DAWN BONANNO

I like deadlines. They help me achieve things that seem impossible, and would be, without the drive to make that date. It’s one reason why I’ve promised myself to enter the Writers of the Future contest every quarter. It’s why I look for anthologies to submit my stories. It’s a solid push rather than simply “when it gets done”.

This week though, I’m pushing it. The job, the sickness, etc isn’t an excuse, but let’s face it, there is life beyond writing as much as I try to deny it. Everything in moderation, I say, except for writing. The vast amount of not writing weighed on me for a long time, and getting my submission done last week for the Triangulation anthology really lifted my spirits. It’s the reason I think I can make my Thursday deadline.

However, the story that is closest to ready is a 6k story that really needs to be rewritten. I’ve outlined it for it’s old and new form, identified what needs to be dropped or changed (big concepts, not little things) and in the morning, I start diving in.

I don’t know if I can do this, and even if it means I’m submitting 15 minutes before the deadline, I’m sure as hell going to try. The key, I believe, is hitting the story concepts and plot points. Getting the characters right. Rewriting instead of revising will iron out the writing to my current skill level (the story is years and years old). This can work. And if I want to dream big, I’ll have all of Thursday to revise the version I’m writing Monday through Wednesday.

Sometimes, it’s downright fun being crazy.

I’d planned so much writing related content this year for this blog, and it hasn’t happened. It’s been a miserable year for writing to this point, but that has to break. There are two reasons for this thought.

First, I’m a firm believer in “we’re given what we can handle”. I can’t handle NOT writing. I have this THING I can do, do well even, and that I love doing. Why would this have been given to me without the ability to use it? Then there’s the thought that if things keep going at this pace (the sickness, the work projects, other stuff on my mind), I’m going to go stark raving mad. I don’t think that’s the path meant for me, or it would have happened years ago.

So, February sucked. March sucked. Well, we still have two weeks to go, so maybe I can salvage something. My story that made semi-finalist for WOTF can be tweaked rather easily to fit the Triangulation theme this year. In all honesty, it makes the story stronger, so it’s good. I just need a waking brain to sit down and revise with.  I’m going to do this. I’ve already scheduled a day off from work after one of the big projects is done with, so that’ll give me a full 48 hours (well 40 if you count that I have to work on the 31st) to get this story plus another one revised before the 3/31 deadline for both Triangulation and WOTF. The Triangulation story will be easy, I think. The WOTF story, not so much. But I have to try.

I seem to do well under pressure (perhaps why all these work projects were thrown my way?), so we’ll have to just get it done. I have one more work task to do before I can get my afternoon writing sessions back. That’s an hour at the library before I pick up the kids from daycare. I can do a lot with an hour.

Thanks for checking in, and thanks for the good thoughts. I’ve been pretty bad at following up on my writing buddies this month too, so hopefully I’ll catch up with your posts soon. First, I need to meet my deadlines.

(And then there’s the PARSEC contest 4/15… if that’s even still on? Time to research that one.)

February has been quite the month for family illness and medical issues. I’ll make up the writing, I know I will, so I’m not horribly worried about it. I’m in a rotten combination of sick kids (taking turns, too, so someone has always been sick from the beginning of the month), snow storms, daycare institute days, and insane projects at work that I’ve been asked to do overtime and I’m barely getting in my normal time. I counted up the time off I’ve taken for the kids this month and it added up to over a week. How insane is that?

Meanwhile, I’ve got my SF telepath story on the mind and am working through some issues on it. Some friends helped me work through what I couldn’t see about the ending, but now I have to go research tropical insects. Or make one up. 🙂

Through it all, the writing has been on my mind. I’m aiming for getting my morning sessions in this week and my after work sessions. The short story and a crit for a friend are my primary goals. Everything else will come later.

Hope you’re healthier than we are. Keep those hands washed: I’m hearing about lots of the flu rearing its ugly head.

