Book Report for January

One of my goals for this year is to read a new book on writing every month. I just finished Janet Evanovich’s turn, How I Write.

Several things attracted me to this book when I was browsing in the library – for one, it’s a thin book. Quick reads = good. The other - as a wanna-be, I’m naturally drawn to anything I can get from the pros that describes their process, as though I can absorb a bit of their good fortune through the pages and apply it to my own writing life.

I’ve never read Evanovich before but knew the name. The main thing that struck me was her personality, which comes across as fun and self-depreciating. It also helps keep the material light and moving forward.

Anyone that’s been doing this for any significant amount of time will find some of the material almost elementary. For instance, nearly an entire chapter is devoted to describing the different PoVs and when/how to employ them. No real harm, I just skipped over these sections.

For me, the strength of this book was the chapter on characterization, and reading the excerpts from her Plum series. Simply put, Evanovich is a master of characterization, and anyone who needs to grow in this area (read: anyone doing fiction work) should take a look at her techniques.

Worth a read? Yes

Worth a purchase? Nah – pickup a copy at your local library and thank me later.

On a side note, Evanovich picked up at least one regular reader out of this. No, not me – I’m more of a Fantasy/Sci-Fi guy, with a liberal dose of King/Koontz. My wife, however, is an avid reader of character-driven thrillers, and this is right up her alley.

2009 Goals- Bigger & Better

It’s a new year, and in that spirit, it’s time for some new writing-related goals. I’m a big believer in setting goals and, more specifically, in writing those goals down. There is something tangible about putting your thoughts down on paper, and if nothing else, having them staring back at me guilts me into paying them mind.

Here’s my focus for 2009. You’ll notice some repeats from last year (shakes fist). You may also notice that, despite generally missing on my goals last year, I actually have more goals this year.

More, you say?

Yes, Yoda. I can feel the Force. I’m ready.

Too old. Yes, he is too old to begin the training.

I’m not afraid.

You should be…

Put a sock in it, muppet. Here’s the list, with dates… I’ll be updating this list periodically as new / cool contests and anthologies pop up.

1. Enter the Spectra Pulse Short Fiction contest. Deadline is Jan 31.
2. Submit to WotF every quarter… March 31, June 30, Sept 30, Dec 31.
3. Enter the Jim Baen’s Memorial contest. Deadline April 1.
4. Enter the Parsec contest. Deadline April 15.
5. Complete the first draft of my novel (from NaNo ‘08) by May 1.
6. Complete NaNoWriMo 2009 by Nov 30.
7. Shop novel to agents by Dec 1.
8. Sell 4 short stories by Dec 31.
9. Complete second novel (first draft) by Dec 31.

Though not strictly writing-based, here are some of my other goals for 2009:

• blog once a week
• complete a crafting exercise (and post here) once a week
• write 5000 words / week
• online presence: participate in forums (WotF, Zeotrope, Hatrack)
• critique one story / week (critters)
• read one writing-related book / month

2008 Goals - Recap

Another year is in the books… another year wasted. Sorta.

2008 brought my first (and only) writing cred, but it’s not much to write home about… a non-publication Honorable Mention in WotF is great for a day, but really means nothing.

My goals for 2008 were as follows… included in blue is how I landed on meeting them:

1. Submit to WotF for every quarter. Update: only met this by 50%, submitting for the first two quarters of 2008, but posting no-shows for the final two. On a good note, my HM came from only my second submission, but on a downer, I let two chances to improve on that performance go by. Boo. I could go into excuses, but I’ll spare you the gory details.
2. Complete the NaNoWriMo challenge. Update: sorta, kinda. Call it 50%. I ended the month of November with ~48k words of my novel written. But, I realized I was only about halfway through the story. The point of NaNo is to complete a novel… oops.
3. Sell a short. Update: nope. :(

All-in-all, I fell like 2008 was fairly successful. I fell short on a couple of things, but also hit some other milestones. I currently have 7 stories making the rounds. I passed 250k total words written since I started on this crazy ride a few years back. I took two online writing classes and did some work-shopping.

Am I disappointed? Sure – the WotF goal especially stings. But, I’m happy, and in the end, that’s all that really matters.