might be the exact template to keep you focused and your plot moving. Or you might be like me and keep trimming out the stuff that stifles you until you find the right level of info to keep your story tight and moving.

Outlines have a reputation for being stringent (like my last example), but they're just a way for you to organize your thoughts. There's no right way to do it. My current method is pretty loose, but still a very effective way for me to write a book. You can have structure, and still maintain spontaneity and the freedom to do whatever you want.

Who is That Guy? Discovering Your Characters

Since we talked about researching setting the other day, I thought it would be fun to do characters today. For a lot of writers, character is what comes first, both in the idea stage, and the story stage. A story idea often starts with the glimmer of a character.

A girl who can fly.
A boy who lost his parents in a war.
A man who is obsessed with the color blue.

Something about that vague person sparks our interest and we spin an entire novel (or series) from that. But after that initial spark, how do you fan it into a flame? Or harder still, how do you know who else to add to the fire?

Interviews
Many writers swear by interviewing their characters. I'll admit this isn't a technique I use, so I'll have to find someone else to give you the full rundown in another post (any takers?), but it's a great way to get to know your characters without having a plot color your answers. ETA: Juliette Wade did a wonderful post about this with some awesome questions to ask. Hopefully I can talk her into doing a guest post here.

When you ask questions of your characters, try to look beyond the physical traits. While it's good to know their eye and hair color, or where they were born, what they do for a living, just knowing the "what" doesn't tell you how they'll react to a situation. Unless those traits have reasons behind them.

Like the brown-hair girl who dyes her hair red because she loves to be the center of attention.
Or the red head who dyes her hair brown because she hates being the center of attention.

Questions that shape personality will also help you shape plot. Because those two girls will do different things in the same situation. So look for interview questions that answer why. Like...

• What events affected the way the protag feels about something important to the story?
• What were their past relationships like? (with a variety of people)
• What's the worst thing to ever happen to them and how did that change them?
• What's the best thing to happen and how did that change them?
• What is their biggest fear? Why?
• What's the worst thing they ever did? How did that affect them?
• What do they hope no one finds out about them?

Population Control
Some characters we'll know we'll need soon after the protag comes to mind, like the antag. But the rest? We don't always know who we'll need or why.


There are some archetypes though. Character types that frequently populate stories because they're very useful. There's probably a sidekick/best friend type, because the protag will need someone to talk to to help move the story along. A love interest in not uncommon. An enemy who isn't the antag. Family members, both good and bad. A mentor type.

When deciding who is going to be part of your story, try thinking about the types of roles you'll need.

1. Who are the people that are going to provide information to the protag?
These could be the wise mentors, the chatty gal at the records office, a double agent. Look at the broad scope of your story and its world and see where information might come to your protag. Maybe one of those areas can spawn a great character.

2. Who are the ones who are going to get in the protag's way? 
The antag is the obvious one, but who else? Other people are going to deny your protag things over the course of the story, and it won't always be due to a menacing plot. A rival mom at school could cause trouble, or someone up for the same promotion. That on-the-line-of-evil magic student might be pushed over the edge and turn on your protag. What types of people are in positions to hinder your protag? 

3. What types of people are commonly found in the world/situation/city/job/environment your story is set in?
If your story revolves around a police detective in a city, you'll know right away the types of folks she'll likely come into contact with. Same if he's a rancher in Montana. People with roles in the world can bring valuable information or insight to your protag, and can make great secondary characters. Think about the people your protag will come into contact with and if any of them are worth keeping around. 

4. Who has the power?
Some folks are going to be in charge. Maybe it's your protag, maybe it's not. But those people will be able to affect your protag's goals and life in all kinds of ways, even if they're not actively trying. There's a good chance your antag is going to come from this pool of folks. 

5. Who are the victims?
Somebody is getting a raw deal somewhere. There's a good chance your protag falls into this category, or maybe someone they know or care about. Even if they're not part of this group, they might have strong feelings about them and their situation. A lot of plot can come from people being victimized. 

6. Who are the wild cards?
You always have that group that is capable of anything -- good and bad. You might even have some inkling of who these folks are, as they often have some ability the protag needs in the story. A power, a secret, access to something or someone. Plot will often turn on these people.

If you don't know who any of these people are at the start, don't fret. I do minimal character work before I start a story, because seeing how my characters develop is part of the fun for me. I learn about them as I write. But this works for me because I do heavy world building and plotting first, so I force myself to make them make the choices that define them. Character writers develop the people first and then see how the world develops around them. Both are viable ways to plan a novel. 

