WRoE: Working on the Goals

My writing buddy, Doug and I met online on Thursday and set up an accountability plan. We met for two hours! I didn't think it would take more than an hour but we really had a lot of ideas to share and things to discuss. 

We set our goals and decided we will initially meet once a week to see how it is going. The meetings are to share updates, address any problems we're having, present any excuses, and probably chastise one another for making excuses and set new goals. We set up calendar to post goals and progress. Google is great for this because you can share the calendar with your partner and both of you can update, make changes and post progress reports. 

He's doing better than I am so far at meeting his goals. His was simply to write 500 words five days a week. He did +1000 on Friday. My goal is that three days a week I will write at least 500 words and to revise one chapter. I was sick on Friday evening and did not get started but I spent most of Saturday editing Chapter 3 in The End of Winter. 

The story is my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel. I use Scrivener to do my writing these days and I realized that rewriting was going to be a bit different. I mean, once you delete it, it's gone, right? In addition to revising, for accountability purposes I have to keep a word count. Scrivener has a word count feature but it isn't exactly designed for what I'm doing. The document word count is set and was met during that NaNo. So, I can't reset it.  However, the session word count is flexible. I can start typing and when I'm done I can see how many words I've written. 

The next problem I faced was that if I typed 20 words and deleted 20 words, the session count went to zero, effectively canceling my word count. I had to find a work around. Although I might, in fact, remove huge amounts of text, I still need to track exactly how much new text I'm typing. 

My solution was what you see here. Any text I wanted to delete, I scored through and changed to red. It isn't really gone and it isn't counted in the session count. I can remove it later if necessary. It is a bit more labor intensive but, this way, the session counter keeps an accurate count of new words typed. I still delete at times, usually things I added that I changed my mind about or that I know won't be kept for any reason. 

So far, it seems to work great. This chapter is full of junk and I'll have to divide it into more than one scene but at least I've solved the problem of keeping track of my word count. Now if I could just get better prose. Reading some of the text above I see more that needs to be fixed. I hate rewriting, revising, and editing my own work. When I go back and read it everything sounds wrong. I know it isn't all bad but I find fault with all of it. 

Still, I've made this pact and it is one of my goals for the coming year to get one whole novel finished and revised. 

Did you make any writing goals this year? Are you working on them? What are they and what are you doing to help you meet those goals?

Plotting the Plan

I've been doing some writing today. Not a lot on my primary project, The End of Winter, but I'm OK with it for now. I'm a bit under the weather and depressed so writing anything is a major effort.

In the spirit of planning, today I tracked down the calendar I've used for the previous two years to help me plan my writing time. It actually helps if I stick to it. I'm going to give it another try. It can be downloaded here:  http://www.writing-world.com/year/index.shtml

I usually print it out but right now the Amazon price is reasonable and much cheaper than if you print it yourself. And it has a lovely cover on the purchased version.

The site is really a great place for all kinds of ideas. For example, in light of the new year and setting goals, here's a article that is filled with lots of ideas: http://www.writing-world.com/basics/goals.shtml

Hope you can find a use for these. As for me, I'm getting back to my writing.

Rules of Engagement

In December 2011 I started something called Writers' Rules of Engagement, aka WRoE. I set up a personal challenge to write according to a series of rules I created and posted them on a Facebook group page. I invited any writer friend who wanted to try it to tag along. 

A few joined but soon, folks were wanting to change the rules to suit themselves. It wasn't designed for that. I did pretty good at sticking with it for the first six months in 2012. But the challenge to the group fell apart and I  lost sight of my own goals. The group continued meeting online and while I found I was talking about writing a lot, I wasn't writing a lot. 

In November 2012 my NaNo novel took a nose dive because I simply had no interest in the story but I recognized that some of my inertia was because I had stopped writing and the desire to write had waned. That scared me.

I got very sick in February 2013. It took me six months to recover enough to think straight. During that time I realized I was wasting time talking about writing. This was not acceptable. 

Lesson 1. Talking about writing isn't writing. Reading about writing isn't writing.

With that thought in mind I virtually smacked my head and went looking for my guidelines. Yes, I'd actually written guidelines. I couldn't find them anywhere. The Facebook site was long gone and they'd been posted there. The new group site, well, I hadn't bothered because no one was actually interested.  So, I'd abandoned them. 

Lesson 2. Never abandon your ideas just because others don't share you vision.

A couple of times in the following year I searched for a copy of the guidelines. As November approached, I forgot about them in the hectic time that is NaNoWriMo. After NaNo was over, my friend, Doug and I were chatting.  We both won NaNo this year and amid our congratulations, we commiserated over our inability to be more productive at other times of the year. Doug is a talented guy but his writing life is filled with challenges: a job and a family with four teenagers. I think he has some hobbies in there, too. We discussed ways we could improve our writing the rest of the year. We decided to start a plan to hold each other accountable. 

As we talked I knew it was going to be hard for both of us. We decided to set a goal and then meet online once a month to check in and we'd give an account of how the past month had gone. We would discuss problems and how to resolve them. We'd try and limit the discussion to one hour.

When I I finished NaNo four days early I'd begun to revise an old novel. It was amazing how writing actually made me want to write. It was far more effective than talking about writing. It energized me. A month of NaNo had pumped up my desire to actually write.

