I love NaNoWriMo. For those unaware, that’s National Novel Writing Month. Each November, people all over the world commit to writing 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. As the website states, “They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.”
Here’s the thing, though: I have never actually done NaNoWriMo.
When I say I love it, what I mean is that I love the idea that anyone at any time can commit themselves to a dream just by getting started. There is nothing particularly special about the month of November. In fact, it’s arguably a terrible time to lock oneself in to such an ambitious project, with the holiday season disruptive for most people in one way or another.
Come to think of it, a much more reasonable time to do NaNoWriMo would be January 1st, wouldn’t it? Kick off the new year with a burst of motivation? Hunker down in the wintertime cold to get the job done?
But no. The national organization of NaNoWriMo did not choose January 1st. They chose the extremely random day of November 1st. I love that.
The fact of the matters is, we all have the capacity to commit to something big, any time. We do not need to wait for a special day. We do not need to wait for someone else to give us permission. We can say to ourselves, Starting at 2:37 pm on January 6th, I’m going to begin writing short stories again. Or, Beginning Friday, January 9th at 11:32 am, I’m going to commit to taking myself seriously as a writer.
Of course, with NaNoWriMo there is a whole structure built around this project. Resources abound for participants. People trade tips, vent online, join discussion forums, and I believe there are certificates and prizes for people who meet the target word count by the end of the month. (If any of you have participated in NaNoWriMo, please tell us about it!)
But that doesn’t mean that’s the only way to get this done. What this tells me is how vital it is to set up the structure that will support whatever goal it is you want to achieve. In other words, once you begin writing short stories again on January 6th at 2:37 pm, another consideration will be whether you might seek out other writers to hold you accountable. Will you also seek out open mics that will motivate you to finish those stories and read them out loud? Will you read more lit mags to see what’s getting published and where? And so on.
What I’m trying to say is that every single one of us has the capacity to channel our own inner NaNoWriMo challenge, anytime. Pick a day. Pick an hour. Pick a room in your home. Grab your favorite pen. And begin.
Except, wait a second.
Hold on.
Don’t we, in fact, have a true resolution-making event just around the corner? Is there not, in fact, a day coming up when many of us actually do tend to make new plans, set new goals?
Why yes! There is!
Of course! We are just mounting the summit of 2023, dear friends.
Perhaps that’s a terrible metaphor, implying the next year will all be careening down the side of the mountain. But no! There’s another way to go. Hitch yourself to a star and swing!
Yup. 2024 is happening. Looming, you might say. At any rate, it’s headed right in our direction.
And what I want to know right now is, what are you going to make happen for your writing self in the new year? What challenge will you finally attempt? What thing that you stopped doing, even though you loved it, will you start up again?
What will you finally make time for?
How will you put your writing front and center this year?
What literary muscles will you flex and tone?
How will you make those far-off yearnings a reality for yourself?
Good lord, is this my cheesiest weekend conversation topic ever? Yes, I think it is! And I don’t care! I love setting goals, helping others achieve theirs, and what is cheesiness in the face of the promise of new beginnings and making our dreams come alive like stardust inside the palms of our hands?
Tell us. What will you resolve to do in the new year?
And here’s the secret: You don’t even have to wait until January 1st to do any of it. That’s just a day, like all the other days.
I did NaNoWriMo this year. It was my third time (I skipped in 2022, I had too much on my plate), and I hit the 50K mark. It was tougher this time because I did not outline or prep. Just a vague idea, otherwise going in blind. I do not recommend the approach :) - Anyway, by the time I was at 50K, I knew what the story was. It's far from done and I'll work on it next year. My other 2 attempts resulted in full MS (after a lot more work), that have now gone to beta readers, and are ready to pitch. They might be the best things I've written so far. Pressure does wonders for me. I don't care about the tips, emails, boosters, etc. but knowing that some people I know are doing it too gives me a hug-like feel. Sappy and corny, right?
Brava! It's quite an accomplishment to complete NaNoWriMo and even more so to do something with the ms. I did it in 2007 (fiction) and 2011 (memoir). Both mss. are under the bed, so to speak.
In the spirit of New Year's resolutions, let me offer an alternative.
Every year, usually on the 1st, my wife and I take out legal pads or notebooks and write out the answers to the following topics/questions:
What I am happy for
What I learned
What I leave behind
What I look forward to
We tackle them in that order, stopping to read aloud our often-long lists to each other after each one. Our lists are usually very detailed. Of course, these heading allow for much more than writing goals, but those can be included. The first two areas--what you're happy for and what you learned--are remarkably powerful for creating a positive mindset, and what I leave behind can be cathartic. Note the word "goals" doesn't appear; instead, looking forward to something frames your wishes in a positive affirmation.
