End of November; December Goals

I met my goals for November, and am nearing the finishing point of this current draft of my thesis, so while I’ve had a busy month, it’s been a productive (and enjoyable) one. I’m at a point right now where I’ve got some people willing to have a look at this draft over the winter break, so my plan is to have it finished by the end of the semester so I can then step away from it until I can get some more feedback. As much as I’m enjoying watching it come together and get closer and closer to what I want it to be, I think it will be good for me to step away from the novel for a while.

In the meantime during the break I’m hoping to get some hardcore work done on a short story collection I’ve been putting together. I’m taking a novella workshop next semester (awesome!) and so I need to write the first draft of that, and hopefully write a few first drafts of some stories as well as revise many others – all of these are for the short story collection.

I also want to get a solid draft going of a new children’s book that I started over the summer but haven’t done much work on this semester. I got what I’m assuming to be my final agent rejection for my previous children’s book just a few days ago (there are a few agents who I just never heard back from but it’s been long enough that I assume I can just take those as rejections). This last rejection was very encouraging; she told me that she doesn’t think the book is right for her agency but she thinks I’m a good writer and that she would be interested in me submitting something else in the future.

Ultimately, I think it’s safe to say that this book is not what agents are looking for, so I’m going to start sending it around to small presses and see if I can get it published that way. In the meantime, though, I feel extremely encouraged by the response I got, especially considering I embarked on this agent quest with the assumption that I wouldn’t even get any nibbles at all but would have a useful learning experience. So I would like to put together another children’s book so that I have something else to send around, especially to the agent who specifically said she would like to see more from me. I recognize that my thesis and my short story collection will probably not be marketable to agents (that’s not cynicism, I’m just realistically accepting that general literary fiction, and ESPECIALLY literary short story collections, just aren’t very marketable to larger presses and agents).

So … for November I hit:

1. 12 out of 12 chapters revised on thesis
2. 22.75 out of 15 hours spent on short stories
3. 10 out of 10 submissions

For December I’m shooting for:

1. 7 chapters of thesis revised (which would finish this draft off)
2. 30 hours spent on short stories
3. 10 submissions

End of October; November Goals

I did meet all my goals for October. I revised 9 chapters of my thesis, and I really feel like it’s coming together well. This is finally beginning to look like the novel I set out to write. I also sent out 10 submissions, as usual, and I spent some time working on some revisions of a couple of different stories.

For November, I’m going to add into the mix a goal of 15 hours spent on short stories (although I’d like to push myself to spend more like 20 or 30). I need to get something new done for workshop, and I’ll be submitting for workshop next week as well so I should get some good thoughts for revision on that story, but I want to make sure I’m spending time on stories and not just my thesis. I’m putting together a collection of short stories that I’d like to have as another manuscript I can try to get published while I’m trying to get my novel and my children’s book out there.

That said, I do want to spend most of my efforts on my thesis. My plan is to have this newest draft done by the end of this semester so I can get some new feedback from some people. Based on my current outline for the new draft, it should be 28chapters long. I’m 9 chapters into it, so I need to budget my time out to make sure I have all 28 done by the third week in December. So I’m setting the goal of (at least) 3 chapters rewritten per week.

November Goals:

1. Rewrite 12 Chapters of thesis
2. Spend 15 hours working on short stories
3. Send 10 Submissions

End of September and October Goals

With school back in session I’m having a harder time keeping up with two weekly blogs, so I’m going to cut back to updating my process blog only once a month. That’s all that’s really necessary; I can check in with what I’ve done for the past month and lay out my goals for the next month at the same time.

Well, for the first time in a while I have to admit that I didn’t keep one of my goals for last month. I came up close to 3,000 words short on the new novel. I can come up with all kinds of excuses for why, but it doesn’t change the fact that I made a very modest goal for myself and I did not keep it, and that feels lousy. But I will say that I’ve decided for sure to put the new novel aside for now. The point of that first draft, for me, is to freewrite and find out what the heck the story is and who these characters are. I feel like I’ve figured out the answers to those questions and am at a point where I feel ready to begin working on a new draft of it whenever I’m done with my thesis.

For September I ended up at:

1. 12,007 out of 15,000 words written on new novel (48,506 total)
2. 10 out of 10 submissions

For October, I’d like to switch my focus back to my thesis, which, lets be honest, is really what I should be focusing on. I think I’m going to set a low goal for it, though, because I’m not yet completely sure how long this newest revision is going to take (my goal is to have a new draft of it by winter break) so I’m going to shoot for having four chapters revised by the end of the month (one chapter a week).

