Announcing WINDSHIELDS! + NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up

In this final post of the year, I have some news to share. I mentioned about two months ago that I had an announcement to make regarding OSAI. Here it is:

The anthology for the 2015 creative writing class (which includes me) has been released.

Once more, there is a picture of each contributor and three pages worth of work from them. I have one flash fiction piece and two poems included. I'm quite proud of them.

If you would like more information about the anthology or if you perhaps want your own copy, links are on my Publications page.

Hopefully, I'll have news of more publications soon. I submitted three poems to two literary magazines on my campus and am currently waiting to hear back. I submitted a short story to a contest being judged by Ellen Hopkins as well. I don't really expect to win, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have my work read by one of my favorite authors.

I would also like to tell y'all how my NaNoWriMo went, now that it's nearly the end of December. I finished with a word count of 17,718. Of course, that's no where near goal. However, I am not disappointed. This is kind of what I expected. And 17k is nothing to scoff at. It's a big chunk of a novel, a whole beginning. Something I wouldn't have if I hadn't tried NaNoWriMo this year.

As I said, this will be my last post of 2015, but I think I'll be posting again soon. I'm currently working on my goals for the upcoming year, which involves some serious thinking about priorities and what I want. I may have some decisions to share.

NYR Update - 7 Months

1. I will have complete THINKING OF YOU's ready for query first round of revisions. I went back over the first six chapters, then sent them to two of my critique partners. This concludes the small revisions.
2. I will have two new first drafts. I finished plotting the marriage dystopian which I have entitled OBJECTION.
3. I will win National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo).
4. I will submit at least two short stories to two anthologies, journals, ezines, and/or contests. I have decided to submit a poem I wrote at camp to Vine Leaves Literary Journal after I edit it.
5. I will read at least one hundred books. I read five books this month and am currently reading three others. Goodreads says that I am eleven books behind.
6. I will post at least one vlog a month. I made and posted a video where I talk about the first part of Fahrenheit 451.
7. I will exercise in some way once a week. For the first two weeks (July 1-14) I was at my grandparents' where I took many neighborhood walks. The fourth week (July 22-28) I went swimming for an hour.

July went much better than June overall. Right now my two biggest concerns are the reading and the exercising. These seem to be the goals that I am doing the worst on. On Michael's suggestion, I downloaded an app called My Fitness Pal. It allows me to log when I exercise. Not only it is a motivator, but these records will be a big help as I often forget when I've exercised. As for the reading, I don't know what I can do besides set aside more time for it. I already have plenty of material to read.

I do wish to celebrate a breakthrough I've made on my revisions of THINKING OF YOU. The revising schedule idea did not go so well (I managed two or three days in a row), but my fear of revisions has finally subsided. Before the thought of so much change and having no idea how to implement that change scared the crap out of me, probably the reason it's taken me so long to do so little. I believe I've gotten over this and can get some real work done now.

This month, however, the goal that I am putting most of my efforts into is the second. I'm using Camp NaNoWriMo to finish my first draft of OBJECTION. For current updates on my word count and goals, I suggestion you look at my Tumblr.

Anything special you're focusing on this month?

NYR Update - 1 Month

February 1st. Already one month into the year. A twelfth of the time I have to fulfill my New Year's Resolutions gone, just like that. And because it was just like that, I realized I have to focus on my goals. I can't get distracted or 2012 will be over before I know it.

So, I decided that at the beginning of each month I will write up a report on how I did the previous month. I will not be grading my progress, only stating what I've been doing toward each respective goal. My hope is that this will keep me working by both serving as a reminder of what I want and making me accountable for my actions.

1. I will have THINKING OF YOU ready for query. I imported the document to Scrivener and formatted it (mostly) to my liking. I went over my first chapter critiques and revised my first chapter. I noted some changes I need to make later in the novel.
2. I will have two new first drafts. NA
3. I will win National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). NA
4. I will submit at least two short stories to anthologies and/or contests. I made a small list of contests and places to submit. I came up with a basic idea for a story that I will be entering in one such contest.
5. I will read at least one hundred books. I read nine books. Goodreads tells me that I'm right on track.
6. I will post at least one vlog a month. I posted my vlog for January. I decided on the vlog idea for February.
7. I will exercise. I ran twice, once for thirty minutes and once for twenty. I am also making a slight revision to this resolution to make it more specific. I have found this makes it easier to stay on course. I will exercise in some way once a week.

I tried another method to keep myself on track, as well. I made myself a list of goals for each day. It sort of worked, and I liked it. While it reminded me of what I had to do, I thought of it as a flexible outline, keeping away the stress. I still want to play with it, however. Perhaps I'll try a list per week, or a list per three days.

Tell me about your progress, whether it be on your WIP, your New Year's Resolutions, or other goals and projects you might have. What do you do to keep yourself focused?

Is Blog "Published" Considered Published?

If you've been reading my blog for a while (or a month), you know that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to "submit at least two short stories." Thanks to Theresa who sent me a whole list of contests and literary magazines, Charity who writes posts on any contest she thinks worth entering, and Michael who makes sure I read those posts, I have a few places in mind. All of them require the submission to be unpublished.

If you've been reading my blog a little while (or a year) longer, you know that I've posted many short stories thanks to The Chrysalis Experiment. Many of those stories are good or at least have the potential to be, if I do say so myself, and I think they would have a chance at winning or being accepted (whichever the case may be).