I respect and enjoy these questions! For many years, I've taken the same tone and framework for assessing where I've been and where I would like to go, rather than setting formal "resolutions", and they've worked really well for me as guidelines for how I spent "the time I have" (thank you, J.R.R. Tolkien).
Well, your cheesiest comments are heartwarming and inspiring. I'll rededicate myself to adding to my short story collection and possibly publishing it. Thanks for all that you do for us!
Thanks, Becky! I am committed to completing what I think may be a novella that I started in early COVID. When done, it could be an anchor in a collection of stories about Holocaust survivors in a postwar world. To make sure I write, I've signed up for generative writing sessions that meet Tuesday nights and Friday nights.
I'm also committing to completing a YA novel in verse book proposal with a collaborator (I'm handling Jewish voices and she's handling black voices). Most of the poetry is done. I just have to finish the overview, market, and chronology of events for the structure section.
I continue my commitment to a weekly Zoom workshop for Mature Poets over 50. I continue my commitment to travel, because travel inspires my writing, and i'm booked for a trip this summer to Europe to visit two cities I've never been to (Amsterdam and Paris, with a stop in Bruges where I have been).
Enjoy your trip, Barbara! Three wonderful cities! I love Bruges! If you haven't already read it, I recommend reading The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It, compiled and edited by Nina Siegal. My husband is Dutch and his father was part of the resistance and in hiding once he turned 18. I'm sure you plan to visit the Anne Frank house.
I took Becky's advice for 2023 and aimed to receive 100 rejections from lit mags. I made it to 81 (s far), with three acceptances, so I'm feeling it was a reasonably productive year. Having wrapped my head around a number of these publications in terms of what they're looking for, and having gotten probably 6-7 positive rejections along the way, I'm planning on continuing to continue the same strategy in 2024. I also took three fiction courses through Stanford Continuing Studies, which were immensely helpful. I'm probably going to branch out to other online resources in the coming year to continue learn from established writers. If anyone has recommendations for sources of great writing courses on short fiction, I'd love to hear about them. My list of places already includes The Writers Studio, Gotham Writers Workshop, One Story, Grub Street, and One Story. Finally, I just have to say Becky's Lit Mag News, these Saturday discussions, and the numerous interviews with Lit Mag editors, have been incredibly helpful and energizing throughout the year. Onward to 2024!
Portland's Literary Arts. Great instructors. Great instruction! Check out Margaret Malone's short story intensive course. I took the course a few years ago, and it's the best online class I have taken (and I have taken a lot!)
I wrote my first novel in nanowrimo and it was dreck before a ton of editing but it did get accepted by a publisher and was released in 2009 so I think very fondly of those nano days. I did it a few more times after that. It’s a wonderful accountability system but it’s also important to know there will be editing to follow!
My goals are pretty straightforward this coming year. Another novel is coming out in April so I will be on the wild promotion ride once again. I’m determined not to exhaust myself and get Covid this time, though. And I’m determined to get time between the marketing for a handful of short stories and three essays which have been workshopped but not taken further.
I am in the midst of writing two novels and I want to finish a first draft of them both! I switch back and forth between them every week or two, which is my favorite way to write, because when I get tired of one story the other one that has been on the back of my mind is waiting for me to give it life.
These will be my third and fourth novels and I finally feel like I have gotten the hang of novel-writing, so while I know these first drafts will not be perfect I hope they will be in much better shape than the first drafts of the first two novels I wrote, which had to be completely disassembled and rewritten. I've already gone back and revised/redone the beginnings at least once this time around but feel excited about how they're turning out.
I like to make new writing goals each year, broken down by month (then I put them on my to do list in my planner for the start of each month). This year I commit to submitting my work to 5 magazines a month, writing 2 poems a month, and reading more books on craft from my personal library.
In past years I have set down very particular goals for the year, but this year I'm just not feelin' it. Maybe will sit in discernment mode for a bit. I so appreciate your reminder that the moment of beginning is whatever moment we choose.
I did do NaNoWriMo once, maybe 8 years ago. It was a fun challenge, but I only succeeded because of the structure (daily bar graph showing my progress) and the cheerleading. I produced a first draft that I revised and eventually pitched, but these days I am nearly pitched out.
