Every year people rush to make their resolutions. I resolve to get in shape, to lose weight, to finish that manuscript from 1988 about the robots from outer space who come to Earth because of Boy George and Cindy Lauper.

You know what happens to about 98.7% (a figure I made up just for this post) of those resolutions? They get forgotten. The pressure becomes to much and they barely make it past the first month. We forget about them.

No longer will this be the case for this zombie slaying, faerie loving, kilt obsessed author. Oh no. Starting with the year 2012, this will now become the time that I set goals. Small or big it matters little. I know I can hear you back there. "But Moira aren't goals the same thing as resolutions?"

To that I say… bah! The word resolution seems to be steeped in a cloak of negativity. They seem destined for failure. In all actuality, the word just seems to damn big. Perhaps resolution needs to go on a diet?

Okay I'm off my soapbox. My goals for the year have been set. They aren't huge. They are attainable…for the most part. Some might need a little push from cupid, others might need the every present and helpful support of my PC Girls to see come to fruition, but all in all they are goals I can live with. Goals that can be reached. So who's with me? Who is bucking the Resolution tradition and climbing on the back of the Goal Bandwagon with me? Bethanne's got the coffee back here. Silke brought-well if you want to know what everyone brought I guess you will have to just climb aboard and share!

Moira

Moira spends her daytime hours as a typical 9-5 slave chasing the almighty dollar, and raising twin zombie sons. During her evening hours, she can often be found steeped in homework, watching an episode of the Walking Dead, or penning her latest novel. She is an author of urban fantasy with a romance kicker, a woman with a penchant for men in kilts, lover of shoes, and connoisseur of Guinness! In other words...Moira is a complete mess.

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Or Pearl Harbor…   

So, I pulled out an old story to work on, and I'm sitting here wondering how  to create some emotion, but not too much emotion that I might tick off my readers when I kill one of the good guys. And not just any good guy, but the heroine's husband.  I just don't have it in me to make him bad. You know, like he cheated on her or he only seemed like a good guy and as the mystery unfolds, we see an evil side.

Nah. I don't want that.

Unfortunately, that means I have to kill a good guy.

Key elements to killing a good guy.

• Make it worthwhile. None of this killed-in-an-accident or innocent-bystander bull. 
• Make it good [a little drama never hurt]. Bullets, knives, torture. Don't make it slow. And never kill them with a coma!
• Highlight at least one flaw. When we don't want them to be bad guys, we have to be honest with ourselves. Even a hero has flaws. Maybe he was annoyingly organized or perhaps he didn't want children.
• Keep the backstory short. I hate this one, but you don't want your reader to love a dead guy more than the new guy.

What I've learned and gleened from years of letting this manuscript stew.

So, give it to me straight… what are your rules for killing a good guy?

Bethanne Strasser

Mother of FIVE smarty-pants and married to her Love for twelve years, Bethanne spends her time writing stories that always--without a doubt--end happy.

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HI, all! Jennifer here!

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm doing great on my Book in 3 Month Challenge! Granted I had a wee bit of a head start, but so far I have a good chunk of my manuscript written–35% to be exact.

You might not know it, but I'm remaining calm and collected about this. Thus, the "logical and calm" word count meter below.

Checking in with my critique partners and posting our daily word total has really kept me from slacking. (Somewhat, anyway) I find when I'm writing, it helps to take small breaks every 30 or 40 minutes, where I quickly check Twitter or email, throw a load of laundry on, or make myself a cup of tea.

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As far as P90x goes, I can't believe this is week FIVE already. I am definitely noticing a difference in what I can do now from when I first started (which wasn't much) LOL

The Yoga X was my most dreaded routine. Not because it took up an HOUR AND A HALF of my time but because I found it the most impossible, ridiculous exercise routine on the workout plan. And now I can say that after all this time…

I finally did a session on Saturday and actually enjoyed it. I know. Weirdo-rama. But I bought a yoga block on Amazon and that really helped a lot with some of the moves.

