Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New Year's Writing Goals

Ahoy there!

So what are your writing goals for 2011? Got plans to attend workshops and conferences? Will you be trying something new with your craft? Are there new books to begin or old ones to revise, or both? Lay your plans out on the table so we can all cheer you on as you go for it!

This year I'm planning to attend my local SCBWI conference, to get the book I started last summer drafted, revised, and ready for submission, to read at least one book a week and review the ones I like on my book review blog (posted a new review today!) and to start saving up to take myself and the cabin girl to the 2012 Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Workshop.

So how about you?

Oh, and if you're going to kick off the new year with some submissions, I came across these amusing Submission Guidelines from author David Lubar.

18 comments:

  1. My goals? To get a killer contract with a publisher of course. Now we'll see if hard work and desperate prayers can make it happen. :)

    I also want to go to the WIFYR conference in June. I heart WIFYR. Now to find 500 bucks. Anyone? Anyone?

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  2. My writing goal for the new year: keep writing

    The end

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  3. Rebecca, thanks for the link to David Lubar's hilarious piece. My plans? Attend the WYIRW and hopefully meet you, write a book or two and clean up the ones I've already written. Most off all, I plan to submit, submit, and then submit some more! Thanks for letting me blog with you on Scribblers Cove!

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  4. @Rebecca Those sound like awesome goals (for you and the Cabin Girl!). Mine are simple: keep writing and trying to publish. And improve my craft - I'm thinking of doing a writer's intensive rather than a regular conference this year.

    Happy New Year, everyone! :)

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  5. What intensive did you have in mind, Sue?

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  6. @Rebecca I've just started thinking of it as an alternative to a big conference (i.e. the SCBWI-LA)- which I greatly enjoyed, but I'm not sure I want to do every year. My friend Sherrie is thinking about the LA Working Writer's Retreat, and if I was visiting family in LA again this summer, that might be an option. Otherwise, I would want to do something local to minimize cost. Any suggestions?

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  7. Great goals. For me, my memoir The Next Fifteen Minutes, will be published in 2011 *grin*. My goals mostly revolve around promoting, editing and working with my publisher. I hope to give talks, post on my blog regularly, develop a separate website for my book, and guest post on other blogs. Just writing these goals down makes them more concrete. Thanks.

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  8. That's weird, I just realized I had made all sorts of fitness goals this year, but not writing goals. Oh, I have things I want to do, but I hadn't solidified. So, let's say: finish one book, rewrite another, and yes, I am tempted to do the WFYR workshop again in June!

    Here's what I really hope for this year: I stop thinking my writing stinks so bad. I think I'm just being counterproductive with that attitude.

    So... here's to positive thinking and confidence! *clink*

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  9. Congrats on the memoir, Kim! Have a happy year of promoting and here's wishing you lots of sales.

    Sue, I had been thinking of going to SCBWI-LA this year, but it comes the same weekend that school starts here in Hawaii, and my husband will be teaching, and it just wasn't a good time to leave my family. I do have family in LA too. When's the Working Writers Retreat?

    Amber, as the captain, I order you to stop thinking your writing stinks right now. Would I have asked to read your whole manuscript if your writing didn't charm and delight me? I don't think so.

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  10. @Rebecca I haven't been able to track down a date, but last year's retreat was in September.

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  11. Oh, and Jonene, I won't be going to WIFYR this year, but I am coming to Utah in July for a family reunion. Maybe then the Utah scribblers can all meet for lunch someplace?

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  12. Rebecca, sounds like fun! We'll see you in July, then.

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  13. Great post. I hope to finish my MS., and move onto a new one. Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2011.

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  14. My 2011 goals are to write, write, and write some more! :)

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  15. Wow. Hmmm...my main goal for this year is to find that "one" agent who will love my story as much as I do. *sigh*

    Beyond that, I'd like to start a new project. :-)

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  16. @Rebecca Well, I found my writer's retreat! I'm going to a week long writing intensive at Univ of Wisconsin, Madison called Write on the Lake. It was highly recommended by a local writer-friend (and excellent published author) Kat Falls. It will be in June. So, I'm thinking I'm pretty much out for SCBWI-LA this year - maybe in 2012!

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  17. That sounds lovely, Sue! And I've begun plotting to kidnap my sister who lives in New Jersey and take her to SCBWI-NY 2012.

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  18. @Rebecca Oooh! That sounds like awesome fun. :)

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What be on yer mind?