Wednesday, March 1
The plan for the next few months
Two months down on the year, and as I noted yesterday, I have 42 hours of writing and editing finished so far this year on the current novel. I fell a few hours short of my hourly goal for February, but overall for the year I'm on pace to work as much as I hoped I could. Or would. Or should. So that's good.
It's probably also time, with one-sixth of the year already gone (but: leaving 84 percent of the year left!), to take a look at plans for the next few months. With my son nabbing the Gandalf role in the school's April production of 'The Hobbit', he has rehearsal two hours a night four nights a week (when I can duck into the library and write), and at least one more four-hour session on the calendar in Cheyenne, I should be able to log a bunch of writing/editing hours in March. I also have a three-day work trip to Arizona on tap, so I might be able to put in some serious hotel room writing time at night. If I can remain focused, perhaps I can get pretty close to having a complete draft of this current novel (well, as complete as I ever make 'em, which is adifferent story and the subject of I'm sure a few dozen posts over in the archives).
So, for the sake of public pressure and personal commitment, I'll saythat's my goal for March: finish the first draft of 'Les Dempsey Tries Again.'
Then I'm going to shift my focus to a couple of my more recent novels and make a sincere effort to market them, particularly 'Messiah's Sneaker,' 'Balance' and 'The Edge of Nowhere.' By 'sincere effort,' I think that means making a final once-over final read/edit first, letting someone else read 'em second, then writing my hilariously perfect short and compelling pitch letters for each as I finish. Then I need to start assembling lists of agents and methodically sending out the pitches to the list. And keeping track of responses. Run it like a business, right Krell? A little bit each week, keep the process moving, ignore the rejections and keep going. I'm realizing the neat thing about having three or four (well, nearly seven, now....actually) mostly complete novels is that I can keep a lot of pitches in circulation at the same time, because from what I can tell agents can be notoriously slow to respond.
OK. I'll keep you posted.
It's probably also time, with one-sixth of the year already gone (but: leaving 84 percent of the year left!), to take a look at plans for the next few months. With my son nabbing the Gandalf role in the school's April production of 'The Hobbit', he has rehearsal two hours a night four nights a week (when I can duck into the library and write), and at least one more four-hour session on the calendar in Cheyenne, I should be able to log a bunch of writing/editing hours in March. I also have a three-day work trip to Arizona on tap, so I might be able to put in some serious hotel room writing time at night. If I can remain focused, perhaps I can get pretty close to having a complete draft of this current novel (well, as complete as I ever make 'em, which is adifferent story and the subject of I'm sure a few dozen posts over in the archives).
So, for the sake of public pressure and personal commitment, I'll saythat's my goal for March: finish the first draft of 'Les Dempsey Tries Again.'
Then I'm going to shift my focus to a couple of my more recent novels and make a sincere effort to market them, particularly 'Messiah's Sneaker,' 'Balance' and 'The Edge of Nowhere.' By 'sincere effort,' I think that means making a final once-over final read/edit first, letting someone else read 'em second, then writing my hilariously perfect short and compelling pitch letters for each as I finish. Then I need to start assembling lists of agents and methodically sending out the pitches to the list. And keeping track of responses. Run it like a business, right Krell? A little bit each week, keep the process moving, ignore the rejections and keep going. I'm realizing the neat thing about having three or four (well, nearly seven, now....actually) mostly complete novels is that I can keep a lot of pitches in circulation at the same time, because from what I can tell agents can be notoriously slow to respond.
OK. I'll keep you posted.
