La-Tessa Montgomery

Another year has ended and new one is ushered in.  Every January 1^st  I’m compelled to take a look at the past year for an account of what I’ve accomplished and what I haven’t in relation to the writing goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. It’s all in the spirit of accountability.  If I can’t be accountable to myself, then I will not be accountable to anyone else.  So, taking a look back at 2011, the goals I set for myself included:

    1. Complete polished draft of Edge of Desire (the UF) and begin submission process
    2. Complete 1st draft of WFF and get the first 3 chapters polished (for submission & contests)
    3. Outline 2 new projects
    4. Apply for PRO status
    5. Set up office

And just how did I fair with these, you may ask:

1. Not quite- I am actively still working on my polished draft of the UF.  To say I got side tracked in 2011 is an understatement.  But on the flip side, I have renewed energy for this story and I am furiously working on it right now.

2. Umm… No- I got nowhere near touching WFF in 2011.  Outside of my new outline, WFF has been in a coma… waiting to be revived.  In fact, I like to think of it as a modern day Sleepy Beauty, just waiting for its Prince to come along.  (And by “Prince” I mean me sitting my butt in the darn chair and hammering out the outline and cranking out the words.)

3. Yes, but No- I now have the next 2 stories in my contemporary romance series formulated (yay!),  but I have not put my thoughts on paper yet or made any tangible brainstorming progress. (I know, I know… There is no excuse)

4. No.  It’s a tad bit hard to apply for PRO when you are working on multiple manuscripts, yet not finishing one of  them.  But I digress…

5.  And for the 2^nd year in a row, I gotta say NO!  This really shouldn’t be this hard; I’ve YET to redo my office.  But I have a feeling I won’t have a choice but to get this one done in 2012.  In fact, I’m almost willing to bet that if I don’t do a thing else, I will definitely have a new office set up going

Now that the year-end accountability is over, I’m looking towards 2012 and the things I plan to accomplish this year.  Instead of my traditional resolutions and goals, I’m going to take my critique partner’s advice and rally around a theme.  After much thought, my theme for 2012 (In all aspects of my life) will be PURSUIT.  Just in case you are unfamiliar with this term, Dictionary.com has it defined as:

Pursuit [per-soot] –  an effort to secure or attain; quest:

I am very committed to my goals of becoming a successfully published author.  I have invested years into increasing my knowledge and understanding of the craft, improving the consistently of my writing, and the development of my voice and style.  So, in keeping with my Pursuit theme for 2012, I have two areas I want to concentrate on as far as my writing goes.

In pursuit of my goal to become a published author, I will:

1. Complete my polished UF draft, enter it into contests and pitch it to editors/agents for consideration
2. Complete a rough draft of WFF (book #1 in my contemporary romance series)
3. Complete a rough draft of book #2 in my contemporary romance series

In pursuit to my goal to develop/expand my own author platform, I will:

1. Develop  workshops centered around my subject matter expertise (social media, branding and PR) as it relates to helping authors promotion themselves and establish a web presence.  It is my hope that I will be able to conduct said workshop(s) throughout 2012 at a variety of venues.

So here you have it. You know what I’ll be working towards in 2012, what about you?

Someday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar
~John Mayer

If interested, you can check out my personal 2011 reflections and plans for 2012 here.

The first quarter of 2011 is done and in the books.  I gotta say, those 3 months passed in a blur.  Personal challenges not withstanding, my main focus Jan-Mar was completing my UF draft so I could submit it to my mentor for feedback, thus getting the ball rolling on the revisions.  And as you can see from the status bar over there on the right –>, I am DONE with the UF draft!! 

 Oh, it’s in serious need of repair, but I got a fully flushed out draft to work with now. :-)  At this point, I’m in unchartered territory.  I’ve never had a completed, full length rough draft before.  And now I’m about to enter into my first set of revisions on said draft.  I can now check off 2 more milestones on this journey of mine. 

This year for my Qtr recaps, I’ve decided that instead of just talking about what I’ve done the last 3 months, I would actually speak to my progress on the tangible goals I set for myself this year.  To recap, my 2011 writing goals are:

     #1. Complete polished draft of Edge of Desire (the UF) and begin submission process
     #2. Complete 1st draft of WFF and get the first 3 chapters polished (for submission & contests)
     #3. Outline 2 new projects
     #4. Apply for PRO status
     #5. Set up office

#1- I have a completed rough draft of the UF (coming in at roughly 80k+ words).  The draft has been submitted to Lori for feedback and direction (I received her feedback today actually–it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be).  My goal is to have the revisions complete by the end of Qtr 2 and the possibly (possibly) pitch it when I go to NY in June.  So all in all, I am making good progress on this goal.

#2- I made no progress on this goal during Qtr 1. As I mentioned above, my focus was finishing up my UF draft.  But as I will say–as it is  technically Qtr 2  as I write this–I did plot out this story in it’s entirety over the weekend at my retreat with help from Karen Docter (more on that later).  So I am progressing along with this goal as well.  My target is to spend time during Qtr 2 working on my character profiles.

#3- No progress made on this goal yet.  Hopefully by the end of Qtr 2, I will have solid thoughts on where I want book 2 in both my UF series and my contemp romance series to go.  I’m shooting to start brainstorming these in early Qtr 3.

#4-  Making progress on this goal.  I have my UF draft done and I am set to work on the revisions.  I may be ready to pitch this story by the beginning on Qtr 3, the mid-end of Qtr 3 at the very latest. But I am positive that I will have by PRO status by the end of this year.

