October writing goals.

[Matnov]

1. Finish short(ish) story I have been working on in terms of knocking it into shape.
2. Make a start on the KSIS process of my draft crime novel gathering dust in my metaphorical bottom desk drawer.

Oh. And look at an author website for my 'Piranha Pandemic' series. My daughter is currently trying to magic up for me a scene with a London Bus toppled over on its side outside Oval tube station so we are underway on that!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I'll be editing my latest Cornish Detective novel, which I finished a few days ago, trying to quell the usual happy-sad feelings that afflict me when I complete a project. It's as if I've constructed an aeroplane, which looks handsome and whose technical specifications are impressive...but will the damned thing actually fly into the minds of readers?

(Here I go!)

Once the editing's done, I'll be turning myself into a gurning song-and-dance one man band as I return to querying and blog writing, trying to get people to like me and my books. Writing poetry may keep me sane (ish).

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Getting ready to query, first time in a while, sorting submission package.

 

[Kitty]

Finish first draft of WIP....

Hang on! Didn't I say this last month?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Do the first editing passes on the two MSs I finished in Aug and Sept. Test three cover variations for The Dragon Slayer's Son. Stay sane in the midst of ongoing family crises and the looming end of the school year. I'm pretty confident on the first goals. The last one, not so much.

 

[Colin Mulhern]

Finish the short MG book I've been wrestling with for too damn long and start preparing for NanoWriMo - mainly reading and bouncing old ideas about to tackle something shiny and new.

 

[Carol Rose]

Finish the third book for the boxed sets I'm in next year, and make serious headway on the fourth one.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

@Kitty said

Finish first draft of WIP....

Hang on! Didn't I say this last month?

Typical writing cat.

 

[AliG]

Torn. I'm soooo close to finishing book 3 in series, but this unrelated story has grabbed me by the throat and I long to keep going past the whole 8 pages I've written (the rest is in my head, kicking around in glorious technicolour). It's not comfortable when passion fights with logic

 

[Marc Joan]

@Kitty said

Finish first draft of WIP....

Hang on! Didn't I say this last month?

Typical writing cat.

Yes. Must write, must write, must write --Oh! A ball of wool. Woooow.
OK, sleeepy now.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Oh dear. A friend of @Kitty has spotted this thread (perhaps while hunting a ball of wool ssshhh) and doesn't like the way this is going. Doesn't like it at all, the implication that just because one is a cat, one is not a serious writer...

 

[Marc Joan]

Ah. A preditor.
I'll get my coat.

 

[S.T Stevens]

I want to finish editing the two novels I've 'finished' and write more of the second in a series I'm working on. I'm also prepping for NaNoWriMo.

 

[David Weller]

My October writing goals are:

1. Submit another Pop Up Submission to AgentPete.
2. Rewrite opening pages for the first chapter of Truthseeker.
3. Try to come up with a better title than 'Lady Chlamydia Thrush goes Viral' for my Victorian saga.

 

[Webbwalker]

Getting ready to query, first time in a while, sorting submission package.

Me too. Just tightening up my opening chapters and re-writing a pitch that clearly isn't working. Hoping to begin submitting again in a week or so, and trying to get started again on the new novel. It's been a few months since I was able to do any work on that so I've a lot of reading and thinking to do, principally reminding myself where I was and what comes next.

 

[Tim James]

Hopefully I'll get to make some progress on my latest first draft project (currently awaiting some time for my attention). Although given the way the month has gone so far (is it really the 18th already!!!), this seems unlikely.

 

[Deleted member 604]

Finish my short-story collection but someone takes up most of my time lately, not that I'm complaining LOL

 

[Deleted member 604]

Getting ready to query, first time in a while, sorting submission package.

 

[Matnov]

Mixed results. Two short stories done and dusted so that is in the plus column. In the negative, then zero progress on the website and in terms of the KSIS process on the crime novel, well I sketched out a plan and even read the first chapter again but nothing more than that. Odd really, because that was the project I have been promising myself to for a fair old while now.

Always been rather disparaging of the entire 'writer's block' narrative but now have a strange old conundrum whereby I have almost a congestion problem in that I have numerous first drafts awaiting attention along with a head buzzing with ideas for new projects that leaves me in a funk about where to focus my efforts.

But less of this self-regarding nonsense. Over-all, a good month.

 

[Tim James]

As I half expected, very little progress made this month. (Where did it go?)
Too many (very nice) distractions and work to do, unfortunately.
Anyway there's always next month, although looking at my calendar, that's looking to be quite busy too...

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I've edited four of my Cornish Detective novels this month, using the free proofreading apps Grammarly, Hemingway Editor and Typely. I'm in the throes of using them to streamline the first novel I wrote in the series, which is making me deplore my wordiness back in 2014. I heartily recommend Hemingway Editor for eradicating infestations of adverbs.

Once I'm done editing, I'll be reading through about 100 articles I've saved the links to, on blogging, querying, self-promotion, public relations, marketing, Amazon and self-publishing...all in an attempt to up my game as an author worth publishing and reading. I still have a feeling of emptiness from having finished writing a novel, so need to start another creative project for solace while I learn how to be a one man band self-promoter.

No one said it would be easy!

 

[Tim James]

I wish you luck with all that @Paul Whybrow . I have enough problems finding time to just do the writing, let alone all the marketing/querying/self promoting stuff.

 

[Webbwalker]

Just the usual - continually editing/refining my last (though. thnk I'm finally at the end of that now, I'm not finding much to clip and shave), getting on with the next. I've refined my blurb, too, which wasn't really reflecting the feel of the book itself and am about (today) to send it all off to some agents. Progress has been slow this October, though with so much real life getting in the way.

 

[Tim James]

Progress has been slow this October, though with so much real life getting in the way.

Real life has a habit of doing that, I've found.