let us talk goals...

You know, I keep hearing that if you write your goals down you have a better chance of reaching them. I think this is only the case if you don't care about letting yourself down. Now, throwing those goals out into the world for everyone to know about and hold you to, that's another matter entirely.

So this is a post dedicated to where I am and where I think I might be going...

Where I am:

1. The partial to DB&D was reveived by the agent on October 30. She generally has a two-week turn around on partials but she's on vacay this week which might set her behind which means I just have to put it out of my mind.
2. I'm up to 40k words revised on DB&D (so if she requests the full I have some serious writing to do). But in total I have 50k written and about 15k left to write and then MASSIVE overhaul and edits to make it "finished." As a side note, I'm excited about the prospect of DB&D being finished because then I can try to sell it like crazy without the fear of someone asking for the full when the full doesn't exist.
3. Driving home from vacation a while back, The Boy and I came up with a great idea for a YA series that I've been really excited about. I gave myself permission to NaNo it, but something isn't clicking. I'm up to 8k on it but... well... that's a whole other post (I promise!)
4. So on the way home from work last week a first line came to me that I loved. I loved it so much that I stopped in the middle of my office building and emailed it to myself (oh, for once the blackberry comes in handy!). I read the line to The Boy who also liked it. But it is a story that is SO SO SO unlike DB&D or the other series I came up with. It's much more like the type of voice that I use for my personal essays - all about the flow of the language. It's also set in a world that The Boy came up with for one of his pitches. Like I said, I wasn't feeling the NaNo project because I couldn't get the voice (so similar to DB&D) and so I was like "screw it, I'll try this new new idea because it is so different." So far this week I've written almost 8k on it. Every evening I sit down and write about 2k and then during the course of the night and the next day the next 2k comes to me... this book is slowing unfolding itself for me and I'm really enjoying it!! Of course, since it's The Boy's world I have to run everything by him..

So there you have it, where I am now. Onto the goals portion of our blog entry:

1. Golden Heart deadline approaches. I must enter. Which means I must know the word count for DB&D before entering. I will figure this out and enter by the end of next week.
2. Entry for Golden Heart due in December. This means having book actually finished! And synopsis! Which means knowing how it ends! Thankfull at my law firm there is something I like to call "the black hole of the fiscal year." It's three days at the end of our fiscal year when billable hours do not count - they don't go to last year's totals or to next year's. And so I'm taking those days off. And the Monday before because, well, I've hit my hours for this year already. Woot. All of that adds up to lots of time to finish writing DB&D. Besides, all that really matters is the partial (done) the synopsis (not done) and that you hit your word count (not done).
3. Keep working on new new project. I figure that as long as the story is unfolding for me I should get it down. I'm terrified that if I skip a few days or try to set it aside that I'll lose it. Plus, I'm aiming for this one to be around 50k. I'm just now realizing how amazingly short that is. I mean, that's like just over 100 pages! And I'm 23 pages in!
   
4. Um, keep writing, I guess. I've hit this great stride where I'm writing a lot. I mean, every day after work and then on the weekends. I haven't even watched my shows piling up on TiVi!!!
5. Oh, cripes, I also have to remember to keep in touch with critique partners.
   

Ok, I think I can do it! Any readers out there, feel free to hound me on these things!! I will give updates!