Just like in my writing, where I'm checking in and comparing goals, I'm checking in with my hubby on the P90x plan as well. It really helps to have someone doing it with you because whenever I'm tempted to just skip a day, I have him giving me a look and guilting me into doing it. (The hubby is much more goal oriented than I am) So I'm grateful to have someone else suffering with me. LOL

Accountability. That's the key word that's really really me reach my goals this year. And so far, so good.

Do you need that extra "push" like I do? How do you reach your goals?

Jennifer

Jennifer fancies herself a more prolific writer than she really is and has an unnatural tendency to use words like "fancies" and "prolific" when describing herself. Please feel free to check out her ebook, The Role of a Lifetime from Samhain Publishing and her recent Avalon romance Georgie on His Mind--where she promises she didn't use either of those words in her stories.

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New Year's coming and changes are inevitable. My husband is leaving for a long time. [ Oh crap. I just got a little teary-eyed.]   I want to get ready for something NEW–new experiences, new emotions to deal with, new schedules…  more time to myself, more time for my work.  But I need to clear my desk of any current projects.

So I've come up with Pre-Goal Goals… New Year's Resolution Resolutions.

With two novellas, both rejected by two different publishers, I'm going to finish some revisions and edits first, then attend that Swingers party with them and send them both off to the other publisher… ha!

GOAL: January 31st, complete revisions and edits and submit

If I can get those submissions out the window, my new year looks good for the next big project.  I've been putting off starting another single title. Gun shy, if you will. The last one I did went through agent submissions and failed, not miserably, just in the normal, this-is-life kind of way.    But I do need to get off my hesitation and have another go of it.

No matter how many novellas I sell, I'll never find myself on display at B&N if I don't write a full-length, Single Title novel and submit it.

Would love to hear how you're getting ready for the New Year.  Or do you sit back and wait for the new year, using the new year as a chance to clean house?  Tell me everything!

Bethanne Strasser

Mother of FIVE smarty-pants and married to her Love for twelve years, Bethanne spends her time writing stories that always--without a doubt--end happy.

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I'm on a deadline, so this seems like something I should take to heart.  What about you?  Have you been on deadline or just plain dead on your feet, trying to figure out what is the most imperative task at hand?

Highlighting the four catagories for my own use, I find that I'm not always keeping my time management in sync with my goals.

Where do I spend the most time? 

In the not important URGENT catagory.  Interupptions, emails, kids…  Okay, so there are times for the kids to be in Quandreant II, but there are other times, the kids don't have to be there.  Next, I'm  in quadrant four with my busywork, my book reading, and my favorite shows. 

How can I [we] learn to utilize time management?

For me, Identification is key. I'm not the most disciplined person, but I fare well as long as I acknowledge my needs and my shortcomings.

As my goals change, so does my catagorizing. Right now, I might stick finishing my WIP up there in Important/URGENT.  Perhaps it's not life-threatening, but in perspective…it's way more important than what's going on with my FACEBOOK account.  \

Bethanne Strasser

Mother of FIVE smarty-pants and married to her Love for twelve years, Bethanne spends her time writing stories that always--without a doubt--end happy.

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In a perfect world, I’d announce my recent agent acquisition, or the foreign rights a film company snatched up last week.

Not so, dear readers. I am writing to you from a most discouraging, though very necessary place: the wastelands. This is the “neither here nor there” place we all need to travel on our road to publication. It’s where your best friends get a burst of energy and sprint into that glorious book deal while you curse like a sailor (or a Marine, in my case) at your blinking cursor. It’s the place where you follow your crit partners around the web and cheer them on through their cyber book tours, while you scribble and bleed red all over your pages, crossing out entire sections at a time and throwing objects at the wall while you try to untangle that unholy mess that is POV (and it’s demon sister, Deep POV). It’s the place where the critiques coming your way aren’t, well, the most encouraging.  “Back to basics,” “strengthen the writing,” and “tighten the pages.” *sigh*

It’s where you cross out that “query Agent X” on your calendar, because you realize you, and your story, just aren’t ready yet. It’s where you put on them big girl panties and stop comparing yourself to others, wishing you told stories like they tell stories.

