You’ll note that a couple of these goals have been here for a couple of weeks now, and that’s because I keep finding reasons to not get around to them.  Specifically, reviewing and revamping the outline for the second draft of “Into the Wastes” as well as doing some reading research of some of my favorite fantasy books.

Another reading goal that has been added is to read a book each week.  I’ve fallen out of reading novels in favor of short stories over the last year or so, and it’s high time I get back to it.  As stated in an earlier post, reading is just as important a task for writers as writing is.  Reading is what gets most of us interested in writing in the first place, and by reading other authors we can see technique in action and learn from it.  It’s an enjoyable form of research, and it makes me feel a little guilty when I do it.  That’s probably why I keep finding excuses to not do it, but no more!

Writing Goals (Any titles listed are working titles):

• Revise and submit “Listening Post” (3,500 salable words or less)
• Revise and submit “Fallout Ariel” (1,000 salable words or less)
• Revise and submit “Alien Concept” (1,000 salable words or less)
• Write, revise, and submit “Songs of Fate” (4,000 salable words or less)
• Write, revise, and submit “Signalmen” (4,000 salable words or less)
• Revise and submit “Gentle Breeze” (3,500 salable words or less)
• Finish rough draft of “You Are My Brothers” and get ready to outline it (6,000 more words of rough draft)
• Outline “Sublease” and get ready for the rewrite.
• Write outline for the second draft of “Into the Wastes”, a fantasy novel about a company of crusaders sent into their kingdom’s northern hinterlands to deal with one threat, only to discover multiple threats.

Reading Goals:

• Read each of the five stories that Daily Science Fiction puts out this week.
• Read Rhapsody, the first of the “Symphony of Ages” series by Elizabeth Haydon.
• Re-read the prologues and opening chapters for several epic fantasy novels, including King’s Dragon (Kate Elliott), The Green Rider (Kristen Britain), and The Eye of the World (Robert Jordan), amongst others.  I’m doing this as an exercise to see if there is anything common in each book’s opening chapters and how that could benefit the opening chapters to “Into the Wastes.”

Words Goal:

Total Fiction: 35,000

Salable: 17,000