Tonight WRoE came to mind again. As I looked again for my guidelines, I had this light go off. I Googled my email and there it was, attached to an email I'd sent to someone. Probably someone else who didn't like them. 

I pulled down the guidelines and reread them. I was surprised to find that I still liked them. However, over the course of the last two years I've learned somethings about myself and my writing. I recognized the need to revise. So, I set to it. 

Lesson 3. Always review your writing and revise as needed.

I realized what the biggest problem is with WRoE. It is hard to do because it requires real commitment. That wasn't going to change. Still I revised. While the core of the plan remains the same, the excessive wordiness has been trimmed down. I reordered the rules to flow better. I suspect I'll cut some more of the chaff eventually but for now, I'm satisfied with my restructured plan. It is still hard and not for the faint of heart.

Still, I'm ready. I'm going to start over. I've got my guidelines in hand and I'm doing it. I'm setting goals and scheduling time to write. I'm going to work on a single project and make every attempt to finish it in 2014. 

Lesson 4: Challenges are by nature hard. If they weren't, they wouldn't be a challenge.

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Oh... you want to read them?

Giving Your Stories Away

I've been contemplating different kinds of publishing options simply because one is expected to if one writes. I don't know when or if I'll be officially published. I remember how excited I was when I got my first blog. Even though no one actually read it much, I was just tickled about it. So, these days my thoughts run to more official publishing... or creating another blog, or revamping an old one.

I ran across an article I found interesting on one of the blogs on my list, The Blood Red Pencil. The link is in the title. The author discusses e-publishing, in particular, giving away copies of your novel for a week. For her it appears to have been a good idea. So, I'll file it away for future consideration... should I need it.

In a post following the above post, Sense of an Ending the author discuses different types of endings. It is a short article but again, it was informative and I think I'll file it away for reference.

Running Out of Time

Today my small writer's group met at the mall. At our meeting last month I provided three photos for everyone to look at and  then asked them to choose one and write about it for 20 minutes. We had a good time doing it. This month, one of the other members brought several photos for us to use to do a writing exercise. We didn't see the photos until we drew one. You could exchange it if you felt you couldn't write about it.

At first I wondered what I'd do with the photo I got. It was so bizarre and unrelated to anything I had ever written or was likely to write. But I believe that challenging yourself in your writing is important. Write about something you don't normally write about, even if it is experimental. You never know what you'll come up with but every time you write something, you'll learn something about the process and about yourself. I was quite pleased with my little story.

Running Out of Time

Harold tried to hurry through the checkout line but the elderly lady ahead of him was certain that the clerk had made an error in her bill. She insisted that the girl go through the twenty items on the counter and check the totals. 

He shifted from one foot to the other, rolled his eyes, and gave a loud sigh, looking around at the growing line behind him. Other people were mimicking his behavior. At some point someone would likely say something but his need was much more urgent. He dare not be away more than an hour. Timing was everything and one minute over would be a disaster.

Finally, the lady nodded, handed over her money, one dollar at a time until she counted out thirty dollars and then a series of nickles that amounted to ninety-five cents. She toddled out of the store, pushing her cart ahead of  her.

A collective sigh rippled through the line and Harold gave the clerk a tight smile. She returned an easy smile.

“I'm so sorry for that, sir. We'll have you out of here in a tic.”

“Yes, please, do hurry. I have an appointment I'm late for, very important.”

She began to run his purchases through the checkout, tiny beeps sounding with each one until she reached the last, a 50 lb bag of bird seed. She looked up at him with raised brows and wide eyes.

“You must have a lot of birds. Or are you feeding all those pigeons in the park?”

With an unsteady chuckle, he nodded. “Not the park. I have a big family at home.”

“Must.” She grunted as she manhandled the sack into his cart. “I won't put it in a bag.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” His voice cracked.

He nearly threw the money at her and rushed away. “Keep the change.”

His cart bumped the door, causing a loud banging that drew everyone's attention. A quick check of his watch warned him the he was nearly out of time. Five minutes. Five minutes to get to the car, load the items, get in the car, drive five miles to his house and get unloaded. A tiny squeaking moan escaped him. Not enough. Not enough.

Without caution, he tossed everything into the trunk, slammed it and shoved the cart out of the way. It rolled into a Lexus on the opposite aisle. Immediately, the car alarm began to sound. He grabbed his ears with a squawk and jumped into his own car. With tired squealing and smoke flowing behind him, he flew out of the parking lot. He loosened his tie and blinked. Not enough time. He had to hurry.

He blew the first stop sigh and the second light. Cars honked and swerved to miss him. A truck slammed into the back of one as they stopped suddenly. He saw it in the rear view mirror. He looked at the steering wheel and sobbed. He was out of time. His foot moved to slam on the brakes and the car swerved and headed for the curb, slamming into the light pole. 

The police car pulled up behind him and the officer approached with gun drawn while a second stood on the other side of the car covering him. “Put your hands out the window and get out of the car!”

Harold didn't move. He couldn't. He was out of time. 

The officer opened the door, keeping the gun on him. He leaned down and gasped. “What the hell are you!”

Harold chirped an answer and the officer backed up. 

“Will... you gotta come see this. Damnedest thing I've ever seen.”

Will hurried around and skidded to a halt. 

Harold struggled to get out of the car and stand up. He looked first at one officer and then the other. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause an accident. I tired to get home before it was too late.”

Both policemen let their guns drop and stared at Harold.

Click here for what they saw....