I’m not going to set a goal for stories, again, because I’ll have to get something together for my next workshop submission and I’d rather have my goals focused on my thesis right now. I will, though, set my regular 10 submissions by the end of the month goal, and I need it now more than ever since I’ve been feeling kind of dejected by the constant rejections and may need to force myself to get past this slump and keep submitting. I think I’ve given up on the agent search for now. I do believe that the book is ready but I don’t think I’ve built up the credentials to snag an agent yet. It was a valuable learning experience, though, and I still have a handful of agents to hear back from, but I’m not going to query any more agents right now.

October Goals:

1. Revise 4 Chapters of thesis
2. Send 10 submissions to journals

The Week of September 21st

I was extremely sick all week and now this weekend I’ve got a stack of student papers to go over and all of my own homework to catch up on (since I was barely able to concentrate and didn’t get much done all week) so I probably don’t even have to say that I didn’t get much writing done, either, and I don’t think I’m going to end up meeting my first goal for the month; we’ll see.

This week I only got a little bit of writing done in the new novel and I spent a couple of hours working on short stories. I did get 7 submissions sent out, though, and I’ve got 2 more all ready to go out on Monday or Tuesday, whenever I have a chance to run over to the post office.

For the month:

1. 12,007 out of 15,000 words written on new novel (48,506 total)
2. 8 out of 10 submissions

The Week of September 14th

I’ve been working on a new story this week and I’ve been revising the story I had workshopped a week ago. I also had my first meeting with my thesis advisor to talk about my novel, and so I’ve been making notes and organizing my thoughts on where I’m going to go for the next revision of that. As a result of all these other quite fruitful writing activities, I hardly got anything done on the new novel this past week and I didn’t send out any submissions, either.

I’m meeting again with my thesis advisor this next week and then I’ve got another member of my thesis committee reading the draft and once he’s done he’ll give me feedback, so I’m getting really excited again about working on my thesis and of course that’s really what I should be working on, instead of the new novel. So I’m going to have to decide, as this month draws to a close, how much work I want to keep putting into the new novel and whether I might just go ahead and stop setting goals for it so I can focus completely on getting my thesis together by its due date next semester.

I haven’t been doing a very good job, recently, of choosing what projects to work on right now and which ones to jot down in a notebook for the future. Right now I’m going back and forth between my thesis, my new novel, a collection of short stories I’m trying to put together, and two different children’s chapter books. It’s important to be writing, and for me, it’s useful to have a few different burners going so if I just don’t feel like working on one thing, there’s still something for me to do. But I think you do have to limit yourself because if you just sort of dabble in too many different projects, you’re not giving enough attention to any one of them and they all end up suffering.

Damien mentioned to me recently that he feels a little nervous that, as I’m working on the new novel, I’ll just stop working altogether on the old one and never actually finish (that is, revise, revise, revise until you just can’t revise any more) any book length work. And I think it’s a valid concern. So I’m going to be doing some serious thinking the next several days about what goals I want to set for next month, which projects I should really be focusing on right now and which ones I should wait and work on when I finish with something now.

For the month:

1. 9096 out 15,000 words on the new novel (45,591 total)
2. 1 out of 10 submissions

The Week of September 7th

I did get some stuff done this week but a lot of it was related to revising a story I had workshopped this week and working on a new story, which will probably end up being the next one I turn in to be workshopped. I also wrote 3088 words on the new novel and I sent in one submission.

I’ve been slowing down dramatically with the new novel and I think it’s in part due to school having started back up and to just generally being a much busier person. But I think it’s also that I’m starting to think more about my thesis again and I’m getting anxious to get back to work on that. I’m meeting with the head of my thesis committee on Tuesday to discuss her thoughts on the current draft and another member of my committee is currently reading it. So very soon I should have a load of feedback to think about and decide what to do with. I expect working on the first draft of the new novel will feel less and less important in the coming weeks and months.

