It’s officially October, the spookiest of seasons, when my goth little heart is happiest. Yet today the sun is out, the temps just north of chilly, so it seems summer and autumn are still doing their waltz, trading leads as they see fit.
I’ll cling to these last few sunny days, before winter settles in to smother me once more.
September Goals
- Finish Novel
- Complete at least the first revision
- Keep up w/submissions and queries
How'd I Do?
- Finish Novel
- YES! YES YES YES YES! The rough draft is finally, wonderfully DONE!
- YES! YES YES YES YES! The rough draft is finally, wonderfully DONE!
- Complete at least the first revision
- HA! No.
- Keep up w/submissions and queries
- Yeah. Things are slow in September as publishing shakes off the last of its summertime slump. But, I made sure things went out as rejections trickled in.
Total Word Count: 11,442
That word count should be a pretty clear indication of how I feel about this month. That more than I wrote in the prior two months combined. It’s the most I’ve written since March, back when the house blew up and all my creative momentum screeched to a halt. I’d hate to jinx things by being over celebratory, but uh….
Now, obviously, a finished rough draft is just the first step on a long and winding road to an actually finished, presentable book. What that entails, I’ll get into a bit further down in this post. What a rough draft is not, is a completed revision. I feel damn lucky to have finished this book, that I ever thought I might get to dive into revisions is laughable. I’m not mad about missing this goal.
And then there’s submissions. Summer, and even September, are slow slow slooooooow months for publishing. Even magazines seem to be slower, to have fewer open submission windows. People have lives – even editors and agents! – and they like to enjoy those lives over the summer months. I can’t rightly blame them.
But, I kept up! There just wasn’t *much* to keep up on.
Hours Check
- In the Valley of Death: 17 Hours(!)
- Reading: 31.5 Hours
- Willamette Writers Meetings: 4.5 Hours
- Website Management: 3 Hours
- Submissions: 1.5 Hours
- Queries: 1 Hour
- Outside Time: 8.5 Hours
- Podcast: 4 Hours
Total Hours: 71 Hours (!!)
This list feels shorter than usual, but I guess there are perks to not being spread too thin. That’s, uh, a lot of hours. No wonder I feel so accomplished! I feel I should clarify, I’m reading so much because my job comes with an almost hour commute each way, so I’ve been listening to audiobooks. I’m listening to almost a book a week right now, so yeah. A lot of hours.
Honorable Mentions
My soft, sad ghost story “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker” released September 1st in Luna Station Quarterly Issue 055. Have you read it yet?
I spent a bajillion hours in the garden, tearing out the withering summer vegetables and replacing them with all sorts of lovely fall sprouts. As ever, it’s been a joy to watch plants NOT die under my watch. After the rainy week we just had, and the sunshine expected the majority of this week, I’m eager to see the impending growth.
And yeah, between having the house back and loving the new job, things are just… good. It’s a relief, to be honest, after the year we’ve had.
October Goals
- Finish at least 2 rounds of revision
- Keep up with submissions and queries
- Keep up with the podcast(s)
Really, I have to keep things simple this month, because I have to focus on the book. Without getting into too much detail, I want to have it ready to send to Beta Readers by November, so they have a couple weeks to read it, and I have a couple weeks to refine it before I start submitting it in December.
(Yes, I know December is not a great month to query – kinda like summer – but I have three agents waiting on this book. December is the soonest I can fathom sending it, so December it is.)
While revisions are under way, my goal for everything else is just to maintain. Submit stories and keep sending out Tavi (Something Sulfurous). Read books and talk about them on the internet. That’s it.
Every other brain cell goes to the novel.
I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about weekly goals. I’ll be spending a big chunk of the day reading the book and taking notes/mapping out a revision plan, so maybe look forward to a more detailed “Revision” sometime soon.
Until then, Bloggarts!
BZ
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