The week of the two-day school closing due to Chicago’s snowpacalypse resulted in screwing up my grand plans to participate in Forward Motion’s word count marathon and further progress on the novel. I can deal with that. Especially because I finally finished the critique for another FM member, and I’ve been working on the short story revision.  I also had a strange thought which whirl-winded into a partial story. It’s hand written, scrawled into a notebook by flashlight, so who knows what’ll happen to it once I transcribe it. 

I’m looking for a do-over this week. 🙂 I know it’s snowing again, but we’re expecting school to be open tomorrow.

And now back to the writing!

My two year old son is home sick from daycare so I’m spending the day with him. Mickey Mouse, Cars, and Cats. The funny part is that the cat kept trying to catch the cars.

It wasn’t a “writing every day” week. I had a work late night, a role playing night, and a few nights of computer problems which we finally solved. I wanted 1000 works this week on the novel and made 1800.  I reworked the outline going forward. I’ve been working on a short story critique, and reading for a novel critique. I’m also reading Ray Bradbry’s book on writing.

He favors the writing fast and writing hot, then spending the time you need to fix it. Story needs to be captured in the first draft, the essence of what the character is feeling. I like that approach, and I think it’s what draws me into Story A Day May every year, and Write1Sub1 this year.

I did learn that I need more than one revision before I send a story out. Flash is different. But the 4100 word story I sent out two weeks ago was bugging me. I had a friend critique it, and she pointed out some serious flaws. I think I know how to fix them, but I might be tucking a copy of this story into my novel ideas folder. It opens up a whole world in urban fantasy I never intended anything more than a short story.

Time will tell, as it always does with my writing.

This week’s plans are a repeat of week 3. With any luck, I’ll manage more than 1k on the novel. I’m eager to get through this. I want to see if the big confrontation comes out the way I’m picturing it, or if it’ll take a turn…  Happy Writing!

I spent two days on the novel, which needs to be increased of course, but on the short story front, I surpassed my expectations. I wrote a 4k story, revised, and submitted it. It’s rare I submit the same week, but it felt right. I had my husband read it over before I sent it, to make sure nothing strange slipped by me. He suggested one major correction, and off it went.

And for my next trick: I’ll be revising a science fiction story about a telepathic society while actually writing more than 500 words a week on my novel. 😛

I’ve been trying out Google Reader and I have to say I like it. I’ve always used my blog for maintaining lists of blogs I like to read, but since I moved to wordpress, I found it rather difficult to manage in the format that I like (which included updates and titles). So I bumped into Google Reader by accident.

I put a few up there, tried it for a few days and asked some friends if it was known for any glitches. It seems mostly dependable, so I’m taking the plunge. I moved all the blogs off my page here to Google. It’s faster, and more efficient use of my time. I try to support my fellow writers, learn from published authors, catch hints from editors, and follow market updates. I went from having a list on my blog, plus a list in a folder, plus links on my action bar… to having it all in one place.

Did I say it lets me put links in folders? I can view by category, I can view by new.

I can read more in the time I have, and spend less time catching up on blogs and more time catching up on my novel.

I fear I’m hideously behind the times discovering this. 🙂 Or maybe I’m safely within the realm of normal-time discovery. Meaning: I desperately need my weekend, and I feel a science fiction story coming on…

Last spring, I applied to a certain weeklong sf/f workshop in Martha’s Vineyard and got back a “no more room, we strongly urge you to apply again next year”.  I’ve also seen lots of “apply early”. The submission period opens January 1st. So. What did I do?

 I’d imagine mailing something today in a 9×11 envelope first class would get it to the Boston area by 12/31 or 1/2, would you say? Is that early enough? Will I get in this time?

I’ll find out in July.

I also sent better samples of my writing. Last year’s submission was a 6k story that was five years old and was a bit of an experiment in viewpoint. This time, I sent two stories, each 4k, that show different aspects of my writing. See, I’m versatile! And the writing is fresh, and newer than five years old.

All I know is, you don’t get things by rolling over and showing the world your belly. My teeth are clenched, my claws dug in.

