Saturday, December 11, 2010

Planning out 2011

So being the planner that I am, I made out a plan today for how I'm going to do all of my writing projects in the New Year.  The plan goes as follows:

By December 15th: Finish editing and printing out "Christmas at the Holiday Inn" for my friends and family

By January 31st: Finish editing Runaway Train, find and submit it to beta readers

By February 28th: Receive Runaway Train back from beta readers, make final changes and begin submitting to agents.  Also, finish writing and editing the short story "The Banks of Belronan."

By March 31st: Finish outline/research for Script Frenzy screenplay and submit "The Banks of Belronan" to a short story contest.

By April 30th: SCRIPT FRENZY 2011!!! Write screenplay.

By May 31st:  Finish outline for sequel to Runaway Train, currently titled Hand-me-down Mercury.

By June 30th: Finish editing "Finding Innisburg" and submit to beta readers

By August 31st: Write Hand-me-down Mercury and finish editing and begin submitting "Finding Innisburg" to agents.

By September 30th:  Finish rewrites on screenplay and find and submit to beta readers

By October 31st: Finish outline for sequel to Hand-me-down Mercury.

By November 30: NaNoWriMo 2011!!!! Finish Hand-me-down sequel.

By December 31st: Finish last rewrites on screenplay and submit to agents and begin editing on Hand-me-down Mercury.

So that is the plan.  Yes, it is extremely ambitious and yes, probably out of my reach.  But on my 22nd birthday I gave myself three years to make it as a writer.  Three years to do what I really love with my life.  And  I don't want to get to my 25th birthday and feel like I didn't give it my best shot.  So I'm going all out.  If I can pull this year off like this, I will get to the end of 2011 with a total of two novels and a screenplay being submitted to agents and another two novels in various stages of editing.

Also, you'll notice that according to the plan, on two separate occasions, I will need beta readers for my novels.  I'm taking volunteers now if you'd like to help me prepare my novels for submission.  "Runaway Train" is a post-apocalyptic love story.  The theme is that even when everything changes in your life, sometimes, nothing really changes at all.  Right now, the main characters are in their early twenties but recently I've been contemplating the idea of possibly making it a young adult novel by putting the characters in their teens.  It might be an interesting change so I'm interested to see what people have to say about that.

"Finding Innisburg" is a mystery/thriller novel about a young man and his quest to find out why there is a classic American town in the middle of the Guatemalan jungle.  I'll be interested to know if it's gripping enough or if it rambles too much. 

If you would be interested in reading either of these and providing me with feedback regarding them, please shoot me an email at locachica1357ATyahoo.com.  Just let me know which one or both you are interested in and I'll be in touch. 

And of course, throughout 2011 I'll be updating you all on my progress as I try to make something of myself so STAY TUNED.



And now, for the second part of this increasingly long blog entry, there is a pineapple express going through Seattle right now and it is just DUMPING rain outside.  It's pretty remarkable.  (for those of you who don't know, a pineapple express is when warm, wet weather systems move up to the Pacific Northwest from Hawaii, bring lots and lots of rain and mild temperatures)  Also, I woke up this morning to find out that Santa had come during the night (a bit early, but I'm guessing he's trying to get a head start this year) and left two presents with my boyfriend's handwriting on the tags.  It was very cute and I'm excited to see what they are.  


Happy Holidays to you all, and good night!

2 comments:

  1. Good luck with all your goals, very admirable they are, and sounds like 2011 will be an exciting year for you :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck! Having a plan and goals is the first step towards success.

    ReplyDelete