October already?!
I can almost believe it, actually, since I was back in my hometown last weekend and saw the fall foliage. Amazing how much of a difference that can make in seeing time pass! San Diego truly is the endless summer, which can make the months and years bleed together. Not that I mind! But it was nice to see the leaves going out in a blaze of glory.
Anyway, aside from traveling to Iowa for a dear friend’s wedding, what did September hold for me? Well, my birthday for one. And another month away from my boyfriend, for another. And a wee bit of writing! A rather mixed month, all in all. I only got down 1374 new words over 5 writing days (so 25 non-writing days).
Wordcount goal: 49.1%
Non-writing days goal: 88%
Agents queried: 0
Rejections received: 3 forms, 1 closed due to no response
I didn’t quite hit my wordcount goals, but I did hit more of my intangible goals. I finished the readthrough of novel 7, although the plethora of post-it notes has not yet made it into a coherent revision plan. I wrote 3 flash stores and one longer story (though it bordered on flash as well). Not prolific, but not bad for someone struggling to adapt to a new job and an entirely new lifestyle. I certainly won’t hold it against myself!
As October dawns, I have big plans. BIG BIG plans that I won’t go into here. But suffice to say that I am becoming even more serious about my writing career (something that is already my number 2 priority). More about that later. As for writing goals–I want to continue to produce my weekly flash stories (expect to see a new #FlashFridayFootage this week!), so I plan on 4 in October. I’d like to do at least 1 longer story for an anthology I have in mind. And I am going to attack the second draft of novel 7! The revision plan should be drawn up by the end of this week, and revisions will commence immediately. I am still SO excited about this novel and cannot wait for someone besides me to read it–so I need to get it written!
Because novel 7 is a bit stunted in its current form (barely over 40k words), I’ll be adding a LOT. I hope to finish the revision by the end of November (no NaNoWriMo for me this year, sadly), and I need to get to at least 65k. Which means I better get close to 13k down this month. That sounds like a lot now that I write it out…
Anyway, between all of that, I am looking at a wordcount goal of 14,300 words! That would be a productive but not record-breaking month for me, so I think it is completely possible. That works out to less than 500 words a day! I could do that on my lunch break. So my goal is 14,300 words with no more than 10 non-writing days.
Bring on the pumpkin spice and the writing! Let’s do this, October!