I had planned to talk about planning a novel through plot tomorrow, but I got a fun structure question yesterday and I can't resist talking about structure. So Monday I'll do the plot planning one. Then I'll get started on answering all those great questions and topic ideas from the Ask Away post.

Revisionist Attitude: Mentally Preparing for Revisions

I was talking with a writer bud the other day about something very nice my editor said in a recent interview. This let to general talk about revisions and why I found it "easy" to revise, even when those revisions were a pain in the butt. I kept thinking about it, because I know from doing this blog and talking to other writers that revisions are rough on a lot of folks. That's one reason the Re-Write Wednesday posts are so popular.

I thought I'd try to pinpoint why revisions have never been all that scary for me. I don't think I have any special revision gene or anything. It's a way of thinking. An attitude toward writing, and something I think any writer can do.

1. Don't be afraid of the delete key
Words are not set in stone, no matter how much you might like them. You can change them all you want. I'll delete chapters without a thought if they need to go. Favorite lines have been trashed because the scene changed and they no longer worked. Sure, I wanted to keep them, but I learned long ago that trying to work in that great line or scene makes that line or scene feel forced and it ends up not working anyway. And often, they can be used somewhere else. I keep a file for stuff I delete that I might want to use again, and another for great lines. I also save each major version so I can always go back and pull stuff from it if needed. But in my working draft, if something is not working, it goes.

2. Remember the story
Plots change all the time, but the heart of the story stays the same. There are tons of different ways to get to the same place. Don't be afraid to re-plot or make drastic changes if it will make the story better. Plot is just the events. If they need to save the girl by chapter nine, let them do that, but how can be any number of ways, and thus any number of plots.

One thing to think about here though: If you find yourself changing the story as well as the plot, you might have a bigger issue than just revising the plot. You could have a core conflict issue or story premise problem. But that's okay, too, because you can just tweak the story and then work out from there. It only becomes problematic if you're changing the plot and story so much every revision is like a whole new book.

3. First drafts are just for ideas
It doesn't have to be perfect, or even the exact book you expected. Stories can evolve, plots can change. I'll try several different plots in a first draft. Change up when and where major events happen just to see how they play out. In Shifter 3, my big revision breakthrough came when I realized one event had to happen in the first act of the book, not the last act. Once I moved that, everything else clicked into place. Problems that needed a lot of work to fix before now only needed a little.

4. Making the story better is always a good idea, no matter the work involved
"But that'll be so much work" is a common reason not to make a change, but it's a bad one. You've already put a ton of work into the book, why not make it the best it can be and give it the best chance it can get at being sold? That change I mentioned in #3 caused major rewrites, but a lot of what I had already written still worked. I just needed to tweak a few things and add a few new chapters to better weave the plot lines together. If getting rid of or adding a character will make the story better, do it. Embrace the work, because it's all still writing. It's not like the only "writing" is during the first draft. Some of my best stuff came after several drafts when I could see how all the pieces worked together.


5. Think macro
It's the big stuff that determines whether or not a story will work. The core conflicts, the character goal, the stakes, the premise. If these aren't working, no matter how much you polish the scenes or the writing, the story will feel bleh. My father-in-law has this very colorful saying: "You can't polish a turd." Major inherent story flaws need to be fixed before the book as a whole will work. Which is why Shifter 3 was troublesome until I moved that one event. I had the right scenes, but there was one big underlying factor that was missing, so they didn't come together as intended.

6. Trust your gut
If you think something needs fixing, odds are it does. And I'm talking about the larger issues, not the line by line edits. Minor word tweaks we can fiddle with forever and still not be happy. (that's just being a writer) But the plot stuff? The story? If it nags at you that a certain character does a certain thing, go fix it. If that big reveal doesn't have the impact you think it should, change it. If anything bugs you, trust your writer's compass. 


We'll delete and rewrite a sentence or even a paragraph a bunch of times until we're happy with it. So why not take that same approach with the whole novel?

A World Building Workshop

Juliette Wade over at Talk ToYoUniverse is launching an ongoing World Building Workshop. Every week, she'll do a mini-crit/workshop with a submission of up to 500 words. She's looking for submissions now. She has a wonderful world building eye, and I know I find her feedback extremely valuable (she's one of my crit partners) so I highly recommend submitting something to her.

She also has a great post today on POV and pronouns. Nobody explains POV like she does, and I just love it when she gets all technical and breaks out her linguistic mojo. You really understand why POV works like it does.

Let's Get Ready to Write! Researching Your Novel: Setting

When I start a new novel I don't just dive in. (though that's a perfectly acceptable strategy if that's how you prefer to write) I need to do a little research and get my world shaped up before I can throw in the people and the things that are going to happen in that world.