So, no new goals for me. I do like Patrick's end of year practice below. Thanks for that!
Last year I started using an online Co-Writing group (you don't read or edit others work) open to any Writer or Creative, started by Allison K Williams. It's a get-your-butt-in-the-chair 75min muted, camera on or off, leave when you need to, that has me writing daily. I just committed to being the Weds host for this supportive community of writers, so I've deepened my commitment in 2024 to what works for me: structure, accountability, literary citizenship and community. All writers welcome. Daily 9:30amPST/12:30pn EST. If you want to try it Zoom links for Monday—Friday can be found at: https://linktr.ee/guerillamemoir
I’ve worked really hard these past several years. My novella in flash was published this year, I’ve compiled a body of work as a collection and I have a second novella making the rounds. I’ve applied to be a reader as I feel now I have something to give back to the literary community. I’m excited for my upcoming writing because I feel finally, I’ve found my voice. And, I’m heading back to Paris after the Summer Olympics. Walked almost 30 miles in 3 days the first trip and hope to double that the second. Happy Holidays and best of the New Year to you all!
I've received more frequent rejections than ever, and yet am more pleased with my writing for children (where I've received more acceptances than ever!) and for adults than ever in my life. I feel like I'm in my writing prime—marked by constant, productive writing and revision sessions, tons of submissions, and my 75th birthday. So my plans for the future are to continue: I recently parted ways with a wonderful agent who loved, but could not sell, my early childhood books, and look forward to a huge number of unagented submissions of a board book series I've just completed; and I will continue writing and submitting for very young children, whose voices I love to 'channel', and will continue writing poetry for adults, experimenting with form and content. I want to continue writing exactly what I love and want to write, and am determined to keep my focus on the meaning that gives my life.
Thank you, Becky, for your just right cheesy letter to us! I commit to continue to write and to challenge myself. I am still finishing Lopsided and I hope that I move on to my next project. I have a habit of treating rejections as a reason to keep revising. So -- ONE more revision and then move on. Also I commit to recommending The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar to everyone!
wow- someone has actually mentioned a book that is not their on Substack,which, considering it is a place for writers affirms my hope that more writers will learn to write by READING TOPNOTCH WRITERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY FROM OTHER COUNTRIES AND NOT THOSE THE GASUP THE CURRENT LISTS OF MAINLY WHITE. MIDDLLE CLASS RURAL SUBURBAN WRITER, WRITERS FROM ENGLAND, AND ONCE IN A WHILE A WRITER FROM FRANCE OR GERMANY (YOU CANT REALLY CALL THE CANNON EUROCENTRIC BECAUSE IT ALMOST ENTIRELY EXCLUDES EASTERN EUROPE ( WHERE SOME OF THE FINEST POETRY IS BEING WRITTEN AS I TYPE OR SCANDANVIA WHERE SOME OF THEBEST DETECTIVE MYSTERY WRITERS RESIDE. So than you Shifra for the recommended of The Time Regulation Institue by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar.
As a published fiction writer and novelist, I think the whole idea of writing a novel in a month is so typically absurd and a model of the American maniac propsensity for production, and speed, and quantityquantityquantiy whereas many writer especiay novelist take much longer, especially those nonprivileged of us who are single parents or work full time. There may in the history of someone writing a novel in a month , a person who enters THE WRITER'S ZONE WHICH CONSISTS OF A GLOW ANTHAT TAKES OVER YOUR ENTIRE SOUL AND BODY, AND STORY AND TECHNIQUE MERGE INTO A COMBINATION OF AWATERFAL AND A KLAIDISCOPE WHERE ON EVERY STREET IN THE WORLD THE LIGHTS ARE GREEN AND GRINNING. ALONG WITH THIS COMES A PLEASANTY DYNAMIC INSISTENCE ON GETTING EVERY DETAIL JUST RIGHT.
So much of life in America is spedup, an ongoing assembly line ( like most American schools, beep beep lets do subtraction for 45 minutes ( You're laidoff, and you, and you, and you now BEEP BEEP Time for Georgraphy get out your crayons Today we wll color in the American Southwest make sure your borders are clear BEEp. BEE time for the George Washinton/ Joyce Kilmer. I think that I will always beglad to see// A tree choppeddown again by me hey Tom want a cherry. Oh thats ok I have more than my share and Im busy playing with my 762 children. after all AM I NOT THE FATHER OF MY COUNTRY. DUDE, I BEG TO DIFFER BUT NOT DEFER. TBC BUT TO SUMP. THIS WRITE A NOVELL CONTET with all due respect, is an almost insane waste of peopes tieme and to this for one novelist
I've never done Nano but I have done 18 or so Napowrimos. Will do again in April. Very fruitful to have that many poems to play around with, many already published. I hope to have my novel's revisions done by the end of January. I need to continue to send stuff out. Mostly the same goals as usual. Good luck everyone!
