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

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

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

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)

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.