Looking back and looking forward
Well, Happy New Year, all! I wish the best for everyone this year. May all your dreams come true!
I was thinking about resolutions today. I don't usually make personal resolutions. Because really, resolving to lose the same 40 lbs year after year after year really doesn't do much for the self esteem.
But I do often make writing resolutions. I looked back on the resolutions I made for my writing career January 1, 2006, and frankly, I should have been disappointed. "Should" have been. But, not really. Because I realized that so much of what I resolved to do was dependent on outside factors. No, I didn't resolve anything like, "Sell a book," because I don't do that (and I don't recommend that any of you do that either, nor "get an agent.") Resolutions like that are completely out of your hands. So, if you reach the end of the year and haven't completed them, do YOU feel bad? Why? You couldn't have made them happen if you'd tried with all your might. Don't set yourself up to fail by making resolutions (which are essentially goals) like that.
Out of the 6 resolutions I made, I completed 1. Seriously. One. The reason for that is that was really the only one that wasn't dependent in some way on outside circumstances. It was to complete and submit a proposal for a paranormal romance, which I did back in March.
But everything from there on out needed something else to happen in order to accomplish it. For example, one was that if the paranormal romance sold, I was to write that. If not, work up a proposal for a new paranormal romance. Great, right? Not. Because that paranormal romance hasn't sold yet but not all the editors we submitted it to have responded yet. So, I not only didn't sell it (so didn't write it as per resolution), but it also didn't NOT sell either (thus no need to write another proposal). See the problem here?
Another resolution was that if my YA HEART BROKEN sold to write that. It didn't sell, so I was instead to write another YA proposal and submit that. Well, by the time I got to that time in late June and July, I had decided to write an ENTIRE YA instead of just a proposal. So I did that...almost. I didn't plot the whole thing, so I sadly have 90% of a new YA written, but not the all-important ending, so not only can't I submit even a proposal (ever heard of a synopsis without an ending), I haven't even quite figured out how the book should end yet! Then, by the time I got home from RWA National the first of August, I had an entirely different project to work on, which took me until the end of November.
Sigh. You see the problem with resolutions like this? "If this happens, do this. But if this happens, do this." Then if neither of those scenarios happens, you end up with a year of feeling as if you've done nothing. Now, I know this isn't true, but I definitely have not done as much as I'd have liked to.
This is what I have done:
1) Written and submitted a paranormal romance. (Still waiting to hear from a few editors on that one.)
2) Written 90% of a YA that I really like (will be finishing that up in January).
3) Written a proposal for a women's fiction book that my agent loved and which is on an editor's desk right now.
4) Done a lot of promo and preparation for the release of VENUS ENVY.
Not a shabby year, but not a great year, either.
The problem with this "accomplishment" is that it doesn't get me where I want to be. With a couple of contracts under my belt, that much closer to being able to write full time. What I need to do is to figure out exactly what it is. How many proposals do I need to write? And at what intervals? Do I wait for one to sell before writing another? Will this lead to selling "too many" that I then won't have time to write?
I'm really unsure how to proceed. But I do know that this waiting to see the outcome of one thing before starting another is NOT going to work for me. I need some guidance. I'm going to have to ask around, I guess.
Well anyway, enough of that. I'll figure it out and consider it my adventure of this year. :-)
On to other things! VENUS ENVY is finally available in my local bookstores. Thank goodness! I was beginning to despair that they weren't going to carry it at all and how depressing that would have been!
Also, I'm very proud of my reading list over there on the sidebar! I ended up reading 74 books this year! Not too shabby. I really like the discipline of keeping track. I feel like I've accomplished something. My memory tends to be very short, so I forget what I've read. Some of those books I read just a month or so ago seem soooo far in the past!
So my tally ended up being 74, 24 of which were YA. I wanted to get to know that genre better, and was really pleased with everything I read! In fact, I don't think I found any YA's that I didn't enjoy, which, sadly, isn't something I can say about all the adult books I've read.
The last month or so, I've had a terrible time reading. I've started book after book that I really hoped to enjoy, only to have to put the book down because I just couldn't get into it, or couldn't stand the characters, or couldn't believe the writing (especially the dialogue) was so stilted.
Dialogue's a big thing with me. I think it's one of my strengths, so I have very little tolerance for dialogue that sounds unnatural. I was shocked to find some actually "been around awhile" authors with HORRIBLE dialogue. (Oh, and I should note, right now, that NONE of the books that I disliked made it to the list at the right, mostly since I didn't include any of the books I didn't finish on the list.) So, back to dialogue...there was one seasoned author who, I SWEAR, wrote dialogue like this:
"James, I just don't understand."
"You aren't meant to understand, Jane."
"But, James, I love you."