For 2024, I'm going to kepp on doing what I'm doing, writing and getting my work out there. The main thing I need to accomplish right away (i.e., after Christmas) is updating my weekly, monthly, and annual writing-and-publishing-related task and goals lists.
I have two resolutions this year (it's nice to write them down—thanks, Becky, for the space). (1) Finish my 250,00-word novel—a novel so long that my MS Word spellchecker no longer works (this is Microsoft's way of so delicately saying the novel is way too long). And (2) Absolutely never ever write a novel this long again. (The second of these resolutions will be way easier than the first.) Happy New Year everybody!
This morning I set my goal for 2024: finish my first novel-in-progress draft (halfway through) and get my flash fiction published. Then I found your newsletter and your message appeared. Yes, I believe in stardust and visualization. I subscribed, paid the fee happily, and now I have direction on how to accomplish my goal.
I'd like to join the Reading Club but I don't know how to do it. Thanks for being here today when I needed your message
Truth is, I find such commitments overwhelming. They sit on the horizon like huge judgy demands, toe-tapping in expectation, impatient with my failure to attend to them. I've found I'm more likely to overcome any reluctance to sit my butt down and write by allowing myself to work at will. There are no rules. No word counts. I take it day by day. That's not to say I'm not serious about my craft. It's just that, daunting as it may be, writing is among my great joys and I never want it to become a form of tyranny. I've learned how to manipulate myself, to con myself, to put in place things that will urge me toward the page, a ritual, a writing buddy, a cup of tea, a document conveniently left open so I can't miss its siren call. Inevitably, I'll be seduced and find myself caught up in the alchemy of word-smithing, lost to creating something from nothing, hammering out the kinks, burnishing my craft to a shine.
In the next week, I need to finish and submit my two poems for Writing the Land. I have ideas for each one but not yet even a first draft... I've recently started doing Wild Writing's 15-minute exercise, and yesterday I devoted my session to the land I'm writing about, Deer Creek Falls in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills. So now I have those ideas I mentioned plus 7 pages of rapidly-written prose where I hope to find a least a few nuggets of possibility.
In 2024 I want to write every day, or very close to it, including daily rapidly-written prose which in the fairly recent past has generated ideas for poems. I've had a dry spell, almost no new poems for the last couple of months, and I'm longing to return to those days when it seemed I had the draft of at least one new poem every week or so. I will continue with the Wild Writing and I've also registered for "Daily Write Round Robin" through The Writing Salon. I'm hoping those structures will prove useful.
I've done Nano once--to break a writer's block and learn how to shut up my inner editor.
For this year? I have to change my monthly author newsletter host because they're shutting down (TinyLetter). I had thought I would switch to Substack, but the latest kerfuffle has removed that option, at least for my author newsletter. I'm contemplating either a straight newsletter option like Mailerlite, or else Ghost. If I go with Mailerlite, then anything non-author newsletter gets put up on my WordPress and Dreamwidth, then my Substack for distribution to those readers.
Going to Mailerlite may be my final choice, actually. I need to develop direct sales this coming year and it integrates with BookFunnel. My issue is that I have a large backlist and it needs to be promoted.
Additionally, I'm almost done with the second book of a trilogy I plan to release late next spring, one of those situations where I will write all three books and then release them a month apart. I want to do a bunch of advance promotion because these books are going to be a real pain--they flirt with science fantasy, contemporary western, and a wee bit of paranormal as well as literary and romantic elements.
But getting a handle on promotion in this new era is a priority for 2024. The old marketing methods aren't necessarily going to be effective in the coming A.I. wave. After dedicating several years to the indie SFF competitions, I've decided they aren't for me. I don't gain that much visibility and it's clear that my style doesn't work for the reviewer panels (you only get so many reviews that read "well-written, engaging, but what is it/but nitpick/but...." to recognize that it's not hitting the sweet spot for the reviewers and the readers involved).
Tradpub isn't an option. Period.
In any case, something has to change with how I'm doing things and finding readers, so that's going to be a priority. Writing is easy; marketing is hard.