For the month:

1. 8,077 out of 15,000 words on new novel (44,576 total – about halfway through)
2. 1 out of 10 submissions

The Week of September 1st

I’ve had kind of a slow week writingwise with school starting full force. One thing about being in an MFA program: the new semester jump starts with homework already due by the first day. It makes sense, because at this level we should be serious enough about our studies not to have a problem with not easing in, but it also means that the week before school starts, school has basically already started. I got some work done on the new novel and I also got some work done on a children’s book I’m working on but that’s it, the rest of my time I’ve been dealing with the class I’m teaching and the classes I’m taking (and some paperwork I have to get done so I can graduate on time).

At any rate, this week I:

1. Wrote 4,989 words out of 15,000 on the new novel (it’s at 41, 488 total)
2. Sent out 0 out of 10 submissions

September 2008 Goals

With workshop to keep me motivated on short stories I’m not going to set any goals this month for working on short stories. I’m much more interested in working on the first draft of the new novel while I still have time. Soon, I’ll have more work to do on my thesis and won’t have as much time to work on the new novel. Plus, I feel like writing is really only worthwhile if you’re writing what you enjoy. Right now, I really want to write this novel. I know I need to work on short stories if I want to build up that cover/query letter, but really, there’s no point in writing at all if I’m not doing it for fun.

That said, I’m still setting a very low goal this month for the new novel, just 15,000 words (the equivalent of 500 words a day). I’m teaching a new class that I’ve never taught before and Permafrost will be coming back into session, too, so I’ll be reading for two literary journals, again. Also, of course, there’ll be reading to do for the lit course I’m taking. I’m not bitching, every single one of my responsibilities is something I’ll enjoy, but I won’t push myself any harder than I feel comfortable with on the new novel. I want this to stay fun and not begin to feel like an obligation.

As always, I’ll also try to send out 10 submissions by the end of the month.

September Goals:

1. 15,000 words on the new novel
2. 10 submissions

The Week of August 24th and End of August 2008

I’ve met all of my goals for the month and I’ll consider this my week and month reckoning, since there’s only one day left of August, anyway, and all I really want to do today is sit around and finish reading the book I'm only 100 pages from the end of. This past week I spent 9.5 hours on short stories (just the minimum, I know, to meet my goals. I just haven’t been feeling the stories as much; I’ve been way more interested in the new novel). I wrote 5,445 words on the new novel and I sent out 5 submissions.

I feel pretty good about the work I got done in August, the end of the last month of summer break. I had a productive summer, and while I definitely feel like I’ve fizzled out a little as far as short story energy goes, I’m super involved in the new novel and I’m also really excited about some children’s book projects. I’m not too concerned about losing my steam on short stories, either, because I have a whole stack of new ones to bring to workshop this semester and I know once I get some feedback on them I’m going to get reinvigorated.
I’m ending the month with:

1. 26,202 words out 15,000 on the new novel (36,499 words total)
2. 31 out of 31 hours spent on short stories
3. 10 out of 10 submissions sent to journals

The Week of August 17th

This week I wrote 7998 words on the new novel, did some more work on the children’s book sequel, spent 7 hours on short stories, and sent out 1 submission. I’ve already exceeded my goal for the new novel for this month and expect to do another few thousand words before the month is over.

I’m feeling really excited about this new novel and am beginning to feel like already, this is much better than my thesis, which is kind of cool but also kind of scary because it reminds me how much work I have yet to do to get my thesis to that finish point. But I’m going to get some feedback on it for the next step and I feel confident that I’ll be able to make it come together in time. I’ve already passed the current draft of my thesis on to the head of my thesis committee and will try to get the rest of my committee to read it once the semester starts back up. In the meantime, it’s good to already be well on my way with the next novel.

For the month:

1. 20,757 words out of 15,000 on the new novel (a little over 31,000 words total)
2. 22.5 5 hours out of 31 on stories
3. 5 out of 10 submissions

The Week of August 10th

Well I had kind of an odd week. Things were really hopping at the Writing Center as it was the last week of the last summer session and everything was due. I also spent two days in varying degrees of debilitation from the longest lasting headache I’ve ever had in my life. But somehow in between it all I managed to find time to spend 7.5 hours on stories, send out 1 journal submission, and write 4,036 words on the new novel. I did some more work on the children’s book sequel, as well. I expect to really pick up the pace the next couple weeks since I have some time off before the semester starts.

I’m at:

1. 12759 out of 15,000 on the new novel (It’s at a little over 23,000 words overall)
2. 15.5 out of 31 hours on stories
3. 4 out of 10 journal submissions

Rejected, But Still Trudging On . . .

