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Goals for 2011
At this time of year many people make New Year’s Resolutions. That’s fine, but it is my observation that few people actually keep them.
I prefer to set some firm goals instead, especially in relation to my writing. I find this far more practical and achievable than some nebulous resolution. I shy away from airy-fairy resolutions like “I am going to be a better writer in 2011.” What does that mean? How do I achieve it? How can I measure how successful I’ve been?
My firm goals are often numerically based – so that they can be measured. For example, here are some of my writing goals for this coming year:
- I plan to average 500 words per day. That’s over 180,000 words for the year – quite a significant figure.
- I plan to average 3 hours of focussed writing per day. That’s well over 1000 hours for the year – another large number.
- I plan to write and submit at least 20 short stories to magazines.
- I plan to write and submit at least 50 poems to magazines.
- I plan to edit and submit 5 picture books to publishers.
- I plan to edit and submit 3 novels to publishers.
- I plan to write and post 200 articles on each of my 3 blogs.
That’s the plan at the moment. It may have to be adapted with changing circumstances but they give me something to aim at. I keep detailed records on each of the elements of my plans so it’s easy to see how I am going.
A special note about items #5 and #6 – the texts of these books have already been written. They just need editing, some rewriting and then submission. If I was to allow myself to have one resolution for 2011 it could be: “The year 2011 will be my year of getting published.” And knowing the way publishers work with their long lead times, this resolution may have to stretch into 2012 as well!
Further reading on this topic:
- Writing goals for 2009
- Archived articles about goal setting
Good writing – and may you achieve your goals too.
Writing while in hospital
It has been a while since my last post here on this blog.
During the last month I have been busy finishing off my course work for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing . It has distracted me from blogging for quite a few weeks. Then I had a few days in hospital – kidney stones are no fun. This was followed almost immediately by a stay in hospital by my wife. She had a blood clot in her leg which also was far from fun. You could say we were helping to keep the local medical staff gainfully employed. We are both on the mend now.
During my enforced stay in bed I managed to do quite a few hours of reading – all the in line of background research for my thesis novel. The reading was accomplished despite the fog created by the morphine to quell the waves of pain. Okay – I’ll come clean. I actually had to put the book down quite a few times and take frequent naps.
As I was reading, something triggered an interesting response in my foggy brain. I suddenly had an idea for the text of a picture book based on an experience our family had with a Koala many years ago. The story came to me in a flash – start to finish. That is quite amazing as the ideas I have often take many days – and sometimes weeks or even years – to find that satisfying ending.
Fortunately I had asked my wife to bring me my writing notebook to the hospital. Over the next few hours I jotted down the text of the picture book. Mind you, this is only a very rough first draft. It will probably need to go through many more drafts and rewriting before it is ready to send off to a publisher. Coming up with a unique idea is sometimes the hardest part of writing picture books. This was easy. The hard part will be in refining the text to a publishable standard.
Good writing.
Book Launch: The Wish Giver
1 Comment »18th October, 2008; Category: Authors, Books, Fiction, Picture Books, Reviews, Writers, Writing for Children, Young Readers
Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege of attending a book launch. Rosanne Hawke, one of my lecturers in my Master of Arts Creative Writing Course, is a writer of children’s books. This new book is her 15th book to be published, and her third picture book.
The Wish Giver
Written by Rosanne Hawke and her daughter Lenore Penner.
Illustrated by Michelle Mackintosh.
Published by Windy Hollow Books.
The Wish Giver is a delightful book for young children. The Wish Giver lives on “the biggest and brightest star.” His job is to make children’s wishes come true. Unfortunately he falls off the star and lands in Layla’s garden.
Layla has a problem. She has no friends and no-one will play with her at school. She wished she had some friends to play with. She helps the Wish Giver return to his star, and he in turn helps her to find some new friends to play with.
One of the privileges we had being in Rosanne’s class was getting a view of the printer’s proofs many weeks before publication. The book was launched by well known South Australian author Phil Cummings. One of the interesting aspects of this book was that Rosanne’s daughter Lenore was also credited as the joint author. The original story of the Wish Giver was written by Lenore as a high school assignment. It was this story that initially got Rosanne into writing. It was also very much a family event, with Rosanne’s grandchildren also present.
After leaving the launch my wife told me she had been taking notes on how to run a book launch. Rosanne, when signing our copy of the book, added: “It’ll be your turn next.”
Now it’s up to me to get some of my manuscripts off to publishers.
Good writing.
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What I am reading: picture books
Earlier in the year I wrote about the Master of Arts in Creative Writing course I am undertaking this year. I am currently on a five week break between semesters, hardly enough time to catch my breath. My main interest in writing is books for children, in particular picture books. Over the duration of the course so far I have been regularly reading vast numbers of picture books, just to get a feel for what is being published these days.
There are other benefits too. Writers are readers, first and foremost. If you are not a reader you will struggle to be an effective writer. Period. The picture book genre is a particularly demanding one. A very restricted word count means that every word is important. There has to be balance between the text and the illustrations. Some publishers require a strictly limited vocabulary while others have restricted themes or topics. It is a very competitive field and one that is hard to break into.
Half way through the first semester I had to write and submit the text of a 700 word picture book to the lecturer. The title changed several times during the editing period but it eventually became “Brave Alice,” the story of a little lamb who pretended not to be afraid. The idea came from seeing a flock of lambs frolicking in a paddock in the mid-north of our state (South Australia) about four years ago. The concept simmered away happily until crunch time came; I had to submit a text as an assignment. Would it be good enough? The lecturer – and my fellow students – were a part of the development process, all giving valuable feedback as I developed the text.
The final day came and I submitted the manuscript to the lecturer. A few weeks later I received it back: Distinction. I should not have worried. While that result was very satisfying for all the work put into the text, it counts for very little. The big test is to submit it to a publisher. The frightening prospect of the manuscript being returned still awaits me.
Perhaps I should be like Alice in my story: Be Brave!