"Dark & Airy Spirits," a full-length collection of poems focused on first-hand ghost encounters and ghost-adjacent experiences, was already written and assembled 24 months ago but barely circulated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . then I wrote "Apprenticed to the Night" under contract.
From the stunning reception to "AttN" [still held captive in pre-release], from more than 2 dozen reviews for "Vampire Ventures" [released Oct. 2023] and from the pre-release comments for "Cancer Courts My Mother" [forthcoming January 2024], I have learned a lesson from dozens of reviews that have poured in for my other poetry titles.
The narrative arc for "Dark & Airy Spirits" needs to be seriously re-conceived.
I am grateful that other book releases interrupted "Dark & Airy Spirits" and the submission process. Now a cooler head will prevail - - - or so I'd like to think. :-)
Thanks Becky. I had it on 22nd and 28th, but thought the 22nd was wrong-lol. I'm just leaning to navigate Substack and I get lost in the wealth of it. Will watch for January's.
Hi Charlotte. The study hall was on the 22nd! Sorry we missed you. But there will be another one in January, so keep your eyes out for that announcement.
I did NaNoWriMo this year. It was my third time (I skipped in 2022, I had too much on my plate), and I hit the 50K mark. It was tougher this time because I did not outline or prep. Just a vague idea, otherwise going in blind. I do not recommend the approach :) - Anyway, by the time I was at 50K, I knew what the story was. It's far from done and I'll work on it next year. My other 2 attempts resulted in full MS (after a lot more work), that have now gone to beta readers, and are ready to pitch. They might be the best things I've written so far. Pressure does wonders for me. I don't care about the tips, emails, boosters, etc. but knowing that some people I know are doing it too gives me a hug-like feel. Sappy and corny, right?
Brava! It's quite an accomplishment to complete NaNoWriMo and even more so to do something with the ms. I did it in 2007 (fiction) and 2011 (memoir). Both mss. are under the bed, so to speak.
In the spirit of New Year's resolutions, let me offer an alternative.
Every year, usually on the 1st, my wife and I take out legal pads or notebooks and write out the answers to the following topics/questions:
What I am happy for
What I learned
What I leave behind
What I look forward to
We tackle them in that order, stopping to read aloud our often-long lists to each other after each one. Our lists are usually very detailed. Of course, these heading allow for much more than writing goals, but those can be included. The first two areas--what you're happy for and what you learned--are remarkably powerful for creating a positive mindset, and what I leave behind can be cathartic. Note the word "goals" doesn't appear; instead, looking forward to something frames your wishes in a positive affirmation.
As "Mikey" would say, try it, you'll like it.
I respect and enjoy these questions! For many years, I've taken the same tone and framework for assessing where I've been and where I would like to go, rather than setting formal "resolutions", and they've worked really well for me as guidelines for how I spent "the time I have" (thank you, J.R.R. Tolkien).
Well, your cheesiest comments are heartwarming and inspiring. I'll rededicate myself to adding to my short story collection and possibly publishing it. Thanks for all that you do for us!
Thanks, Becky! I am committed to completing what I think may be a novella that I started in early COVID. When done, it could be an anchor in a collection of stories about Holocaust survivors in a postwar world. To make sure I write, I've signed up for generative writing sessions that meet Tuesday nights and Friday nights.
I'm also committing to completing a YA novel in verse book proposal with a collaborator (I'm handling Jewish voices and she's handling black voices). Most of the poetry is done. I just have to finish the overview, market, and chronology of events for the structure section.
I continue my commitment to a weekly Zoom workshop for Mature Poets over 50. I continue my commitment to travel, because travel inspires my writing, and i'm booked for a trip this summer to Europe to visit two cities I've never been to (Amsterdam and Paris, with a stop in Bruges where I have been).
Best of luck reaching your goals, but more importantly, enjoy the community! You will LOVE Paris!
Enjoy your trip, Barbara! Three wonderful cities! I love Bruges! If you haven't already read it, I recommend reading The Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It, compiled and edited by Nina Siegal. My husband is Dutch and his father was part of the resistance and in hiding once he turned 18. I'm sure you plan to visit the Anne Frank house.
Thanks, Jane. Yes, indeed, I plan to visit the Anne Frank House.
Definitely reserve your tickets prior to your trip. :)
Your new year sounds full of wonderful projects and experiences! I love the existence of your
Mature Poets Over 50 (being way over 50 myself)! Wishing you safe, enjoyable, and meaningful travels!