Well, I just got a response from the agent who requested the manuscript. She said that she liked it and gave me some specific complements on it but she said that she just didn't fall in love with it enough to offer representation. It was a very nice rejection, though, and she did say that she's sure I'll get it accepted somewhere. But it's always hard when someone just doesn't like what you're doing quite enough to want to work with you. But I'll keep at it. I've still got 14 agents I'm waiting to hear back from, and there's plenty more I could submit to. And you know, there's always small presses that accept unsolicited manuscripts . . .

The Week of August 3rd

I had a really good week this week, even though I was really busy at work, and I somehow managed, in between having tons of students to tutor (and getting sick!) to get a fair amount of writing done.

This week I wrote 5517 words on the new novel (I’m currently at a little over 19,000 words total) and I spent 6.5 hours working on stories. I also got some more work done on the sequel to that children’s book, which I’m pretty excited about right now and am having a really good time with.

I sent out 3 journal submissions. I also received, this week, 2 more agent rejections and, even though I said I wouldn’t, I went ahead and sent out a couple more queries. Right now for the agent search my stats are: I’ve sent out 22 queries total. I’ve received 7 rejections and 1 manuscript request. That means I still have 15 out there who haven’t said no, yet, so that seems like a pretty solid number.

For the month:

1. 8,723 out of 15,000 words written on new novel
2. 8 out of 31 hours spent on short stories
3. 3 out of 10 submissions sent to journals

The Week of August 1st

In the first two days of August I hit well over my goal for the new novel and a little under my goal for stories, so I think it kind of balances out.

I’m at:

1. 3,206 out of 15,500 words written on the new novel (the novel is currently at 13,503 words)
2. 1.5 out of 31 hours spent working on short stories
3. 0 out of 10 submissions sent to journals

August 2008 Goals

August should be something of an easy month for me because I’m done with the third draft of my thesis and I’m at a point now where I don’t want to do any more to it until I can get some feedback from other people. It’s coming along well and I’m super excited about how it’s coming together but I think I need to step away from it and get some new perspectives to make the most out of my next revision.

While I’m letting my thesis sit, I’m going to add working on the first draft of my new novel into my goals. I got a little over 10,000 words of the new novel written in July and so I’m ready to set the modest goal of 500 words a day (15,500 for the month). This is a very low goal and at that rate it’ll take me until the end of the year (and possibly into the beginning of 2009, depending on how long this one decides to be) to finish the first draft, but that’s fine because I need to keep my thesis as my top priority, since it has an actual deadline, and working on short stories in a close second place, since that’ll help build a strong query letter for an agent hunt (and since I’m taking Workshop next semester . . .). And anyway, my real goal here is to have a complete draft of it done by the time I’m finished with my thesis next spring so that when I embark down that long (and likely disappointing) road to try to find an agent, I’ll be distracted by rewriting my next major project.

I’m going to set a low goal for stories, too, just 31 hours for the month, an hour a day. I’ll probably exceed both of these goals but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself with either, right now, since I’m going to be really busy at work for the next two weeks and after that I’ve got to get my syllabus and everything ready for next semester.

My goal as far as the children’s book agent hunt is going to be low, too, for this month. I’ve got one more query all packaged and ready to send, which will put me at an even 20 from day 1. I think I’m going to hold off on sending any more after that until I’ve heard back from more of the 20 I’ve already sent to (and at least from the one who requested a manuscript). It’s not that I’m being super optimistic and feel like there’s a good chance one of those 20 will want me (after all, 5 of the 20 have already said no), but I tend to get stressed out if I have too many balls in the air and with all the stories I have out to journals added in, it’s just too much right now. I’m sure I’ll do more by the end of the month but I’m not going to set a goal because it’s going to just depend. And as usual, I want to submit to 10 journals this month.

So, my goals are:

1. 15,500 words on my new novel
2. 31 hours spent on short stories
3. 10 short story submissions sent to journals

End of July 2008

I had a very productive month and am ending with a definite feeling of accomplishment. I finished the third draft of my novel and really feel like it’s a strong one. I’m ready now to have some early readers take a look at it, which is an exciting but also scary stage to be moving in to.

Got another agent rejection, although this one was an encouraging ‘this idea is very interesting but it’s not right for me’ (which in a way is a bad sign that I didn’t do my homework well enough but it’s still nice to know that this agent thinks it’s a good idea, anyway).

