2023 Goal Update #2

It's been another, approximately, 4 months...

Cribbed from my last update post, I write goal and goal update posts for transparency. I strongly suggest you find yourelf a small writing group with goals similar to yours - whether it be short fiction or novels, indie publishing or traditional routes - because these groups will be vocal about their goals, activities, and struggles than the average social media or blog writer.

Why four (4) months? Because it's short enough that it doesn't feel like everything has happened all at once, but it's long enough that I don't feel like I'm not reporting change.

Short Stories

Submission Goals

On the day of publication of this blog post, my goal was to have submitted sixty (60) of my yearly goal of nintey (90) stories. I am at exactly sixty submissions as of today.

Giving this an On Course 🏃🏻‍♀️

Photo by Drew Farwell on Unsplash

"Just send it" is a term for mountain biking that also works for short fiction submissions.

Rejections and Acceptances

I have ten (10) submissions out at this time. I've had two (2) acceptances this year - one for Manawaker Flash Fiction podcast for a reprint for "Submerged" and an new, original print of "W.F.A. #31" for Worlds of Possibility. This number hasn't changed since my last update. I seem to get all my acceptances in the spring. I'm hoping the increased submissions will change that pattern of the last few years.

I always aim for 100% rejection because I really don't have control over acceptances. I've also gotten a higher rate of personal rejections so far this year than in years past. This is a good sign.

Giving this an On Course 🏃🏻‍♀️

Short Fiction Writing Goals

I was already very much in the weeds on this goal for my last update. Knowing that I was at 3 stories out of 17 at that point. If I had tried to get back on track I should have aimed for either drafting or polishing one story per week since. That's another 17 stories. 

Well, I was draftintg a novel through the beginning of June and took a writing break in mid-June for two weeks. That wasn't the initial plan, but I'm statisfied with that course anyway.

Then I participated in the Clarion West 2023 Write-a-Thon Flash Fiction Groups. My goal was to submit a story to them weekly for the five (5) feedback weeks. I accomplished that!

I also ended up writing another novelette in July on top of the poem and flash for the workshop. I've also polished one of the flash stories from the workshop and started its submission journey. All in all, again, I'm satisfied with where this has gone.

Giving this a Smelling the Flowers and perfectly fine

Photo by Ray Shrewsberry on Unsplash

Novels

Querying News

No good news since my last update. I have all the responses I expect I'll get on my first novel that I queried. 

I have started querying the second novel as of the end of May. Querying is going faster this time around. For that I'm thankful.

Here's hoping for better news next update.

Novel Writing and Revision

I finished the novel I wrote April - June at about 82,000 words. I plan to let it sit until September (that 90 days that gets thrown around as a suggestion to let novels rest) and pull it out for revision. I'm very happy with that drafting process and that I have something new to work on.

Meanwhile, I have seven (7) pieces of flash, short fiction, and poetry to revise and get on the short story submission grind. Ideally I'll finish all of those in the next couple of weeks. I'll update you on if those manage to get finished by the end of the year, let alone this wild goal of 2 weeks.

That leaves the 23k novella I wrote in February/March to revise still and the 10k novelette I wrote in July to revise - hopefully by the end of the year. Those sit between short fiction and novels. They won't be queryable, but depending on how things shake out, I will be on another submission path with each of those.

That's it! I've been productive in the writing front, and less successful in the acceptances, requests, etc front. Wish me a bit of luck for this last part of the year.

Photo by Autumn Martin on Unsplash