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