Totally on it
No Friday 5 last week! And such a shame, because it was a really good one, particularly for writers, since it was all about stories. I was in charge of planning a conference for my day job that I was at all weekend, and I was too frantic and busy on Friday to do the 5. This week, though, I’m totally on it!
Anyway, here’s a look at my goals from last week and the progress I made on them:
- Write at least 2,000 more words in my WIP. I’m going to a conference out of town this weekend for my day job, so that seriously cuts into writing time, but I think I can cobble enough time together during the week to do it. – Success! I actually wrote 2,467 words in my WIP last week. All of the writing was done at the beginning of the week because of the conference. I haven’t written anything for it in October yet! That will change this week.
- Start reading The First Five Pages and think about if anything applies to my first ms. Nope, this didn’t happen. I’ve been reading The Lost Symbol instead. My book club will be discussing it this month and I asked a friend if I could borrow her copy when she was done reading it. She dropped it off at the beginning of the week and mentioned that her husband wanted to read it when I was done, so that became my reading priority. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it, though, so I’ll be able to pick up the craft books soon.
But, lest you think I’ve been doing nothing on revising my first manuscript… When I wrote last week’s post I forgot that an online class was beginning this week that I signed up for at the beginning of September through Pennwriters. The class is about being your own best editor:
Have you ever written a short story or novel and wondered if it was done? Have you made revisions and thought you were finished, but then realized once you started to send the piece out that it needed work?
Perfect! The instructor just posted our first assignment and I think it’s going to be really helpful in determining whether to further revise my first ms.
So, what are my writing goals for this week?
- Write at least 3,000 more words in my WIP. This is looking like a much less hectic week, so I think it’s definitely feasible.
- Complete assignments in my editing class to help me figure out if my first ms needs further revision. The assignments in the class aren’t mandatory, but I think they’ll be really helpful.
- Start reading The First Five Pages. I should be done with The Lost Symbol within the next day or two, so this will be possible. It should be a nice complement to the course I’m taking.