My only concern is, if I have posted or "published" the story on my blog, is it considered published? Would I be able to submit it? What do you think?

A More Specific Beginning

Beginnings are one of my favorite things. The beginning of a week (Sunday, people, Sunday), the beginning of a month, and especially the beginning of a year. And today happens to be all three of those. Why do I like beginnings so much? I'm explained it before so I won't waste words.

"...everything is suddenly fresh, like everything has been wiped clean and I can just start over. It also sort of feels like a jumping off point."

-A Hopeful Beginning (January 1, 2011)

Of course, beginnings lead to endings (right after middles) lead to beginnings. And seeing as the post quoted above was a beginning and this post is a beginning, an ending had to occur in there somewhere. The ending of 2011. With that ending comes the fact that the year to accomplish the resolutions I expressed last New Year's is over. Before I move on to 2012, I would like to wrap up all things 2011.

I will be using the same format I used at my Midway Point report.

1. I will write everyday. I didn't do this. I didn't even build up to doing this. However, I have greatly improved my writing habits. With The Chrysalis Experiment I have managed to write every week excluding a few in the summer. With NaPoWriMo and NaNoWriMo I wrote everyday in April and November. And with Camp NaNoWriMo I wrote the majority of days in August. B
2. I will write a blog post or in my journal every day. I'm just going to give up on the journal. I've never been able to keep a steady one going and I hate what comes out when I write in them. Journaling just isn't for me. Blogging is more my style and, while I haven't done it everyday, I have erected a schedule for every third day (even if I kind of fell of the wagon the last month or so). Also, I have 169 posts for this year, just shy of a post every two days. B-
3. I will learn to vlog. I made two videos the whole year. Two. And only one of them was a vlog. I tried to make another video, but I failed because I didn't have the right editing software or knowledge. Editing is very essential to making good videos, vlogs or otherwise. D
4. I will become more organized with when and what I write (or edit). I really don't know how to assess how I did for this one. At the beginning of the year, I was pretty persistent and organized about how I "edited" THINKING OF YOU. I knew when I was going to write poetry (NaPoWriMo) and when I wanted to focus on a solitary project (ie. Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo). But, I don't think I really accomplished what I was going for. C
5. I will become better at critiquing others work. Not only am I still a part of the blog Unicorn Bell that I mentioned at my Midway Point report, I also have two new critique partners. Steph Sinkhorn and Christina Bejjani. A
6. I will not give in to peer pressure or do anything that I don't want to do (excusing homework assignments). Haven't experienced any serious peer pressure. N/A

I suppose I didn't do too terribly bad, but I won't dwell on it. Instead I'm going to take those mistakes and achievements and move on into 2012 by jumping straight into my goals with a vlog stating this year's New Year's Resolutions!

And for those that can't see the video:

1. I will have THINKING OF YOU ready for query. I need to get serious about my writing. I'm focusing on one project, part of that whole "organized" thing. This is the project I chose because I know what direction I want to go with it and I feel closest to it right now. As an add on to this goal, I also want to have a brief outline of the sequels.
2. I will have two new first drafts. One from Camp NaNoWriMo (probably doing August) and one from NaNoWriMo (November). One being my untitled princess close story (which I've mentioned once) and the other being a dystopian based around marriage. I wrote two new first drafts in 2011, I can do it again.
3. I will win National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). I haven't written much poetry since I did this last year, unless you count FOREVER, FROG. I really enjoy poetry and want to get back into it, plus this definitely helps with writing habits.
4. I will submit at least two short stories to anthologies and/or contests. Last year, I submitted my first Chrysalis story to an anthology. I rushed into it, forgot to put a title in my email and used a casual email address. I also entered a contest hosted by Seventeen magazine. This one I put a bit of thought into and I feel like it's turning out much better. It's still going on (my entry here and instructions on how to vote here). I want to continue to do these things and to put myself out there.
5. I will read at least one hundred books. I've talked before about how many unread books I have. That number hasn't gone down (quite the opposite in fact) and I would really like it to. I will be using GoodReads to keep track of this goal.
6. I will post at least one vlog a month. This is a more specific goal than last year's and, I feel, easier to keep track of. I've already started on this particular resolution. -pokes video above-
7. I will exercise. I talked about my lack of muscle in my summer's goals post and since then we have obtained a Kinect. Exercising while playing games is way funner. Those dancing games really burn after a while. This is my more personal goal.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

First Rejection

In April, I submitted RUDE TO STARE, my first Chrysalis story, to New Writing Dundee's sixth anthology. I had been waiting (not so) patiently considering I was so supposed to hear back by the end of May. Yesterday, I felt my heart give a little jump when I saw their email in my inbox.

Hello,

I am very sorry to inform you that your work was not chosen for publication in NWD 2011. We received roughly 300 submissions this year, and narrowing this down was a very difficult task.

Please do feel free to submit to New Writing Dundee again in the future. We will be accepting submissions again in December, and keep an eye on http://www.literarydundee.co.uk/newwriting.htm for information on purchasing New Writing Dundee and various NWD events.

Thank you again for your submission and your support for New Writing Dundee.

Best wishes,

(This is where it gets weird.) I had been wondering about this day for a while now. How would I feel? Would I cry? Would I walk around in a state of depression before becoming determined to show them they were wrong? The truth? I was elated!

And (after reading this post) I sat down and wrote 2k on THE LULLABY.