#5- I picked out my paint colors for the office. YAY!  Took me forever to do it, but I did it.  But that’s about all I’ve done on this goal.  I plan to have the office painted by the end of Qtr 2.  I also hope to have some decorating decisions cemented as well by then.  Another goal for Qtr 2 includes having my 2011 tax binder set up and IN USE.  It’s still pretty early in the year and I don’t have many receipts yet, but I need to get a move on with this.   Having just turned in my tax info for 2o1o, it would have been so much easier if I’d maintained my 2010 tax binder.  Instead, I was searching and combing through files, boxes, and all sorts of stuff looking for receipts.  Not again I tell ya, not again.

So all in all, I have a pretty good Qtr 1 in the bag and a busy Qtr 2 to look forward to.

~Someday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar

It’s 2011 and time for me to think about my plans and goals for the new year.  But before I take a look ahead, I thought I’d take a peek back at 2010…

I set 6 goals for myself in 2010:
1. Set a writing schedule and stick to it- DONE!
2. Read my top 3 craft books- Erm, not  so much
3. Complete at least 2 manuscripts this year-  Not quite
4. Send out at least 5 query letters- HAHAHAHA (that’s a no)
5. Set up my office- Sort of, I got organized, but not painted & decorated
6. Set up tax binder- Yes

There where some things I didn’t get to in 2010, but there’re several milestones and accomplishments I did complete.  By adhering to a schedule, I wrote a total of  114,748 words last year, the most I’ve ever written in a year, or period for that matter,  since I started by in 2008.  But my biggest accomplishment of the year is finalling in the Drive ‘Em Wilde contest sponsored by Savvy Authors.  The competition was fierce and while I didn’t pull down the win, 2nd place ain’t bad at all.

Other milestones achieved in 2010 include:
1. Getting 50% through my romance manuscript (which I started over from near scratch)
2. Finishing the draft of my Urban Fantasy novel- My first completed draft ever!
3. Receiving my first rejection
4. Finishing my first sex scene (you have no idea how long I’d been putting that off)
5. Gaining more confidence in my process

All in all, 2010 was a good writing year for me, but I can make 2011 better.  I have a solid foundation now as far as craft knowledge, excellent critique partners, and a process that works for me.  But of course, being the goals oriented type of girl that I am and my need to strive for greatness, I have 5 goals for 2011:

1. Complete polished draft of Edge of Desire (the UF) and begin submission process
2. Complete 1st draft of WFF and get the first 3 chapters polished (for submission & contests)
3. Outline 2 new projects
4. Apply for PRO status
5. Set up office– yeah, this one again- LOL

2011 is the year of No Excuses for me.  Time to pee or get off they pot, as “they” say

~Someday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar…

I’ve been needing a kick in the pants, as far as my writing goes; as well as a much needed break from my contemporary romance (that I’ve been working on for 2 yrs).  Savvy Authors is hosting a June Boot Camp this month.  The goal being to take the 30 days of June and either complete a draft, or complete the revision/edits on your wip.

Because I need some a bit of mental space from Worth Fighting For (the contemporary romance) and work on my Urban Fantasy.  I’ve not given up on WFF, I am actually very pleased with the progress I’ve made on it.  But since I’ve changed the story up so much from my original outline, I need a little time to work on they second half of the story.  So Savvy’s June Boot Camp seemed just the thing to both give me a bit of a breather, but allow me to pursue a fresh idea that is burning a hole in my imagination, trying to escape my mind and get down on paper. Lovely bit of imagery that is, don’t you think-LOL 

So, I’ve I got my new word count meter set, and I am officially on the clock.  My mission is to draft a 90,000 word draft of, what is initially termed, an Urban Fantasy.  Outside of some brainstorming & idea tossing I’ve been doing within my own mind (and out loud at times), and constantly dragging my patient CP into the depths of my crazy ideas and rationale, I really don’t know where this is headed.

Crazy?

Yes.  But you know, I want to shake things up and get the creative juices flowing.  Hopefully after a month off from WFF, I will have a finished UF draft and a golden plan for the last 50 % of WFF.

Ok, off to write now. 

(My posting consistency is already spotting , so don’t expect too much from me this month.  Although, I do have 2 posts that will be coming up soon.  One a review on a very good ebook  and another a craft related post about a concept call Fast Drafting.

This morning, a few short minutes ago, I successfully completed chapter 11 of my contemporary romance.  And why is this important you say?

Well, I’ll tell you why!!   For one, with my final word count from this morning, I am now OFFICIALLY over 50% done with this story!! WOOHOO. I have been working on this (in varying degrees) for the past 2 years.  I am now, as of this morning, finally on the downside of the hump.  I am quite proud of myself as I have threaten to chuck this book more times than I care to admit, including at least 3 times this past week alone. 

And the second milestone you may also ask yourself, considering this blog’s title is “More Milestones” not “I’m halfway through”-lol.  Well, l’ll tell you that one too.  I completed my first full sex scene this morning.  Just let me tell you how hard this was.  I’ve been dreading and avoiding this moment from the very second I decided I wanted to write a romance 2 years ago.

But it’s done ~done in my best imitaion of a dying gladiator that had just enough will left to kill his opponent–who’d btw killed his family and burned his lands and killed his dog– before he succumbed to his own fatal injury) <– see, I have quite the active and dramatic imagination, now you see why I write.

So to borrow a word from another friend and writing buddy Mynfel, I am just full of AWESOME SAUCE today.  So I am heading off to take the kids swimming while I am riding the wave self-fulfilment, because I know me and it won’t be too long before I’m wanting to chuck this story again.