I took Becky's advice for 2023 and aimed to receive 100 rejections from lit mags. I made it to 81 (s far), with three acceptances, so I'm feeling it was a reasonably productive year. Having wrapped my head around a number of these publications in terms of what they're looking for, and having gotten probably 6-7 positive rejections along the way, I'm planning on continuing to continue the same strategy in 2024. I also took three fiction courses through Stanford Continuing Studies, which were immensely helpful. I'm probably going to branch out to other online resources in the coming year to continue learn from established writers. If anyone has recommendations for sources of great writing courses on short fiction, I'd love to hear about them. My list of places already includes The Writers Studio, Gotham Writers Workshop, One Story, Grub Street, and One Story. Finally, I just have to say Becky's Lit Mag News, these Saturday discussions, and the numerous interviews with Lit Mag editors, have been incredibly helpful and energizing throughout the year. Onward to 2024!
Portland's Literary Arts. Great instructors. Great instruction! Check out Margaret Malone's short story intensive course. I took the course a few years ago, and it's the best online class I have taken (and I have taken a lot!)
I wrote my first novel in nanowrimo and it was dreck before a ton of editing but it did get accepted by a publisher and was released in 2009 so I think very fondly of those nano days. I did it a few more times after that. It’s a wonderful accountability system but it’s also important to know there will be editing to follow!
My goals are pretty straightforward this coming year. Another novel is coming out in April so I will be on the wild promotion ride once again. I’m determined not to exhaust myself and get Covid this time, though. And I’m determined to get time between the marketing for a handful of short stories and three essays which have been workshopped but not taken further.
I am in the midst of writing two novels and I want to finish a first draft of them both! I switch back and forth between them every week or two, which is my favorite way to write, because when I get tired of one story the other one that has been on the back of my mind is waiting for me to give it life.
These will be my third and fourth novels and I finally feel like I have gotten the hang of novel-writing, so while I know these first drafts will not be perfect I hope they will be in much better shape than the first drafts of the first two novels I wrote, which had to be completely disassembled and rewritten. I've already gone back and revised/redone the beginnings at least once this time around but feel excited about how they're turning out.
I like to make new writing goals each year, broken down by month (then I put them on my to do list in my planner for the start of each month). This year I commit to submitting my work to 5 magazines a month, writing 2 poems a month, and reading more books on craft from my personal library.
In past years I have set down very particular goals for the year, but this year I'm just not feelin' it. Maybe will sit in discernment mode for a bit. I so appreciate your reminder that the moment of beginning is whatever moment we choose.
I did do NaNoWriMo once, maybe 8 years ago. It was a fun challenge, but I only succeeded because of the structure (daily bar graph showing my progress) and the cheerleading. I produced a first draft that I revised and eventually pitched, but these days I am nearly pitched out.
So, no new goals for me. I do like Patrick's end of year practice below. Thanks for that!
Last year I started using an online Co-Writing group (you don't read or edit others work) open to any Writer or Creative, started by Allison K Williams. It's a get-your-butt-in-the-chair 75min muted, camera on or off, leave when you need to, that has me writing daily. I just committed to being the Weds host for this supportive community of writers, so I've deepened my commitment in 2024 to what works for me: structure, accountability, literary citizenship and community. All writers welcome. Daily 9:30amPST/12:30pn EST. If you want to try it Zoom links for Monday—Friday can be found at: https://linktr.ee/guerillamemoir
I’ve worked really hard these past several years. My novella in flash was published this year, I’ve compiled a body of work as a collection and I have a second novella making the rounds. I’ve applied to be a reader as I feel now I have something to give back to the literary community. I’m excited for my upcoming writing because I feel finally, I’ve found my voice. And, I’m heading back to Paris after the Summer Olympics. Walked almost 30 miles in 3 days the first trip and hope to double that the second. Happy Holidays and best of the New Year to you all!
I've received more frequent rejections than ever, and yet am more pleased with my writing for children (where I've received more acceptances than ever!) and for adults than ever in my life. I feel like I'm in my writing prime—marked by constant, productive writing and revision sessions, tons of submissions, and my 75th birthday. So my plans for the future are to continue: I recently parted ways with a wonderful agent who loved, but could not sell, my early childhood books, and look forward to a huge number of unagented submissions of a board book series I've just completed; and I will continue writing and submitting for very young children, whose voices I love to 'channel', and will continue writing poetry for adults, experimenting with form and content. I want to continue writing exactly what I love and want to write, and am determined to keep my focus on the meaning that gives my life.
