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Where’s YOUR Energy At?

Introduction:

I got out of a bad marriage in the middle of the pandemic while becoming sober. Someday, I’m sure I’ll be proud and amazed; for now, I still don’t think I believe it all! So that got me thinking…what else can I accomplish that I previously thought impossible? Can I call upon these superpowers elsewhere in my life? I’ll use this question as a springboard as I plan my 2022 writing year.

You’ve probably heard of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). I’m not going to make “getting an agent” a goal, because it’s not Achievable; I can’t make this happen–it’s not completely up to me. But there are plenty of other, Measurable goals that I have. Here’s my favorite part: organzing my goals to make them Achievable over the Time of one year. (I know, I’m kind of nuts….)

I want to start strong with the coming of 2022. (Let’s face it: over a year-and-a-half of contentious divorce doesn’t leave much time for writing, let alone bandwidth for thinking about much else!) Here is my four-fold plan of attack:

1. Write more rough drafts of new picture book stories (let’s say ONE new manuscript per month).

2. Submit something. (I actually went through 2021 submitting next to nothing. I only submitted one poem to two magazines, and just for practice.)

3. Generate more magazine articles. In particular, I’ll use what kids’ magazines (Crickets, Highlights, A Boy’s Life, Stepping Stones) are looking for to practice writing poetry (let’s say ONE new magazine article per month). 

4. Participate in all twenty-four of my local critique group meetings if I can, as well as keep in touch with all of my friends in the writing community.

Now I’ll break down those goals even further:

January through March, 2022:

Tara Lazar’s Storystorm is something I look forward to every year. I get so many ideas in that powerful month of January; I usually don’t have time to use all of them in the year ahead. (I also tend to get ideas throughout the year, usually while driving or just before falling asleep–I still have many ‘leftovers’ from 2021 to write about.)

And I’ll join Julie Hedlund’s 12 x 12 and actually participate in 2022.

Finally, I intend to enter the Valentiny contest in February (Susanna Leonard Hill), the #50PreciousWords contest in March (Vivian Kirkfield), and Madness Poetry in March (Ed DeCaria).

Oh, and I aim to compose one new blog post every month… and give my website a makeover.

April through June, 2022:

I want to use spring to expand the ideas I will generate in January into complete manuscripts–from scrawled notes in one of my plethora of notebooks to polished stories. As of now, I have twelve manuscripts that give me energy when I think about them and that my fingers are itching to write. 

A few other things I want to explore next spring are researching the market, reading as many newer picture books as I can get my hands on, and compiling a list of good-fit agents and editors to whom I should submit.

And I’ll blog….

July through September, 2022:

The summer will be for submitting. I’ll do research and refresh my memory on how to write a good cover letter and get as many reasonable submissions out as possible.

I find querying to be a bit tedious, so it’ll be good to do it in the summer. I’ll spend some time submitting and then go outside in the sunshine for a walk or a jog.

Oh yes, and I’ll blog.

October through December, 2022:

NaNoWriMo is a must–I’ve been doing it for the past four years, and I don’t want to stop now. Even though I haven’t reread most of the novels I’ve created in November, I know I’ll get to them, just like I know the practice of writing is worth it in and of itself. Plus, I enjoy it!

This might also be a good time to resume editing my super special secret NaNoWriMo story from a couple of years ago. I’ve got a gut feeling about this one. Without giving the plot away, I’ll say that I relied heavily on my knowledge and experience as an optometrist to create it. I haven’t stopped feeling certain (since I wrote it in…2019?) that this story will go places!

As for contests, I’ll participate in Susanna Hill’s Haloweensie contest, as well as her Holiday Writing Contest. 

And…I will continue to blog, Blog, BLOG!

Conclusion:

I am so excited and happy…this is the first blog I’ve written in a looooooong time. I am reentering the literary world; get ready everybody, here I come!

What are your goals for 2022.

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What I Learned from My First NaNoWriMo Experience

It was quite a trip, literally and figuratively.  I did “win” my first NaNoWriMo experience, with better-than-expected results.  Allow me to share what I learned.

1.There will usually be something more appealing to do, especially after the first week.

Once I hit that 15,000-word mark, I kept finding more important things to do.  Did I mention I had a 10-day work-ation planned in the middle of November?!  I packed and cleaned.  Traveling, I typed in cars and plotting on airplanes.  I always made time to keep writing.

2.There will sometimes be something more compelling to write.

Let me count the different ideas, tasks, and writing deadlines which surfaced in November.  I had to work on my first children’s publication deadline:  a magazine article for Skipping Stones Magazine.  After receiving a great suggestion for an agent seeking monster MCs from a writing critique buddy, I sent in the appropriate PB query.  I had to write up a (nine-page!) summary from a conference I attended on behalf of a professional organization I’m a part of (think: day job).  And, as Denise Jaden promised, around week three, I thought up a stellar idea for a new YA novel that sounded way more appealing to work on than my current NaNoWriMo novel.  I resisted. (And I persisted)

5.If you don’t feel like writing, giving yourself permission usually works.

When I really didn’t feel like typing, I would tell myself that I could type for 200 words, and if I wanted to stop after that, it was okay.  I would also tell myself that I could type total baloney.  The result of giving myself these two indulgences was that I usually typed at least 500 words, even on a bad day, and the “baloney” usually turned out better than I imagined.

4.Preparation goes a long way.

I read FAST FICTION, by Denise Jaden, before NaNoWriMo began. Inside, there were exercises for determining character names and traits, structuring the three acts of my story, brainstorming theme, and many, many more extremely helpful practices.  The result was that by day one of NaNoWriMo, I was ready to type, nearly nonstop, 2000 words a day, for at least the first 15,000 words of my novel.  After that, I used a practice shared on Facebook:  I loosely planned every 10,000 words, and then inserted the main characters into situations and saw how they reacted.  The result?  I didn’t hit a real, double-bricked wall until about 35,000 words.

3.The last part of the novel will feel like it drags on and takes twice as long to type.

When I hit that double-bricked wall at 35,000 words, I hit it hard.  I feel like I began to cheat on my characters, inventing bizarre situations and taking certain traits and actions to the extreme.  I even killed-off a character.  What was my lesson learned?  Perseverance.  I figuratively grit my teeth and set my jaw and sat down and made myself type to the end. And now I have a 50,000-word novel to go back to and revise.

Will I participate in the NaNoWriMo madness next year?  I don’t know.  Right now, I’m still ready to figuratively hurl my 50,000 MS across the room and out the window… but we’ll see, it might boomerang back, and I might – just maybe – write that fabulous YA idea (see #2 above)!

Thanks for reading.  Please share your writing experiences!  I welcome any advice, especially a good book to help me edit my NaNoWriMo novel.

Sarah A. Hetu-Radny