 Sitting in the wastelands by choice is about giving yourself the right to suck at writing for a minute or two, the whole time knowing that you’re about to roll the sleeves up and get to work at fixing whatever it is that isn’t working in your writing career—books, workshops, online classes, endless rewrites, killing off characters you love, vent sessions over coffee, more time critiquing and helping others…whatever it takes.

If publication is like reaching the Emerald City, the wastelands is that creepy forest where the trees throw apples at you and your story, pointing out your weaknesses and forcing you to rethink, rebuild, and re-create. Return a stronger writer with clearer goals. Return to the yellow brick road with a purpose.

So to my PCers who’ve celebrated HUGE victories lately, I am so, so proud of you. And to my fellow (temporary) wasteland visitors, when the mean trees throw apples, make applesauce, girl. (Or make like the scarecrow and thumb your nose at the thought of stopping too long to wallow!)

On with the words…

Harper

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Whichever, my life is about to become balanced.  Summer was full of life, full of family, full of outdoors, travel and excitement. 

Next week I pass through the doorway to a different kind of life full of family and excitement.   This variety comes with coffee, jeans and sweaters, and solitude. [I'm ignoring the homework hassle that I know will commence, the early evening bickering and the early morning grouching, the absence-of-video-game whining...]

I like my glasses the way they are. You don't have to be naive to allow joy in your life.

So tell me, what are you looking forward to this fall?

Bethanne Strasser

Mother of FIVE smarty-pants and married to her Love for twelve years, Bethanne spends her time writing stories that always--without a doubt--end happy.

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Some of the best writers had them. Some of the rest of us still do.

Junot Diaz writes in the bathroom, perched on the edge of the bathtub to find enough solitude to finish a chapter. Janet Evanovich writes strictly from a visual storyboard. Stephen King writes ten pages a day, no matter what. Walker Papers author C.E. Murphy has a computer she writes from named Nook. Nook has no access to the internet, therefore saving the author from the temptation of checking the latest weather forecast in Dubai or looking up a recipe for Bangers and Mash. Agatha Christie once claimed she got her best ideas while standing at the sink doing dishes—she’s also claimed that eating apples in the bathtub helped her creativity.

Rituals and habits serve a variety of purposes for us, besides giving us an excuse to wear that shabby “Cosby” sweater we love so much. (“But it’s my lucky sweater! I have to wear it to finish my book!”) They can be broken down into two camps, for the most part: Environment (nesting, lighting a candle, brewing a pot of coffee) or Behavior (each morning at 5 a.m., 10 pages no matter what).

These habits reduce some of the anxiety that inherently follows when we see the blinking cursor and the blank page…we know we’re safe because we have our lucky mug with us, it’s 9 p.m., and this is what we always do when we write.

Rituals increase our own power and control, and can’t we all use a little more of that in our lives? It’s a sense of ownership…this is our writing. Our world. Our time. Being in our little writerly nest makes us the empress, queen, and lordy mighty dictator for the few sparse moments we have before our kindergartner is attacked by the preschooler. Or before the “other half” needs to check the scores on last night’s game. Our rules. Our time. Nice…

Writers who live by their rituals suffer from less writer’s block, it’s true. Though it may seem like we’re living up to Natalie Goldberg’s “shi**y first draft” mantra, and writing pure junk, writing with a ritual tends to not place so much pressure on the time we are in the chair, keyboard at hand. We don’t have to be brilliant, we just have to be there with our favorite pencil and our Jimmy Eat World (or Bach, or Burt Bacharach) CD playing in our headphones.

