Back in the mists of time (well, last November) I set myself a number of targets for December.
I completed two in their entirety – the ‘Codename Wedding Belles’ poem and the proof-reading amendments for the family tree novel. Woo hoo!
The other two I didn’t do as much as I’d hoped. With regards to notes, I have a few thoughts and ideas jotted in various places, but I need to pull it all together and expand on the key ideas, which I will do over the next couple of weeks. The other thing was the woods novel, which has limped onwards very slowly.
But December is gone, and now I have to think about January’s targets: to finish the woods novel first draft by 15 January and to finish revising the family tree novel (ie writing new scenes) by 31 January.
In other words, welcome to neo-NaNo.
Part one is all about the woods novel. I’m making this really hard for myself, because I’m already behind where I should be, but basically I need get to about 85,000 words in less than a fortnight. I think that’s where the book ends – if it ends before, of course I’ll aim to finish! If it continues to expand beyond that, I’ll have to revise my position. I’m not going to worry about ongoing targets per day – in between now and then I have a hen do, a shopping expedition, my cousin and her partner tying the knot (I am reading the poem and am in the order of service – eek!) – so I’m going to look at targets for periods of time instead.
My first target date is 5 January, by when I want to be on 62,000 words. By the 10 January, I need to reach 73,000 words, and by 15 January on 85,000 words. We shall see – it’s not impossible to do the words, but as you know I dislike editing as a general rule, so I don’t like to just throw words on the page. I can cope with +/- 1000 but any more than that and it’ll all go horribly wrong…
Part two is all about the family tree novel. As there’s fewer words to add, but the piece is at a higher level of editing, it’ll probably take a few days to get the new writing done and edited. After that, I’ll re-read the whole thing, then send it back to my proofreader for another review. She’ll get it by 1 February at the latest – I just want to get that one out into the big wide world as soon as I can. I’m going to have to spend some time looking at publishers, at those which require contact through agents and those that will accept manuscripts sent directly, plus identify possible agents and see what comes of it all. I really think the book can make it: even though I’m sure a professional editor will go through it with a big red pen, I think it has enough charm and warmth to survive.
And I think I’m strong enough to cope even if it isn’t picked up. Rejection isn’t nice, of course it isn’t, but it’s not personal. It doesn’t even mean your work isn’t good; just that it isn’t what they are looking for/what they can market.
Remember that books like Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Help were rejected time and time again – publishers don’t always think the way a reader might!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
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