Although I write fantasy, I do think that any world -- fantasy or otherwise -- can benefit from world building. Knowing where your story is set will determine the inherent problems your characters will face. Challenges in Manhattan are different from those in Montana. So even if you're writing about a gal from Ipanema,setting plays a big role.

For this post, let's assume you have a basic idea of the book you want to write. (coming up with ideas is another post) You know the general idea and are looking to develop that idea. This is the time when having a premise novel idea is just fine.You may not know what the core conflict is until you learn more about the story and its world.

Since I write fantasy, all my worlds need to be created, but real world writers have a leg up here. You can go right ahead and start researching the place you've chosen. For those who don't know yet, it's time to pick or create a location.

I don't look for a particular place at first, but a feel or tone that suits the story. A tale about isolation might work best in them middle of nowhere, or I might want to play off contrasts and set it in the biggest city in the world. A story with a character with a troubled past could work well somewhere where that past can do the most damage if revealed.

Where Do You See This Story
City or small town? Urban or rural? Rich or poor? Traditional or exotic? Hot or cold? Wet or dry? Is there a theme you want to explore? A character trait or background? Is there a culture you've always been fascinated with? A place? Look for details that sticks out and pique your interest. It doesn't matter if they're all over the place. I mixed Africa and Venice to create Geveg.

Now Hit the Web
Take those basic descriptions and look up places that fit them. Some you'll throw out right away, but some will spark ideas, and you'll immediately see tons of possibilities on how your idea can fit into it. Find several places that work? Use them all if it works for your story. Unless you need to be accurate (like it's set in the real world in a known place) then you can mix and match and pull what you like. You don't need to delve deep at this point (unless you want to). The goal is to find ideas and get the brain thinking.

History
I like to look at the history of a place for ideas. Past shames create interesting dynamics between a people and a place, and those could be conflicts you can play with in your story. Obstacles that were overcome to settle there can be a source of pride that still exists years later. Risks taken to live there might be problems that occur to muck things up for your protag.

Geography and Climate
These details affect how people live, what they eat, how they make a living.What trees grown, what animals live there. What people there fear or have to protect themselves against. It can also determine religious views or morality. A port city is used to folks of all types coming and going, while a secluded mountaintop village might be more suspicious of those who are different. Where we live affects who we are, both on a community and individual scale.

Religion
All cultures believe in something, and there will be variances even within those beliefs. Places with religious diversity will react to things differently than one with a central doctrine. How they live will reflect those beliefs same as any other defining characteristic. Look at the pyramids in Egypt. The great cathedrals of Europe. Shrines in Asia.Beliefs changed the look of the landscape, and that landscape played a part in how that culture developed.

Narrow Down What Interests You
Eventually you'll have a stack of notes (or a folder of bookmarked sites) with all the things that made you think "ooo, that's cool." Look for things that really clicked with you. The ones that sparked ideas right away. Now, research those in more depth. Read books on the topics, travel guides, histories, biographies of important people, whatever grabs you. Take notes. Highlight sections and mark them to go back to. Create a file or folder and put in everything you think you can use or that inspires you. Write down how those things might fit into your story, even if they're just questions. "Could something like this be part of the protag's past?"

Realize You're Not Using it All
You're looking for ideas, jumping off points, not information to tell the reader. You want your research to flesh out your setting and story so it feels real, not show that you did a lot of research and isn't this stuff really cool. That stuff stands out like bad product placement.

Craft Your Setting
Describe your world (be it a town, a city, a planet or a galaxy) and how it works. I usually have several pages of notes and breakdowns on the world basics before I plot out a novel. How day to day life works so I know how my protag lives day to day. Whatever details you like to use, get samples of those in there. Like what buildings look like, plants, animals, weather, ethnic traits, topography, technology, smells, sounds, textures, art styles, etc. This is where the research really pays off later, because you'll have descriptive details ready to go when you need them. Just look up what plants grow or what buildings there are made with and hand them to your protag

Let Your Research Guide Your, but Not Control You
If you like something and it doesn't work, don't force it. Unless you're writing about a well-know or true-life event, you never want to send the story somewhere because "that's the way it really happened." No one but you is going to know that. Don't worry if you want to change something to better fit your story. As long as it's plausible and works within the rules of your world, you're fine. It's all about inspiration.

In the end, you should have a good idea of how this setting is going to aid your story. A good setting will have inherent conflicts that work with your plot or theme, let you show aspects of your characters in a way that flows naturally into the narrative, and probably also helps convey some back story. It belongs with the story, and changing the location actually hurts the tale.

