Amanda Frederickson's Blog: Musings - Posts Tagged "masquerade"
Big Hairy Ambitious Goals 2013
First, a moment. *Squee!* I have an author blog! *Dance dance dance.*
Ok. The theory here is that the more people I tell about my goals, the more driven I'll be to accomplish them. Couldn't hurt, right? Especially this year, because I've got some whopping goals.
The Big Hairy Ambitious Goals for 2013? Three books. Yup. Three whole books ready for print, one way or another. Not just any books either.
I currently have two manuscripts in the works: The Masquerade and Kingstone. Masquerade is a fantasy epic with a little intrigue and a lot of romance (or should that be the other way around?). It's literally the longest manuscript I've ever written and might as much as double before I'm finished revising it. Kingstone is book two in the Gatewalkers trilogy and it's about halfway through its first draft.
The goal is to revise Masquerade, finish Kingstone's first draft and revise/polish it, and after that write almost the entirety of Cornerstone (book three, Gatewalkers), revise and polish it before the end of the year.
It's already halfway through February.
Ok. The theory here is that the more people I tell about my goals, the more driven I'll be to accomplish them. Couldn't hurt, right? Especially this year, because I've got some whopping goals.
The Big Hairy Ambitious Goals for 2013? Three books. Yup. Three whole books ready for print, one way or another. Not just any books either.
I currently have two manuscripts in the works: The Masquerade and Kingstone. Masquerade is a fantasy epic with a little intrigue and a lot of romance (or should that be the other way around?). It's literally the longest manuscript I've ever written and might as much as double before I'm finished revising it. Kingstone is book two in the Gatewalkers trilogy and it's about halfway through its first draft.
The goal is to revise Masquerade, finish Kingstone's first draft and revise/polish it, and after that write almost the entirety of Cornerstone (book three, Gatewalkers), revise and polish it before the end of the year.
It's already halfway through February.
Breaking Radio Silence
I know, I know. I've been in "hide from the world" mode. *Stretch.* July turned out to be a busy, busy month, with a whirlwind of curveballs like leaking ceilings, car break-ins and friends in crisis (not to mention July Camp Nanowrimo).
Despite this, Kingstone is at a healthy fighting weight of 65,000 words and change, Cornerstone is three chapters further along (with more rolling along nicely), Masquerade's knottiest problem has been unknotted with a bit of timeline work and some key scene revisions, a writing contest has been added to my full plate (basic world building, character foundations and tentative outline already worked out), and a custom jewelry project finished, shipped, and awesome. That's right, all three of 2013's book projects have made significant progress, overcoming debilitating blocks. Ha! Take that, July!
Not a moment too soon, either, because Neko-chan threw out her back again and is on reduced mobility, which drives her crazy because she's such an active person. It's now my personal mission to ply her with new reading material to keep her occupied until the doctors can do the surgery that should fix her up.
Despite this, Kingstone is at a healthy fighting weight of 65,000 words and change, Cornerstone is three chapters further along (with more rolling along nicely), Masquerade's knottiest problem has been unknotted with a bit of timeline work and some key scene revisions, a writing contest has been added to my full plate (basic world building, character foundations and tentative outline already worked out), and a custom jewelry project finished, shipped, and awesome. That's right, all three of 2013's book projects have made significant progress, overcoming debilitating blocks. Ha! Take that, July!
Not a moment too soon, either, because Neko-chan threw out her back again and is on reduced mobility, which drives her crazy because she's such an active person. It's now my personal mission to ply her with new reading material to keep her occupied until the doctors can do the surgery that should fix her up.
Farewell and Good Riddance 2013
Well, 2013 kinda sucked. Especially toward the end with my landlord raising the rent while refusing to do maintenance, AND roping us into another month because we didn't turn in our notice during Thanksgiving (when they were closed).
It could have been worse. There was no kitchen fire and no incompetent "recovery" company that stole our stuff (2010), and I did get a lot of writing done, but no goals were actually met. It feels like most everyone around me had an overall lousy year too.
It wasn't entirely a loss though. I started this blog, I published some short stories, started a Facebook author page, and even though all three of the manuscripts I wanted to finish... aren't, all of them made significant progress and I have half drafts of Rose and Blood Queen under my belt. Rose gets to wait her turn until the other Gatewalkers are finished, but Blood Queen is still making slow progress. (Though well meaning, I think my ambitious plan to write three manuscripts at once instead of one at a time was ultimately more than I could chew. Lesson learned. One project at a time. Maybe two? Heh.) Oh, and remember that contest I mentioned waaaaaay back at the end of July? Its deadline was December 31st. I got it written, finished, revised, and submitted with time to spare. By time to spare I mean about three hours, but I wanted to give it one last go-over (and still felt crazy nervous hitting the "submit" button). HA! Take that 2013. One mission accomplished.