I’d cross my fingers but that won’t work with the visuals above. Besides, I Iike feeling wolfish at the moment. Growl!

I made the list!  My story “Etherea In Her Veins” the one I’ve affectionaly been referring to as Nighthunter’s Bite made Semi-Finalist.

Results are here. Congrats to the rest of you! http://www.writersofthefuture.com/blog

This is the time of year that I focus on making my new goals. I typically look at what I accomplished, and boost my expectations a little higher. I’m torn because I spent 2010 on short stories, and I really would like to get back to novel writing. I have a hard time doing both consistently. For a little while, but not long term, and let’s face it: novels are long term.

The temptation is Write1Sub1 which requires writing and submitting one story per week. At that level, I can’t compete yet, but people are signing up with variations, which I think is awesome. We all produce and revise at different intensities, and the point is to write and submit. I could commit to writing one per week, but since I revise slowly, I’d have to submit two a month instead of four. And that would be a challenge.

This last year working with shorts has taught me a lot about how I write, how I revise, processes, different aspects of writing. I could go on. Would another year on short stories make my work stronger? Hell yes. But that would mean another year that I’ve taken the slow road for novel writing and that my friends, is what’s going to get me the big contracts. On the other hand, one year of intense short story writing and revising could very well improve my ability so much that I’ll be writing better novels after that.

If I can get my novel in progress completed this month (another 40k to write), then I can start revising my other novel, and work on the short stories concurrently.

I’ll probably try to write more flash. 🙂

I think I’m capable of the writing one per week because I’ve been doing the FM Writers Story a Day challenge for years now, and typically I’d average one story a week, sometimes more.  This past May, I wrote three stories, revised two stories, and submitted two new stories. I also managed critiques, and reading, and about 1k of novel writing, and prep for a novel revision (which I never started).

Maybe I’ll do it. It could be fun. 🙂

I’ll have to start being better about my early morning writing session… I’ve had trouble getting up. Could that be a sign? I’m not excited enough by what I’m working on to get myself out of bed on these cold dark mornings?

Definitely food for thought…

edited to add:

I’ll do it.

In all honestly, if I manage this half the time, I’ll have 26 more stories written and in circulation. There’s a whole nother level of writing for me to learn. This could be my access key. 🙂

So the question is: are any of you going to join the insanity?

 November Results

November is always insane for me. I never plan or expect to accomplish too much, that just adds to work/family pressures, and I’d rather enjoy my son’s birthday and party, the vacation, and Thanksgiving. It’s a good opportunity to start my holiday shopping, cards, and decorating. I didn’t get to all of that, of course, but a good chunk, and some writing. My Writing Wishlist went untouched, but I’m pleased with my progress because I honestly made time for my writing, even if I didn’t bring everything to completion.

• Short Story Revision – HTR (started and stalled due to an issue with the ending I can’t figure out how to solve) and Etherea In Her Veins (my WOTF story that didn’t win, and I resubmitted it to the next market)
• Short Story Draft – handwriting this one, am two pages in (about 500 words)
• Article Revision – need just a few more hours on it, but it’s shaping up very nicely
• Crits – 2
• Reading – finished “On Writing” and “A Wizard Alone”, started and finished “The Golden Compass” and “Wizard’s Dilemma”. Started two new books, just barely.

December & Year-End Goals

With the holidays and an extended weekend on the East Coast, I’m not going to complete my 2010 goals, but I’m sure as hell going to try. I’ve given up on a few of them, but the novel and the current short stories need to reach completion, so I’m going to focus on them.

• Short Story “HTR” work out ending, complete the revision and submit
• Short Story “Surrender” – first draft
• Novel – Shadow of Blood (YA fantasy) – 40k left. (write 10k weekly)
• Reading
• Critiquing

It’s a curse, and it’s my salvation. If not for my obsession with organization, I’d have free time. You see, I organize all my time into writing projects. I have queues for every phase of writing, in different formats. I’ll never be bored. Yet, it keeps me on track, gives me choices when I really don’t feel like working on one project or another.  My tool is a notebook, a personal size one that fits into my (probably too large) purse (give me a break, I’m a Mom, I need a big one).