And it'll feel like you planned it all along, and didn't just plop your protag somewhere.

Wait! Back Up: Protecting Your Writing Files

Hi everyone, I'm Tom: computer geek, techy nerd, and corporate IT guy, or as you may know me, Mr. Janice Hardy.

Well, it's that time of year again. With a fresh set of resolutions in hand, we make bold plans, set strong agendas and optimistically approach our year.  If you are anything like us, that level of motivation will last about 10 days, maybe two weeks, then it's back to business as usual.  So my goal today is to capitalize on the heady “I can do it” feeling that is coursing through our veins and help you make a solid positive step for your new year.  Something you can accomplish in less time that a Geico commercial promises to save you 15% on your car insurance.  This can save you a lot more though.  It can save your world.

Pretty dramatic, right?

What I'm talking about is saving your writing, the worlds that you create.  I'm talking about backing up your data.

“Data”  It sounds so clinical, doesn't it? But you'll feel anything but clinical when your hard drive crashes, or a virus corrupts your files.  Suddenly the worlds you have spent days, weeks and months creating will simply be gone.  Well ok, maybe you will feel clinical: clinically depressed!

For nearly everyone, learning about backups works something like this:  One day your computer is stolen, or your hard drive crashes and you lose all of the files you had not realized you depended on so much.  You suddenly realize that there's no way to replace what was lost.  Then in a vengeance you set out to buy hardware to do regular backups on, swearing that you'll never make that mistake again.  You buy CD burners, DVD burners, extra hard drives and even tape drives.  Then over time you slowly forget to regularly maintain that backup regimen, and pretty soon you're right back where you started at.

This syndrome is actually pretty easy to avoid if you use the right tools. In fact, it can be so easy that you can fix it right now and not worry about it ever again.  So let's take a few moments and talk about backing up your computer and what you can do to make it surprisingly easy to save the important stuff that matters.

Types of Backups
Backups generally fall into two broad categories: System and Data.  A System backup is one where you are recording literally everything on your hard drive. These backups are huge, so most people fall out the habit of of performing backups regularly.  Backup systems are only helpful if you actually use them regularly.

That's where Data backups come in.  A Data backup is where you just backup the files that are meaningful to you and exist nowhere else: writing files, personal photos, the spreadsheet you track your bills on, a few choice videos or your baby.  These are files that can never be replaced if they get lost.  You can reinstall Windows, but you can't get back your wedding photos from MicroSoft.

There are a plethora of services available today that can make the task of routine backups of your critical files so simple that you will not even notice it happening.  You can set it up once and ignore it from now on, knowing that you can easily shrug off a stolen laptop, or a crashed hard drive, even an accidentally deleted file.

Perhaps the best among these services is DropBox.  You can set up a free account and get it up and running in under five minutes (Windows, MAC and Linix compatible).  It will create a folder on your computer (or you can pick an existing one) and from now on, everything you put in that folder will have a copy saved on a remote server.  The primary goal of DropBox is synching files among several computers.  Janice uses it to keep her novel synched between her laptop and her desktop, so she can edit files from anywhere, anytime and never lose revisions or has to worry about working on an old copy.  DropBox does this amazingly well.  But you don't need multiple computers to take advantage of using DropBox as a remote backup service.

With the free account, you get up to two GigaBytes of storage. (hint: when it comes to word processing files, that's a lot!)  To give you an idea of how much that is, each book in the Healing Wars Trilogy only takes about 600 to 700k. Assuming Janice stored five drafts of each book, she could write over 600 books before she ran out of space on DropBox to store her files. And that's just the free version.  You can increase to 50Gb or even 100Gb of storage by paying a monthly fee.

Each time you update a file in your selected folder, DropBox will automatically update the copy on their servers.  If you are not online or it did not have enough time to synch up, don't worry.  It will synch automatically the next time you are online.  All you have to do is be online occasionally and all of your work will be safe and secure.

In the event that you need to recover your files, you just go to any computer and install DropBox and log in. All of your files will be delivered to the folder on the new computer.  How easy is that?

As a personal note: I would not recommend using an online backup service for storing video and music.  Video files tend to be rather large and can take a very long time to synch to the server.  While DropBox does not mind if you store video files on their servers they can take up a lot of space and go beyond the free storage limit easily.  If you use a lot of video, consider burning them to DVDs or CDs and use the online service for smaller files.

It's easy, and you can set it up in less time than it took to read this post. So quick, while your energy level is high, your New Year's motivations are in full gear and before you have a chance to forget, make sure your backups are taken care of.  If you already have your own backup strategy, check it and be sure that it is working correctly.  If not, take five minutes and set up DropBox.  When something bad happens, you'll be glad that this was the New Years's self improvement step you actually completed!