"I love you to, Jane, but you have to understand."
"How can I, when you won't talk to me, James."
"Jane, you just have to figure it out."
By this time, I'm practically screaming in frustration. How could an editor have let this get through??! People rarely call each other by name, and certainly not every single line, or even every other line of dialogue! Needless to say, that book was tossed quickly aside.
After a month or so of this, I was ready to give up reading. I don't know what it was, but I was really starting to be afraid I'd developed a frequent "writer" syndrome of not being able to read without critiquing. I've never had that problem before, and really don't want that to become a problem.
But, miracle of miracles, I finally picked up Anjali Banerjee's INVISIBLE LIVES. I was cured! Such a good book! I finished it in two days, didn't ONCE feel like tossing it in the fireplace, and knew then that it was the books I'd been reading, not me. Thank God. Sadly, though, I think it was another several weeks and several books before I found another one I could get through, being Candice Hern's JUST ONE OF THOSE FLINGS. Again, great book! None of it made me want to slit my wrists. :-)
I really hope that this isn't going to be the way this year works out booklist-wise. I didn't have this problem earlier in the year, so maybe I'm just making poor choices lately. But, I have some rocking good books on the way, so I have faith. I think I'll begin commenting here on the blog about the books I read.
Oh, and back to the point of the list...my goal for reading this year was to try out new authors, and I succeeded magnificently! Out of my 74 books, 42 were new-to-me authors! And, I'm so happy I branched out. I found some awesome authors this year, ones I will definitely read more of (if I didn't already read everything they had out this year).
I'll leave this list up a few more days, until I finish my first book of 2007, then I think I'll archive it to my website. [Note: I have archived the list now, and can find it here.]
This year's book reading goal? Again, I think I will read a lot of new authors. And maybe branch out a bit more into genres/subgenres I don't typically read. Not sure how to quantify that one. But, it's all good!
Well, I'm sure you're all tired of my longwindedness. Ta-ta for now!
Shannon
I was thinking about resolutions today. I don't usually make personal resolutions. Because really, resolving to lose the same 40 lbs year after year after year really doesn't do much for the self esteem.
But I do often make writing resolutions. I looked back on the resolutions I made for my writing career January 1, 2006, and frankly, I should have been disappointed. "Should" have been. But, not really. Because I realized that so much of what I resolved to do was dependent on outside factors. No, I didn't resolve anything like, "Sell a book," because I don't do that (and I don't recommend that any of you do that either, nor "get an agent.") Resolutions like that are completely out of your hands. So, if you reach the end of the year and haven't completed them, do YOU feel bad? Why? You couldn't have made them happen if you'd tried with all your might. Don't set yourself up to fail by making resolutions (which are essentially goals) like that.
Out of the 6 resolutions I made, I completed 1. Seriously. One. The reason for that is that was really the only one that wasn't dependent in some way on outside circumstances. It was to complete and submit a proposal for a paranormal romance, which I did back in March.
But everything from there on out needed something else to happen in order to accomplish it. For example, one was that if the paranormal romance sold, I was to write that. If not, work up a proposal for a new paranormal romance. Great, right? Not. Because that paranormal romance hasn't sold yet but not all the editors we submitted it to have responded yet. So, I not only didn't sell it (so didn't write it as per resolution), but it also didn't NOT sell either (thus no need to write another proposal). See the problem here?
Another resolution was that if my YA HEART BROKEN sold to write that. It didn't sell, so I was instead to write another YA proposal and submit that. Well, by the time I got to that time in late June and July, I had decided to write an ENTIRE YA instead of just a proposal. So I did that...almost. I didn't plot the whole thing, so I sadly have 90% of a new YA written, but not the all-important ending, so not only can't I submit even a proposal (ever heard of a synopsis without an ending), I haven't even quite figured out how the book should end yet! Then, by the time I got home from RWA National the first of August, I had an entirely different project to work on, which took me until the end of November.
Sigh. You see the problem with resolutions like this? "If this happens, do this. But if this happens, do this." Then if neither of those scenarios happens, you end up with a year of feeling as if you've done nothing. Now, I know this isn't true, but I definitely have not done as much as I'd have liked to.
This is what I have done:
1) Written and submitted a paranormal romance. (Still waiting to hear from a few editors on that one.)
2) Written 90% of a YA that I really like (will be finishing that up in January).
3) Written a proposal for a women's fiction book that my agent loved and which is on an editor's desk right now.
4) Done a lot of promo and preparation for the release of VENUS ENVY.
Not a shabby year, but not a great year, either.
The problem with this "accomplishment" is that it doesn't get me where I want to be. With a couple of contracts under my belt, that much closer to being able to write full time. What I need to do is to figure out exactly what it is. How many proposals do I need to write? And at what intervals? Do I wait for one to sell before writing another? Will this lead to selling "too many" that I then won't have time to write?