In April, I participate in NaPoWriMo.
Battle-weary in 2023 because of rejections/declinations/“not at this time”s, I’ll write more and submit less in 2024.
Thank you, Becky, for your just right cheesy letter to us! I commit to continue to write and to challenge myself. I am still finishing Lopsided and I hope that I move on to my next project. I have a habit of treating rejections as a reason to keep revising. So -- ONE more revision and then move on. Also I commit to recommending The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar to everyone!
wow- someone has actually mentioned a book that is not their on Substack,which, considering it is a place for writers affirms my hope that more writers will learn to write by READING TOPNOTCH WRITERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY FROM OTHER COUNTRIES AND NOT THOSE THE GASUP THE CURRENT LISTS OF MAINLY WHITE. MIDDLLE CLASS RURAL SUBURBAN WRITER, WRITERS FROM ENGLAND, AND ONCE IN A WHILE A WRITER FROM FRANCE OR GERMANY (YOU CANT REALLY CALL THE CANNON EUROCENTRIC BECAUSE IT ALMOST ENTIRELY EXCLUDES EASTERN EUROPE ( WHERE SOME OF THE FINEST POETRY IS BEING WRITTEN AS I TYPE OR SCANDANVIA WHERE SOME OF THEBEST DETECTIVE MYSTERY WRITERS RESIDE. So than you Shifra for the recommended of The Time Regulation Institue by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar.
As a published fiction writer and novelist, I think the whole idea of writing a novel in a month is so typically absurd and a model of the American maniac propsensity for production, and speed, and quantityquantityquantiy whereas many writer especiay novelist take much longer, especially those nonprivileged of us who are single parents or work full time. There may in the history of someone writing a novel in a month , a person who enters THE WRITER'S ZONE WHICH CONSISTS OF A GLOW ANTHAT TAKES OVER YOUR ENTIRE SOUL AND BODY, AND STORY AND TECHNIQUE MERGE INTO A COMBINATION OF AWATERFAL AND A KLAIDISCOPE WHERE ON EVERY STREET IN THE WORLD THE LIGHTS ARE GREEN AND GRINNING. ALONG WITH THIS COMES A PLEASANTY DYNAMIC INSISTENCE ON GETTING EVERY DETAIL JUST RIGHT.
So much of life in America is spedup, an ongoing assembly line ( like most American schools, beep beep lets do subtraction for 45 minutes ( You're laidoff, and you, and you, and you now BEEP BEEP Time for Georgraphy get out your crayons Today we wll color in the American Southwest make sure your borders are clear BEEp. BEE time for the George Washinton/ Joyce Kilmer. I think that I will always beglad to see// A tree choppeddown again by me hey Tom want a cherry. Oh thats ok I have more than my share and Im busy playing with my 762 children. after all AM I NOT THE FATHER OF MY COUNTRY. DUDE, I BEG TO DIFFER BUT NOT DEFER. TBC BUT TO SUMP. THIS WRITE A NOVELL CONTET with all due respect, is an almost insane waste of peopes tieme and to this for one novelist
it is INSULTING.........SLLLLLLLLLLL
I've never done Nano but I have done 18 or so Napowrimos. Will do again in April. Very fruitful to have that many poems to play around with, many already published. I hope to have my novel's revisions done by the end of January. I need to continue to send stuff out. Mostly the same goals as usual. Good luck everyone!
For 2024, I'm going to kepp on doing what I'm doing, writing and getting my work out there. The main thing I need to accomplish right away (i.e., after Christmas) is updating my weekly, monthly, and annual writing-and-publishing-related task and goals lists.
I have two resolutions this year (it's nice to write them down—thanks, Becky, for the space). (1) Finish my 250,00-word novel—a novel so long that my MS Word spellchecker no longer works (this is Microsoft's way of so delicately saying the novel is way too long). And (2) Absolutely never ever write a novel this long again. (The second of these resolutions will be way easier than the first.) Happy New Year everybody!
This morning I set my goal for 2024: finish my first novel-in-progress draft (halfway through) and get my flash fiction published. Then I found your newsletter and your message appeared. Yes, I believe in stardust and visualization. I subscribed, paid the fee happily, and now I have direction on how to accomplish my goal.
I'd like to join the Reading Club but I don't know how to do it. Thanks for being here today when I needed your message
Send an email directly to Becky and she can explain how to get involved in the Reading Club.