I’m ending the month having met all my goals, with:

1. 19 out of 19 novel chapters revised (third draft completed!)
2. 20 out of 20 hours spent on short stories
3. 10 out of 10 submissions sent to journals
4. 19 out of as many as possible queries sent to agents (and received 5 rejections; 1 manuscript request)

The Week of July 20th

Well I’ve had a very productive week (which I’m sure I owe entirely to the fact that I had a week off from work) and I’m well on track to meet every single one of my goals for the month. I revised 6 chapters of my thesis (and am down to only 3 left!), did some work on my new novel (and had some really exciting breakthroughs about who my main character is), sent out 4 story submissions, and spent 5 hours on short stories. I also got back on track with the agent hunt and sent out 5 more queries. I had sort of a dry week as far as hearing back from agents is concerned, didn’t get a single response all week.

I did, however, get a couple of short story rejections this week, both with personal comments from the editors, so that’s good. One of them was extremely encouraging, saying some very complimentary things about my writing style and letting me know that they ultimately decided to reject the story because they weren’t that in to the subject matter of that particular story. It’s a nice sort of validation, to be told by an editor that they recognize the worth of your writing and they think you’re a good writer, even if they don’t feel your piece fits with what they’re looking for.

So far this month I’m at:

1. 16 out of 19 novel chapters revised
2. 16 out of 20 hours spent on short stories
3. 8 out of 10 submissions sent to journals
4. 19 out of as many as possible queries sent to agents (and received 4 rejections; 1 manuscript request)

The Week of July 13th

Well I’ve pretty well gotten back on track with my goals for the month. This week I revised 6 more chapters of my novel and it’s coming along very well. I’ve also spent some time working on the first draft of my next novel.

When I’m beginning a new draft of something I usually start by basically freewriting and just exploring the story. I write down whatever pops into my head and let the story take life. I generally only begin with a very general idea of who the main characters are and what the major plot points are going to be. I find this a really useful way of beginning because I don’t hold myself back by worrying about whether or not this is actually any good. And then I probably won’t ever even look at that first draft again. Instead, I’ll just use what’s now in my head, the information that I now have about the story, and rewrite the entire thing from page one. Much of what I write in that first draft won’t even happen in the next draft, and the few things that do will probably be dramatically different, but it’s okay because it’s through the process of writing that first draft that I figure out what the story really is.

So I’ve written the first few pages of my next novel and I’m pretty excited about it. I think starting next month I’ll add working on that into my goals so that I can try and have a complete draft ready to start rewriting by the time I’m finished with my thesis. Completely as a fun side project, too, I’ve been working on a sequel to the children’s book I’m currently trying to find an agent for.

Otherwise, I’ve spent only 3.5 more hours this week on short stories and I haven’t sent out any more story submissions or agent queries. I also received two more agent rejections (but not from the agent who requested the full manuscript. I haven’t heard back from her yet).

So, for the month I’m at:

1. 10 out of 19 novel chapters revised
2. 11 out of 20 hours spent on short stories
3. 4 out of 10 submissions sent to journals
4. 14 out of as many as possible queries sent to agents (and I've recieved 4 rejections; 1 manuscript request)

Agent Update

Well, the very day after posting my thoughts on how it's pretty much impossible to get anywhere by querying agents and I'm assuming this will just be a good learning experience for me, I recieved a manuscript request from one of the agents I queried. Now, this doesn't mean she'll offer representation; it just means that she's willing to read the full book and decide from there. But I feel really excited, anyway. Even if she ultimately decides it's not for her, I feel good about having gotten to that next step with someone. And who knows . . . maybe she'll love it and want to represent me. I feel much better about my chances of finding an agent, now, and feel refreshed at the knowledge that it is possible, after all, to get someone interested just from a query. Of course now if she rejects it I can't blame it on anything but the work itself . . . but that's a chance I'm willing to take.

The trick now is going to be to try to push this to the back of my mind and not think about it until I hear back from her. Like that's possible.

The Week of July 6th

Already, I have to hang my head in shame and admit that I haven’t gotten much done since the last time I posted. I haven’t spent any more time on my novel or on short stories this week, nor have I made any more submissions to journals. I did send out 2 more agent queries, and have gotten a few more ready to send out next week. I also did some more research and have added more agents to the list of possibilities.