DropBox is available for Windows, MACs, Linix and even for your smartphone.

Ask Away

Since I'll be back on track with regular posts next week, I figured it was a good time to see if you guys had anything in particular you wanted to hear about.

Things you can look forward to in the coming months...

Since I'm starting a new book, lots on planning a novel and getting started.
Me finally having time to get back to the "Defining what we do" idea.
More writing a first draft type posts.

It's actually a good time to start a novel, really. Y'all know I do extra posts about whatever stage I happen to be working on, so I'll be writing it along with you and likely running into the same issues. I imagine Find Your Plot Fridays will be better since I'll be actively plotting.

There will still be plenty of revision tips and general writing stuff, so don't worry. But hopefully I'll have a lot of fresh new discoveries to pass along. I haven't written a whole new story (sequels don't count) since I started blogging, so I'll be paying attention to what I do and why.

Happy New Year!

I can't believe 2010 is gone. I can remember going to the movies to see 2010: The Year We Make Contact in the theater. I don't remember anything about it anymore, but I do remember seeing it with my parents. Dad was a huge sci fi fan.

So, January 1 is a day of resolutions and goal setting. It's like page one of the novel of our lives. There are certainly things I hope to accomplish this year.

I should start with "finish Shifter 3 edits/copy edits" since that way I know for sure I'll complete one thing on my list, but that would be cheating. So here are the real goals I've set for myself and how good a chance I think I have of meeting them.

The Writing Goals


1. Write my spy novel and have it ready to go to my agent by August.
Odds of success: 100% for the writing part, maybe 70% by August. You never know how a book will go. But I do want it done before I have to start ramping up for the launch of Shifter 3 in October.

2. Write a few short e-books on special writing topics.
Odds of success:  100%. I'll be doing these in January while I'm researching world-building stuff for the spy novel. I'd like to do two or three as test books and see how they go. If they're a hit, I'll do more.

3. Do NaNo with an MG fantasy idea I have kicking around.
Odds of success: 50%. The end of the year has always been busy for me, and being able to do 50K in 30 days takes a lot of time. But I'd like to try it this year, and 50K is a good size for an MG novel so I could get a first draft done quickly. Odds can go up here depending on...

4. Do a fun blog/NaNo tie-in idea I had last year.
Odds of success:  50%. I'll go into this more later if it all works out, but I think October is going to be NaNo prep month on the blog (and everything will also tie into regular writing) while I'm doing the blog tour again.I'd also like to tailor a lot of November posts to NaNo (and again, it will all also apply to those not doing NaNo) to tie in with a "do NaNo with me" type thing.

5. Finish a novel called "Creatures" that's almost done and had to be back burnered, and keeps getting back burnered.
Odds of success: 30%. I love this story, but it's one of those where the market is already saturated, so putting effort into finishing it is hard when I know the odds of selling it are low. But I could probably finish it in a month, so it's hard not to do it. Maybe I'll dedicate a weekend a month to it or something.

6. Blog Tour!
Odds of success:   90%. I enjoyed it last year, so I want to do it again, with some tweaks. But I also want to have all the posts (aside from interviews and special request topics) done in September. I didn't make that work last year, but this year I won't have a book on deadline hanging over my head. (and hence the reason I want to finish the spy novel in August)


The Non-Writing Goals

1. Exercise 
Odds of success: 100% to start, 60% to finish the year. My husband isn't going to let me slack off, so maybe I'll be able to sick with it better this year. I've felt like such a slug the last few years because I've been too busy to get on that treadmill in the mornings. That has to change. Feeling better physically with definitely make it easier to accomplish my other goals. I'll need that energy!

2. Balance work, writing, and life better.
Odds of success: 70%. I got into a routine this last year, and while I was working too much, I did prove what I could do if I had to. Hopefully I can keep up the productivity and just cut out the "overworked" parts. Which shouldn't be too bad since I won't be on deadline.

3. Read more.
Odds of success:   80%. I really missed reading in 2010. I did put a dent in my To-Read pile by the end of the year, but I really didn't have time the rest of it. I love to read and miss it when I can't, so I want to make more of an effort to carve out some free read time for myself.


4. Get organized.
Odds of success:  70%. I have a bunch of these, but they're all like, "organize all the closets" so I won't bother to list them. Let's just say I want to streamline my life so the rest of it can flow more smoothly.


So that's my list of hopefuls for the year. It'll be fun to look back at this 365 days from now and see what I actually got done.

How about you guys? What are your goals for the year?