Truth is, I find such commitments overwhelming. They sit on the horizon like huge judgy demands, toe-tapping in expectation, impatient with my failure to attend to them. I've found I'm more likely to overcome any reluctance to sit my butt down and write by allowing myself to work at will. There are no rules. No word counts. I take it day by day. That's not to say I'm not serious about my craft. It's just that, daunting as it may be, writing is among my great joys and I never want it to become a form of tyranny. I've learned how to manipulate myself, to con myself, to put in place things that will urge me toward the page, a ritual, a writing buddy, a cup of tea, a document conveniently left open so I can't miss its siren call. Inevitably, I'll be seduced and find myself caught up in the alchemy of word-smithing, lost to creating something from nothing, hammering out the kinks, burnishing my craft to a shine.
I wrote a novel for NaNoWriMo and my goal for the new year is to edit it until it's publishable. 😁
In the next week, I need to finish and submit my two poems for Writing the Land. I have ideas for each one but not yet even a first draft... I've recently started doing Wild Writing's 15-minute exercise, and yesterday I devoted my session to the land I'm writing about, Deer Creek Falls in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills. So now I have those ideas I mentioned plus 7 pages of rapidly-written prose where I hope to find a least a few nuggets of possibility.
In 2024 I want to write every day, or very close to it, including daily rapidly-written prose which in the fairly recent past has generated ideas for poems. I've had a dry spell, almost no new poems for the last couple of months, and I'm longing to return to those days when it seemed I had the draft of at least one new poem every week or so. I will continue with the Wild Writing and I've also registered for "Daily Write Round Robin" through The Writing Salon. I'm hoping those structures will prove useful.
I've done Nano once--to break a writer's block and learn how to shut up my inner editor.
For this year? I have to change my monthly author newsletter host because they're shutting down (TinyLetter). I had thought I would switch to Substack, but the latest kerfuffle has removed that option, at least for my author newsletter. I'm contemplating either a straight newsletter option like Mailerlite, or else Ghost. If I go with Mailerlite, then anything non-author newsletter gets put up on my WordPress and Dreamwidth, then my Substack for distribution to those readers.
Going to Mailerlite may be my final choice, actually. I need to develop direct sales this coming year and it integrates with BookFunnel. My issue is that I have a large backlist and it needs to be promoted.
Additionally, I'm almost done with the second book of a trilogy I plan to release late next spring, one of those situations where I will write all three books and then release them a month apart. I want to do a bunch of advance promotion because these books are going to be a real pain--they flirt with science fantasy, contemporary western, and a wee bit of paranormal as well as literary and romantic elements.
But getting a handle on promotion in this new era is a priority for 2024. The old marketing methods aren't necessarily going to be effective in the coming A.I. wave. After dedicating several years to the indie SFF competitions, I've decided they aren't for me. I don't gain that much visibility and it's clear that my style doesn't work for the reviewer panels (you only get so many reviews that read "well-written, engaging, but what is it/but nitpick/but...." to recognize that it's not hitting the sweet spot for the reviewers and the readers involved).
Tradpub isn't an option. Period.
In any case, something has to change with how I'm doing things and finding readers, so that's going to be a priority. Writing is easy; marketing is hard.
"Dark & Airy Spirits," a full-length collection of poems focused on first-hand ghost encounters and ghost-adjacent experiences, was already written and assembled 24 months ago but barely circulated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . then I wrote "Apprenticed to the Night" under contract.
From the stunning reception to "AttN" [still held captive in pre-release], from more than 2 dozen reviews for "Vampire Ventures" [released Oct. 2023] and from the pre-release comments for "Cancer Courts My Mother" [forthcoming January 2024], I have learned a lesson from dozens of reviews that have poured in for my other poetry titles.
The narrative arc for "Dark & Airy Spirits" needs to be seriously re-conceived.
I am grateful that other book releases interrupted "Dark & Airy Spirits" and the submission process. Now a cooler head will prevail - - - or so I'd like to think. :-)
Thanks Becky. I had it on 22nd and 28th, but thought the 22nd was wrong-lol. I'm just leaning to navigate Substack and I get lost in the wealth of it. Will watch for January's.
No worries, Charlotte. I honestly have been forgetting the dates and times for everything lately. We'll sort it out in the new year! :)
I thought there was something called a Submission Study Hall today Thursday Dec 28th but I can find it on this site. Maybe I have the wrong date?
Hi Charlotte. The study hall was on the 22nd! Sorry we missed you. But there will be another one in January, so keep your eyes out for that announcement.