So, while it’s still January, maybe it’s a good time to consider our own rituals—both the ones we keep and the ones we’d like to keep this year.

From our own group, here’s a sampling of how members of Passionate Critters create ritual when they write:

Vanessa keeps different playlists for the different books she’s working on. She has a single notebook she carries with her everywhere that houses her ideas, notes, scribbles, etc. Oh, and a complete tea service set up is a must when she writes. Complete with teapot, cozy, sugar cubes, milk, and a cup and saucer.

Silke has a “trusty moleskin—with me always,” she says. And coffee. Coffee is a definite must for her. Oh, and her partner can’t look over her shoulder as she writes. (I can relate. I’ll actually toggle away from my writing to whatever Internet page I happen to have open. No peeking!)

For Jenn, when it comes to naming her characters, she has a ritual she follows every time. She’ll write out each letter of the alphabet and give each character a name that starts with a different letter.

When it’s lights out for the kids, it’s “brilliance on” for Bethanne…who runs a house full of adorable kids and still manages to put awesome stories on to paper.  (I think she ought to host a mini-workshop on that alone. I have two and I want to pull my hair out some days.)

A night owl, Joyce finds the good times roll in the p.m. hours.  She’s also working on a new one for 2010: 1,000 words a day (you’re in great company…that’s exactly what Stephen King recommends in “On Writing”).

If you’re looking to get chummy with our little green friend, envy, you should take a peek into Rachel’s uber-structured, uber-productive system.  She’s up at 5.a.m and whether its having the laptop with her while warming the house with the wood stove, she’s always working. Always, it seems! Up until 1 or 2 a.m., she squeezes the most out of her days and has the productivity to prove it.

Nina doesn’t start writing a new project until she hears distinct conversations between her characters in her head—a great trick. How many times have we had a “great idea” and rush into the writing, only to have no clue what our characters sound like?

And as for me , well, I have a goofy sort of ritual. I have a red pashmina scarf/wrap thing that I started wearing around the office a while back while I edited. It was a joke, really. It was meant to keep people at bay while I was working on deadline and it seemed to work. It also earned me the nickname “The Red Baron” because I must have looked a little like Snoopy when he’s fighting on his dog house. So I took the scarf home with me and now I either have it on, or with me when I write. (I fiddle a lot when I’m thinking, so sometimes I just play with or chew on the ends. Eww. Gross. I know.)

My goal for 2010 grew out of my first few weeks here at Passionate Critters. Instead of a daily goal, there’s a “weekly goal” board and I’m finding it much, much easier to accomplish a weekly goal. I beat myself up when I fail at stringent daily quotas…but this weekly method? It seems perfect for a writer like me who can have slow days (500 long, arduous words) or Rachel-esque productive days (1,500+).

So revel in your rituals. Notice them. Appreciate the uniqueness of them. And use them. And if you don’t have any yet, create some. It’s a great month to get started.

Harper

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Since many of my crit partners are discussing goals and 2009, I thought this a good time to jump in and add mine!

While I worked on my goals prior to Jan 1st, I just wasn’t ready to start them on that day.

Mondays, for me are good starting days.  I get a full week in of starting a new routine or two.

I thought I’d post my goals here, so I can look back on them at the end of the year.

CAREER ROAD MAP

–Daily –

1. Write 1000 words a day/4 pages.  
2. Revise 2 pages a day.
3. Diet. 10 lbs a month, end of May reach goal.
4. Exercise.
5. Promo daily
6. FlyLady

–Weekly –

1. Update my goal on PC for accountability.
2. Read one craft book a week.
3. Blog weekly on my blog – Friday
   
4. Blog weekly on Passionate Critters – Wednesdays
5. Blog weekly on a Once Upon a Crime blog – Mondays
   
6. Make menu for following week

I have a notebook that I like to keep a daily journal of what I’ve accomplished.  What will you do to keep yourself accountable and stay on track to reach your goals?

admin

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