I did also manage, between the lovely crazy stress that ended up piled on these last two months, to learn some down and dirty tricks for writing around life, which I fully intend to apply in 2014, especially in packing/moving through January.
Oh, and I got a cat. He's an adorable monster. I seriously missed having a cat. ^_^
For 2014, one goal: read more.
It could have been worse. There was no kitchen fire and no incompetent "recovery" company that stole our stuff (2010), and I did get a lot of writing done, but no goals were actually met. It feels like most everyone around me had an overall lousy year too.
It wasn't entirely a loss though. I started this blog, I published some short stories, started a Facebook author page, and even though all three of the manuscripts I wanted to finish... aren't, all of them made significant progress and I have half drafts of Rose and Blood Queen under my belt. Rose gets to wait her turn until the other Gatewalkers are finished, but Blood Queen is still making slow progress. (Though well meaning, I think my ambitious plan to write three manuscripts at once instead of one at a time was ultimately more than I could chew. Lesson learned. One project at a time. Maybe two? Heh.) Oh, and remember that contest I mentioned waaaaaay back at the end of July? Its deadline was December 31st. I got it written, finished, revised, and submitted with time to spare. By time to spare I mean about three hours, but I wanted to give it one last go-over (and still felt crazy nervous hitting the "submit" button). HA! Take that 2013. One mission accomplished.
I did also manage, between the lovely crazy stress that ended up piled on these last two months, to learn some down and dirty tricks for writing around life, which I fully intend to apply in 2014, especially in packing/moving through January.
Oh, and I got a cat. He's an adorable monster. I seriously missed having a cat. ^_^
For 2014, one goal: read more.
Being Rebellious
I won Nanowrimo this year, and I did it by being absolutely rebellious.
I decided about three months ago to plan my Nano novel in advance this year and to also try a new genre for my 10th Nanowrimo anniversary. (Yikes!)
So I did. I had outlines, character sheets, I tried out the snowflake method, I had scene sketches, the works. Then, on Halloween, after a crazy busy and stressful week(s), having freshly lost a Halloween flash fiction contest, I ditched all of my planning. I just couldn’t do it.
I rebelled.
I started scribbling on a stray story seed that had been floating in my head for a while, but I also knew it wasn’t quite ready to be a full novel; it still needed a villain, for one thing. Keeping in mind my recent resolution not to stress out over deadlines, I decided to count everything I wrote during the month toward the word count goal.
The result?
A 52,000 word end count (partly estimate based on handwritten pages, so it might technically be a little higher than that). Masquerade’s secondary plotline is slowly filling in, Kingstone is finally almost to a place where I feel like I can start prying my perfectionistic claws out of it, that fairy tale novella I started back in August might actually be a novel, I have three new short pieces (complete), and I’ve freshened up an older one that I’m now thinking about folding into an anthology. Oh, yeah, and at the end of the month, that story seed got its villain. It’s going to be epic.
For the first test of my resolution not to set impossible goals: so far, so good.
I decided about three months ago to plan my Nano novel in advance this year and to also try a new genre for my 10th Nanowrimo anniversary. (Yikes!)
So I did. I had outlines, character sheets, I tried out the snowflake method, I had scene sketches, the works. Then, on Halloween, after a crazy busy and stressful week(s), having freshly lost a Halloween flash fiction contest, I ditched all of my planning. I just couldn’t do it.
I rebelled.
I started scribbling on a stray story seed that had been floating in my head for a while, but I also knew it wasn’t quite ready to be a full novel; it still needed a villain, for one thing. Keeping in mind my recent resolution not to stress out over deadlines, I decided to count everything I wrote during the month toward the word count goal.
The result?
A 52,000 word end count (partly estimate based on handwritten pages, so it might technically be a little higher than that). Masquerade’s secondary plotline is slowly filling in, Kingstone is finally almost to a place where I feel like I can start prying my perfectionistic claws out of it, that fairy tale novella I started back in August might actually be a novel, I have three new short pieces (complete), and I’ve freshened up an older one that I’m now thinking about folding into an anthology. Oh, yeah, and at the end of the month, that story seed got its villain. It’s going to be epic.
For the first test of my resolution not to set impossible goals: so far, so good.
