Surviving 2017 One Word at a Time

January, the month when thousands upon thousands of goals and resolutions are made.  A time when we put aside the last 12 months, throw off the pack of the previous year and pick up a brand new shinny one determined to move forward and do....well better than the year before.  I come to the end of each year applauding myself for even reaching the finish line, even if I am on my hands and knees, clawing my way across, cut, bruised, having lost half my pack who knows how long ago, because no matter the state of myself, I FINISHED.  Some years beat my down more than others, while others bring such joy I am sad to see them go but no matter if it was a good one or not so good, come January 1st it all starts over at 0.

I hesitate every year to speak aloud or write down what I hope to accomplish for the year because I do not want to be yet another statistic of unmet goals and abandoned resolutions.  However, if I don't set some kind of finish line, some kind of goal for myself, what I do all year is run around aimlessly with an increasingly heavy pack with no real sense of accomplishment at the end of the year except...I'm alive.  Which honestly is a real feat some years trust me, and if your only goal for 2017 is simply to survive then let me be the first to cheer you on and say "YOU GOT THIS!!!"  For me I think I can do more than survive 2017 and I am hoping this year I can even thrive.  One of the areas of my life I am hoping to thrive in is my writing career and I have come up just a few goals on how I can hopefully make it possible.

First and foremost is finding that perfect agent for my book.  I finished my manuscript at the end of 2016 and a few days into 2017 I received my very FIRST rejection letter.  WAHOO!  Yes, I was bummed because I hoped that maybe I would be the exception and land an acceptance right out of the gate.  However, that rejection letter is like my passport stamp into the land of writers and it marks the true beginning on this long journey of being a published writer, which WILL HAPPEN!  It is also important to note that I did in fact have a dance party in my house with my husband and six cats shakin' it off with Taylor Swift.  So with that said how do I plan on finding the perfect agent?

• Writing a query letter that is brilliant....or first just writing that damn query letter.
• Researching various agents until I have a list of at lets say 50 to begin with, sending my query out and then wait....and wait...and wait...and then making another list if I need to.
• Possibly going to a writer's conference this year to pitch in person.

Second goal is to finish writing the second book in my trilogy and editing the crap out of it so that come December 31st 11:59 p.m, I will have a finished manuscript.  I spent a year and half editing, rewriting, editing, rewriting my rewrites, editing the rewritten rewrites, rewriting edits upon edits, deleting around 30k words (don't worry those words are safely in another folder if I ever need them again...even for a laugh at how awful some of my writing can be), and I never want to do that again.  This time around I will focus on quality words so that the editing process does not squash my soul once again.  I did learn a few things during my first book that I will implement this time around as well:

• Story boarding the entire book before I start writing so that I have an idea of where I am going and how I am going to get there.
• Finish a quality first draft by the end of June.  Instead of focusing on just getting words on the page I want the words that end up there to be ones I am proud of.
• To help accomplish this task I will be participating in Camp NaNo, which is a more relaxed version of NaNo. for the April session.
• The second half of the year I will focus on edits and rewrites to bring that quality first draft to a finished manuscript
• Redoing Story Board to reflect what needs to be edited
•  Participating in Camp NaNo's July session. 

My third and final goal for 2017 brings me to the reason and heart behind this blog post and that is Wordbound Wednesday, an online writing community and weekly prompts created by the lovely Kristina Horner.  (See below for links).  My goal is to be an active participant in this community and to write at least two of the prompts given each month.  For me #wordbound will be more than just a place to get a writing prompt but the community and accountability I will have in my life.  One of the reasons why NaNo works for me is knowing other writers are out there experiencing the same thing I am.  #wordbound will be a place for me during the NaNo off season where I can still reach out and have a writers hand to grab a hold of.

I am hopeful for this year, truly believing that come the end, I may be dragging my self across the finish line but I will also be dragging with me a lot of new (and edited) words with a great community on the sidelines cheering me on.  

WordBound Wednesday Info: http://kristinahorner.com/introducing-wordbound-wednesdays/