But school’s out in three weeks and that excuse no longer flies. I need to learn balance. This past month I should’ve been encouraging Caitlin with her WIP edits, but I’ve been a bit self-absorbed. (Sorry Caitlin!) So I’m going to do what I should’ve done a month ago: set goals.

1. Edit my novel.

This includes the pages I’ve already got printed and stained with red, but my story is lacking pacing.  I need another POV in it. While I’ve laid out the additional plot line, I need to get to work writing it. Which leads me to the next one:

2. Write everyday.

Honestly, this should be a given. I don’t mean write a short story.  Even a few hundred words would cut it in my book. I carry a journal with me everywhere, I have my phone to type ideas into, but I need to do it. This would seriously help make #1 possible before the end of the summer.

3. Make a query letter.

I need to do it eventually. Better to start now and have something to work with when my novel’s finally finished than to leave it until August. Which is my pseudo-deadline for this WIP.

On August 27th I’ll leave for Berlin and all my European adventures.  I would really like to be on Draft 2 of this novel before I go, so I don’t have to carry my first draft across the pond with me.

From this point on, I want to post to Witchlight every week.  Even if it’s only a progress report or a snippet of a short story idea.  Anything to keep the ball rolling until we have a better sense of where we want to take this blog.

Until next week, auf wiedersehen!

It’s supposed to be a writing blog and I suppose any free time we find for writing we’ve been using to work on novels…not blog posts. But I think blogging is important for a couple of different reasons.

1. It’s a form of writing and it’s always good to practice different forms and get better and better at them and do different things with writing. I enjoy the chance to be informal in blog writing.

2. If you create a schedule, which we haven’t yet, it gives you practice at sticking to a schedule. And no matter how old you are, I think one needs practice at this.

3. I think it’s a good public way to show your commitment to your writing. And public commitments are less easy to break than private ones. Well, hopefully anyway.

So, this is me, writing a short blog post just to get the ball rolling here.

And, for the sake of my sanity I’m going to list some goals here:

1. Finish the thing I’m working on by March 31st. This is completely doable. I just like to think it isn’t. But I need someone to hold me to this. I need to get myself out of the house and have writing days. I need to commit. I can and will and am committing. Emmy, I’m going to need your help on this one.

2. Write a better query letter. I think mine sucks right now. And, while I think I’ve come up with a better title for the book I really need to work on my synopsis. I just don’t think it’s hitting the tone I want it to.

3. Post to this blog at least once a week. Hopefully with posts more entertaining than this one. And set up some sort of schedule/goal/idea of what we are doing with this blog with the other two.