I'm really unsure how to proceed. But I do know that this waiting to see the outcome of one thing before starting another is NOT going to work for me. I need some guidance. I'm going to have to ask around, I guess.
Well anyway, enough of that. I'll figure it out and consider it my adventure of this year. :-)
On to other things! VENUS ENVY is finally available in my local bookstores. Thank goodness! I was beginning to despair that they weren't going to carry it at all and how depressing that would have been!
Also, I'm very proud of my reading list over there on the sidebar! I ended up reading 74 books this year! Not too shabby. I really like the discipline of keeping track. I feel like I've accomplished something. My memory tends to be very short, so I forget what I've read. Some of those books I read just a month or so ago seem soooo far in the past!
So my tally ended up being 74, 24 of which were YA. I wanted to get to know that genre better, and was really pleased with everything I read! In fact, I don't think I found any YA's that I didn't enjoy, which, sadly, isn't something I can say about all the adult books I've read.
The last month or so, I've had a terrible time reading. I've started book after book that I really hoped to enjoy, only to have to put the book down because I just couldn't get into it, or couldn't stand the characters, or couldn't believe the writing (especially the dialogue) was so stilted.
Dialogue's a big thing with me. I think it's one of my strengths, so I have very little tolerance for dialogue that sounds unnatural. I was shocked to find some actually "been around awhile" authors with HORRIBLE dialogue. (Oh, and I should note, right now, that NONE of the books that I disliked made it to the list at the right, mostly since I didn't include any of the books I didn't finish on the list.) So, back to dialogue...there was one seasoned author who, I SWEAR, wrote dialogue like this:
"James, I just don't understand."
"You aren't meant to understand, Jane."
"But, James, I love you."
"I love you to, Jane, but you have to understand."
"How can I, when you won't talk to me, James."
"Jane, you just have to figure it out."
By this time, I'm practically screaming in frustration. How could an editor have let this get through??! People rarely call each other by name, and certainly not every single line, or even every other line of dialogue! Needless to say, that book was tossed quickly aside.
After a month or so of this, I was ready to give up reading. I don't know what it was, but I was really starting to be afraid I'd developed a frequent "writer" syndrome of not being able to read without critiquing. I've never had that problem before, and really don't want that to become a problem.
But, miracle of miracles, I finally picked up Anjali Banerjee's INVISIBLE LIVES. I was cured! Such a good book! I finished it in two days, didn't ONCE feel like tossing it in the fireplace, and knew then that it was the books I'd been reading, not me. Thank God. Sadly, though, I think it was another several weeks and several books before I found another one I could get through, being Candice Hern's JUST ONE OF THOSE FLINGS. Again, great book! None of it made me want to slit my wrists. :-)
I really hope that this isn't going to be the way this year works out booklist-wise. I didn't have this problem earlier in the year, so maybe I'm just making poor choices lately. But, I have some rocking good books on the way, so I have faith. I think I'll begin commenting here on the blog about the books I read.
Oh, and back to the point of the list...my goal for reading this year was to try out new authors, and I succeeded magnificently! Out of my 74 books, 42 were new-to-me authors! And, I'm so happy I branched out. I found some awesome authors this year, ones I will definitely read more of (if I didn't already read everything they had out this year).
I'll leave this list up a few more days, until I finish my first book of 2007, then I think I'll archive it to my website. [Note: I have archived the list now, and can find it here.]
This year's book reading goal? Again, I think I will read a lot of new authors. And maybe branch out a bit more into genres/subgenres I don't typically read. Not sure how to quantify that one. But, it's all good!
Well, I'm sure you're all tired of my longwindedness. Ta-ta for now!
Shannon
posted by Shannon McKelden @ 5:29 PM
3 Comments:
At 4:27 AM,
TJBrown said…
You forgot another accomplishment... you began making money from nonfiction too. Not what you want to do in the long run, but money from writing is money from writing:)
Teri
At 3:19 PM,
Brandy said…
I think you've done a great jb of promoting Venus Envy. AND you have been writing, and writing articles for the on-line magazine.
At 10:31 AM,
Nadine Dajani said…
Seriously, Shannon you've done much better than me :) I'd post my list of writing-related 'I should've's but wouldn't want my agent and editor calling me on it!
I started on Venus Envy two days ago... I'm at page 50 and would have been much further along had I not worked until 10pm last night. Aaarrgghhhh!!!! Accounting knows no Christmas, Ramadan, Hannakah, New Year, Kwaanza, or your buddies' newly released novels. But now that the rainy season has (finally) ended, look forward to seeing a whole lot of Venus this weekend by the pool!
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