Here’s how I put all my projects into one “at a glance” salad of post its and notes.

The Notebook

The left side lists everything in queue, theoretically about six months worth of work. Let’s go clockwise, shall we? The first post it is “Short Stories in Progress” and “Novels In Progress”. I have five short stories in various phases of planning, outlining, writing, and simmering. The main project is highlighted. Below these, I have my current novel project and the phases I need to work on.

Moving to the right, the next post it is my “Revision queue”. Right now only short stories are on there. I have six listed, one which is my focus right now, one (crossed out) which is completed, and the others are waiting their turn. The next clockwise post it lists articles and children’s stories. The next one lists critiques I owe. (I can normally do 6 – 8 in a month but not the past few, so it’s longer than normal.)

The key for me is I have my plan for the month (listed on the right side, the rule sheet, and when I sit down to write, if I can’t or don’t feel like working on one project, I work on something else from my list. Sure, sometimes that means a project that’s troubling me might not get done for a while, but there’s an upside to this: I’m still producing. I don’t get writer’s block. I don’t always work on what I’d hoped for on the first of the month, but that’s okay.

Based on my productivity, these post-its get rewritten every two months. I can rotate the ignored projects to the top of the list. That actually helps because if I’m consistently ignoring something, the post-it’s trigger that recognition and I cn dig into why I don’t want to work on it. 

That’s my insanity. What’s yours? How do you keep on track with your writing goals/activities?

October Goals and Accomplishments:

 It’s been an insane month with work, medical stuff, and I’ve been “writing” by the seat of my pants. I wasn’t sure how my goals would actually work out with the Muse conference, so I did expect some insanity. The key is: I did get stuff done. Just none of what I intended.

 Here are the original goals:

• Article submission (nope)
• Shadow of Blood  (nope)
• Short Story Writing: Surrender (nope)
• Short Story Revision: Orchard (nope)
• Alex crit (nope)
• Muse Online Conference — attended!

 Here’s what I did instead:

•  New flash, “Neither Heaven Nor Hell”: drafted, revised x3, submitted x2
• Article Revision (Writers)
• Review outlined
• Reading in Progress: On Writing; Malicious Intent; Triangulation: End of the Rainbow; A Wizard Alone (audio)
• Children’s Story Draft: Isabella’s Star
• Short story revision in progress
• Rejections x 3 and Resubmissions 3

 November Goals

 November is going to be insanely busy; work stuff, vacation, birthday party for my 2 year old, relatives in from out of town, and Thanksgiving. So I’m choosing what needs to be done, that I can be happy with (the Priority List, one item per week + Crits), and then there’s the Wish list. As in, I really wish I can do this: and if I have time, I will, but this is not the time to kill myself over it. Oh and the bad news is: with the light levels changing in the evening, I’m losing my after work writing session at the library so I can pick up the kids from school and be home by dark.

 Priorty List

• Short Story  “HTR” (revision; email for crit)
• Surrender (short story draft)
• Comets’ Kiss (revision; put up for crit)
• Article Revision + Submission (writer)
• Crits – 2 per week

 Wishlist

• Reading
• Article draft + revision (book review)
• Shadow of Blood: outline & cultural work
• Shadow of Blood: resume draft writing
• Lonely Orchard revision

When I first started submitting my writing about ten years ago, I had neither patience nor a thick skin. It was a recipe for disaster. So I focused on novels and took a four year break from writing short stories and submitting. To be honest, I really didn’t know how to write a short story. I thought I did of course, and was shocked, outraged, that the magazine didn’t accept my work. A few years later, I tried again, with a space opera that was actually a story. I even sent it to the right markets, but that didn’t stop the tears when the rejections came back.

Since then, I’ve made a study of short stories, reading and writing them, figuring out what I like, wrenching skill out of each word I wrote. I’ve had one story published (in a now defunct, rather short lived e-zine), and I was happy. But my stories weren’t very good, so I tried again, thinking I was serious. Compared to where I am now? It was laughable. In all honesty, a beginning writer needs overconfidence or they’d never make it over those early stumbles.