Considering that the month is almost half over and I haven’t come anywhere near halfway with my novel revisions, and am just a little under half with my other goals, I definitely need to pick up the pace if I’m going to actually meet my goals by the end of July.

I also received my second rejection from an agent and have spent some more time looking up information on how to snag an agent. It turns out it’s pretty difficult to get plucked from the slush pile. Not impossible, of course, but very unlikely. The number one way to get an agent is to be referred by another client of the same agent, and the second best way is to meet an agent at a conference. So I’ve reconsidered my chances of actually finding an agent for my children’s book right now and have accepted that the chances are so low I may as well consider it a 0% chance; it’s probably closer to that than it is to a 1% chance, anyway.

But that’s actually not a pessimistic outlook. Believe it or not I feel really good about this whole experience. I’m gaining a lot from having to scrutinize my book closely, make sure the first few pages are really engaging, write up a concise but at the same time really interesting synopsis, and try to figure out how best to market myself in a query letter to a busy agent who receives hundreds of query letters a week and probably doesn’t have more than a minute to spend on each one. I assume I won’t find an agent, but I also assume I’ll come out of this a much better writer and with a much deeper understanding of the non-writing side of writing. And in a year, when it comes time to try to find an agent for my novel, I will be ready, man, I will be ready.

July 2008 Goals

I am currently working on so many different projects it makes my head ache when I actually think about them all at once. I've got a novel that I'm revising, and I'm finishing up the third draft of it. I've got another novel that I just recently started outlining and writing the first draft on. I've got a children's book that I'm trying to find an agent for (with the realistic assumption that I probably won't and this'll be more of a learning experience for me). I've also got several short stories that I'm revising and/or writing the first drafts of. And as always, I've got several finished (or at least, as ready as they''ll ever be) short stories that I'm submitting around to literary journals.

So, my goals for the month of July:

1. Finish the third draft of my novel (which is my MFA thesis), The Straight and Narrow. It's current incarnation has 19 chapters so the goal is to rewrite all 19 by the end of July. (It's important to note that my goal for June, which I met, was to go through all 19 chapters with red ink and make notes for what I want to do with the revision.)
2. Spend a minimum of 20 hours working on short stories.
3. Send out a minimum of 10 submissions to journals.
4. Add to my working list of children's book agents and send out to as many as I can.

Since I'm posting these goals already on July 10th I'll add that so far for the month I've:

1. Revised 4 chapters of my novel.
2. Spent 7.5 hours on short stories (mostly working on a revision of a short story I wrote for workshop last semester, "Sanctuary").
3. Submitted stories to 4 literary journals.
4. Sent queries to 12 agents (and recieved 1 rejection already).

I'll try to update my blog every week with the nitty gritty of what I've done so far for the month.

My Process

Every semester I teach my Academic Writing students that the writing process is more important than the final product, itself. This confuses them, usually, and many of them don't believe it. They want to pump out a rough draft in half an hour and turn it in as the final product. It meets length requirements, why shouldn't that count? Because writing is a process, and if you keep the focus on process and not product, you stand a much better chance of that final product being something worthwhile (and of actually having a good time, too).

In my opinion, this is even MORE true of creative writing, because if you're not doing it for the process (if you're doing it, for example, because you want to be "a writer" and you think it's going to make you tons of money and fame), well, you're doing it for the wrong reasons and your product, ultimately, will probably not be very good, anyway. If you don't enjoy the process, why do you want to write at all?

My process is very regimented. At any given moment, I usually have numerous writing projects I'm working on at once (all of which I'm always really excited about), so in order to keep focused and keep my brain from exploding, I keep close track of everything I do and set goals for myself on a monthly basis.

I keep an Excel Spreadsheet where I log everything that I do related to writing, and at the beginning of each month I set new goals for what I'd like to accomplish by the end of the month (I tried doing this daily but I found that if I missed the mark on one day I would lose my resolve and start slacking off for the next several days, as well).

I don't follow such a strict process because I don't enjoy writing and have to force myself to do it, or because I actually think it matters in any real way whether or not I meet my goals by the end of the month. I do it because, for me, that's what writing is about. Doing the actual writing. It's fun and I like it, and I like to keep track of what I've done and what I will do because otherwise I may forget, or get confused, or think that I've done nothing all month because I only have one finished story but in fact I've spent hours and hours revising and revising and revising that one story. I keep track of everything I do because, to me, that's the point of it all, the doing it, not the product. The process IS the product.