Anybody play Fluxx? It’s a card game where the rules change based on which cards are on the table. There’s a card called “I need a goal!” I keep seeing that card in my mind because…I NEED A GOAL!
A group of local SCBWI members has decided to do NaNoWriMo next month (which begins SATURDAY!), but we decided we don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. We’re setting our own goals for November (whether that be to write a 50,000 word novel, revise a novel, finish a novel we’ve already started, whatever we want to do!) and then we’re going to get together for regular write-ins, check in with each other via e-mail etc.
Our first write-in is this Saturday! We’re going to start by stating our goals (like I said, I need a goal!), then we’re going to spend the next 3-4-5 hours writing (with occasional breaks for coffee, tea, pizza, salad, grilled cheese, conversation…).
I know I’ll be spending a couple days in November going through final queries on Yes, I Know the Monkey Man and making any last changes I want to make before the book is typeset (my last chance to make significant changes, so this is the stage I have a hard time letting go…)…so whatever goal I set will allow time for that (and I don’t know when that will be happening).
Here are my possible goals:
1) write book 1 of this series I’m proposing for Albert Whitman…but what if they see the proposal, which I’m almost ready to turn in, and decide they’re not interested? I could send it to my agent, but that brings me to goal #2:
2) revise the science fiction mystery that I told said agent I would do more than a YEAR ago now (hey, I’ve had one contract after another since then, so I haven’t had a chance to go back and work on that). But she has asked me about it several times…she’s hopeful she’ll be able to sell it…she doesn’t even know about the series; I’ve only talked about the series with the Albert Whitman people. (Well…and I mentioned it to my Peachtree editor when we were talking a couple weeks ago because there were some very weird coincidences that came up in that conversation. She did say to let her know if Albert Whitman doesn’t want it…)
3) try a memoir. I’ve considered it ever since I heard Natalie Goldberg speak last winter. One of the people in our group did one for NaNoWriMo last year.
4) My high schooler wants me to write a script (which, like the memoir, is also something I’d like to try “sometime”)…he and I had a lot of fun with the Independent Film Festival a few months ago. And I reconnected with an old writer friend there…this writer friend is now interested in scriptwriting, so we actually talked about forming a little scriptwriting group (her, her sister, me and my high schooler!)…
5) start something completely new and see where it goes
6) write 50,000 words…any 50,000 words…on a variety of projects