Then I started timing those rejections, getting my hopes up when the rejection didn’t come back, wondering if I’d finally made it past the slush pile. Daydream about publication.  I still hope of course, but not at the expense of a writing session.  I do till check dates, but once a week, when I confirm my weekly goals.

This week, I received three rejections; 4 for the month; 23 for the year; 51 lifetime short story rejections.

 I’ve heard of writers who tape them up, but that gets kind of hairy with email, unless you print everything out. I used to save them in a folder, but it got to be too much trouble to file them, so I made a spreadsheet and track the info there. It’s fun to open it up and scroll through it, and remind myself to get back to revising so I can add more to the list.

Do you have a thick skin and patience, or are you stalking Duotrope on a daily basis? 🙂

If it wasn’t bad enough the first time…

This was THE market I wanted to break into. Seriously. The closing of this wonderful magazine is like when Indy was sealed into that tomb of snakes with Marion in Raiders. I understand it’s pretty much the economy, but still.  How much darker and deeper we have to go? *sigh*

I thought October was going to let up for me. It hasn’t, but my writing is still going. I revised my “writer” article, and I’m still working on the angle. It isn’t quite right for the message I want to send. I’m also drafting another article (a review) but I’m rereading the book I want to review. I’m working on Alex’s novel crit (and sadly, getting nowhere). I had some medical stuff going on this week, but the good news is that I’m getting around really well now. The toe is healing and the only thing that really bothers me is descending stairs. Oh and running after my two your old son. But, what can I do there?

The other big source of my time is this online conference I’m trying for the first time. Have you heard of Muse?

The Muse Online Writers Conference

I’m blown away by how much there is. I signed up for a flash fiction workshop, and the instructor (an editor) has given assignments every day. I actually wrote a piece of flash fiction and twice revised it. Since Monday. It’s not the best thing I ever wrote, but hey, it’s a start. A friend of mine is running a workshop on description. It’s good stuff, but time consuming. I feel like I can’t do it justice. I don’t like doing this half-assed. So, I’m behind on hers. There’s one on time management the instructor is calling “Book Factory” so you can have time to write multiple books a year. I’m waiting for her to get to the good part. 🙂 And it’s all FREE.

It’s too late to sign up for this year, but it runs every October for a full week. Sign up, and join in next year. Seriously. Did I mention pitch sessions? Yup. None for me this year, but they have ’em.

So what are you waiting for? Go!

I’ve posted previously about my obstacles this month. Things are improving, but the issues still remain for October. I’m planning my goals with this in mind, but not limiting myself entirely, just taking it into consideration. I’m still aiming high. One major goal is the revision of my story The Lonely Orchard. The deadline for Realms of Fantasy’s women’s issue is in November, and I’d like to get a story in for it. My chances go up when they eliminate half the competition. 😉

September Results:

• one story reviesed and submitted (new submission)
• one article written
• one story rejected and resubmitted
• one critique
• started my PARSEC story

October Goals

1. Article revision and submission (due before 10/10)
2. Novel Crit for FM buddy
3. Revise The Lonely Orchard and (let it breathe for a week then) submit
4. Short Story writing: one in progress – bring it to completion
5. Novel prep (culture building, outine work)

It’s a contest of wills. If you push hard enough and ask the right questions, the story (or whatever you’re trying to create or do) will become tired of resisting you.

It took me a month to revise a story people said was “close” or even “ready”. I wasn’t happy with it. I asked the right questions of the right people, pushed,shoved, and wrestled the story into what I feel it submission readiness. This afternoon, i almost gave up. I started freaking out about my promises to myself to try my best. How could I give up? I couldn’t, not and call myself a writer. If I hit the deadline and the story was awful, it’s one thng not to submit. But to give up? Not in me.

So, yes, I made my deadline, and I’m loving the story.