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.