Writing Goals for 2012.

• Finish second draft of THE WINTER ROOM.

This is the very first book I wrote but didn’t quite finish.  I am working on the plot and structure right now which is what it lacked before.  I haven’t dug into this project in earnest because of the 6 month stint of writing nothing but pitches for Cricket and Grey.  I’m still trying to pick up the pieces of my brain from that (still not over) extravaganza of soul destroying work.  This one has to be the next book I truly finish.  I think it’s reasonable to aim to have the second draft complete by next December.

• Get a literary agent to represent CRICKET AND GREY.

Clearly this is a goal that’s not leaving the table until it has been achieved.  I periodically declare my intention of giving up on things out of deep frustration and crippling waves of self-doubt but the truth is that I’m a tenacious bitch and if I haven’t given up being a novelist for the last 30 years you better believe I’m not giving up now.  I imagine I will have several more breakdowns over this before I find the person who reads my pitch and knows I’m the ticket.

• Write BABY GIRL 6 in serialized form (free – obviously) here on this blog.

I have only just decided this tonight.  I have an enormous collection of deteriorating Redbook magazines from the mid thirties through the mid forties and back then every issue included fiction.  Sometimes it was just a single short story, but there were several series’ that were published in it and to my frustration I was missing at least a couple of chapters from my favorite one.  It wasn’t just crappy fiction either, Pearl S. Buck wrote for them.  Charles Dickens had some of his work published in serial fashion before it was published in book form.  Of course, he actually got paid to write those.

I want to do this because it’s something I can put out there right away and this is a story I know I’ll have fun with.  I’m not going to publish them for the purpose of seeking critiques as I have done in the past.  I invite everyone to simply read for the sake of being entertained.  I am not going to box myself in with promises I can’t keep so I will only say that my AIM is to have a chapter done once a month as you would get if you were reading it in Redbook magazine.  Because I’m not writing this for formal publication the editing may be slightly more rough than what would be published in a printed book, but will be much more carefully edited than my casual blog posts are.

• Become a better pitch writer.

I have already said enough on this topic and the reason it’s on my list of goals is self evident.

• Be supportive and encouraging of other writers, both friends and strangers.

The support I get from my writing friends is invaluable.  Some writers like to write in complete privacy and not talk to people about what they’re writing but I would kill myself if I had to write in such a vacuum.  Being able to talk to other writers about dealing with plot issues and character development has pulled me out of many corners.  Constructive criticism is an art-form and it is my endeavor to be the kind of writer who is open about process with those who want to know and encouraging to those who reach out for support in their own projects.  Writers need each other.