That Thing I Said I’d Never Do…

March 7, 2018March 6, 2018 ~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! Apparently, March arrived when I wasn’t looking. The problem with that is, it forces me to make a confession. I still haven’t finished the shitty first draft of my current novel attempt. There’s no real excuse for it. Sure, I could blame the killer headaches my allergies decided to unload on me. I could blame the general blahs I’ve been feeling for the past few months. But the truth is, I didn’t even push it with my writing on the days when I felt normal. I’d start writing and let myself get distracted by stupid things. I just haven’t been able to find the right rhythm for this particular novel. I’ve struggled with this one all along. So, I decided to do something I said I would never do.

march_events

I decided to write every single day (which is totally not as impressive as it sounds when done my way).

It’s one of those golden writing rules that writers say they live by in order to sound like they’re doing a ton of work every day, but in reality, most are lucky if they write a few days a week. Then, they throw a word count on top of it that makes it even more daunting. Like 1,000+ words a day is some easy task they can pull off in ten minutes. It’s not. In fact, writing 1,000+ words in a day can be exhausting. And it’s why I swore I would never be one of those people who even attempts it when I already know I’ll fail.

That being said, when my usual writing techniques failed me (repeatedly), I decided it was time to give this whole every day thing a go. BUT! I promised I wasn’t going to kill myself with 1,000+ words a day. Even 500+ words was too high for me to consider. So, I made my daily goal ridiculously low, with the caveat that four days a week I would shoot for my usual 1,000+ words. Otherwise, my goal is a measly 50+ words a day.

13055369_10154016166591291_2581038575776862019_n — I’m going. I’m going. Chill.

It might seem stupid, but I can knock 50+ words out in ten minutes before I get ready for bed. And I’ve actually averaged about 100 words a day. I’m still struggling with my 1,000+ words days, but even those are getting a little easier. People will say that I’m building a habit and that’s why it’s getting easier, but for me, that’s not exactly true. I’m very much achievement oriented, so when I fail to meet my goals, I get stressed and upset. Setting super easy goals helps me build my self-esteem back up, which motivates me to tackle harder goals. And so far, it seems to be working.

I suppose it’s important to try new techniques when old ones stop working. Hopefully, I’ll finally finish that draft this month. What about you? Do you have any projects that might benefit from setting super low goals? What do you do when your standard techniques stop working? As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Goals Vs. Allergies: The Struggle Is Real

February 7, 2018February 5, 2018 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! Welcome to February. Today, I want to share my goals for the month, but I also want to talk about allergies. Down here in Texas, the trees are getting ready for spring by spewing pollen everywhere. Depending on which way the wind’s blowing and which trees are shaking off their dust, this can create a miserable environment for people with allergies. People like me. Which, in turn, makes completing goals hard. So, along with my goals, I’ll talk about how I work them around the worst of my allergy days.

So, here are my goals:

1. Finish DS1’s shitty first draft. Writing in general is super hard when your head feels like it’s going to explode and your mucus can’t decide if it wants to hole up in your sinuses or pour all over your face (spoiler: it decides to do both). Sure, you can take a bunch of allergy meds and hope they don’t knock you out before you get your words done, but we both know that won’t work. Instead, I try to make sure I work as much as possible on the days I feel okay, so that I don’t feel too guilty for slacking on the days I feel like crap. That’s really all we can do to get the writing goals done during allergy season.

2. Submit stuff 8 times (2 every Monday). This is the kind of thing I do regardless of whether allergies are kicking my ass or not. My cover letter is already written and my manuscript is properly formatted. All I have to do is double check submission guidelines, make any formatting tweaks, and send stuff out. It doesn’t take much energy or time, so if I’m feeling really bad, I can put it off until the initial medication drowsiness has faded.

Just add some snot and drool and it’s close enough.

3. Write 1 flash piece OR short story. For those days you feel good enough to write but don’t have the brain function to focus on your novel. I don’t know about the rest of you, but sometimes I just need something quick to distract me from all the plot lines I have to keep straight in the novels. Especially when my brain already feels fuzzy from allergies.

4. Read 2 books. I tend to save reading for the days when I just can’t bring myself to write, but feel like I should be doing something productive. If it gets too hard to focus, I can always switch to Netflix.

5. Make time for people/leaving the house. I’m always bad at this whether allergies are involved or not. But I do have a tendency to say yes to leaving the house (running errands with Dad) when I don’t feel up to writing. It makes me feel productive in a different way and I don’t have to worry about the allergies making my words come out weird.

Those are my goals for February. I figure it’s easier to stick to a few just in case my allergies get evil. What are some of your goals this month? How do you work around your allergies? Or do you prefer to push through them?

The Year Of Persistence, Revision, And Submissions

January 3, 2018January 1, 2018 ~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! Welcome to 2018. I hope everyone has a wonderful year. May the year be filled with everything you need and something you want! A few weeks ago, I talked about my goals for the new year (here). So, I thought I would go ahead and share my January goals this week. Even though it’s only been two days, I’ve been doing pretty well so far. Let’s hope the rest of the month is just as productive!

cover_january_2017 — Definitely not the view here in Texas.

So, here are my January goals in no particular order.

1. Get DS1’s (the current novel attempt’s code name) shitty first draft to at least 60,000 words. It’s currently 44,000 and I’m aiming for a complete draft of 70-75,000ish words. For a month, 16,000 words is a pretty reasonable goal. Hopefully, I’ll get further, but it’s always a good idea to stick with tough but reasonable goals.

2. Submit stuff 10 times (2 every Monday). This refers only to short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. Not agent searching. Last year, I focused primarily on my novel and neglected my other work. I don’t want to do that this year. Sure, it means more rejections, but I can’t get any acceptances if I don’t submit, right? (More positive thinking is also something I’m working on this year.)

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but I’ll try it.

3. Write 1 flash piece OR short story. I should probably include poems in this, but it’s been so long since I’ve written any poetry that I probably suck at it now. That’s not negative thinking, it’s just the truth. I’ll probably set aside some time for writing poetry when I start focusing on my revisions. For now, I’ll stick with short stories and flash fiction.

4. Read 2 books. I recently joined GoodReads to try to keep better track of what I’ve read throughout the year. I’m a slow reader, so my goal is to read 24 books in 2018. I’m currently halfway through a book I started a week ago, so I guess technically my January goal is only 1.5 books. Is that cheating?

5. Stop dwelling on rejections and sucking and just do the damn work. This is where the positive thinking really comes in. I’ve been down about all the agent rejections I received last year. After 100 rejections (or just flat out being ignored), it’s hard not to think it’s me and my suckiness. But! I just need to suck it up and move on. I’ve got other projects that might interest people. It’s time to focus on those!

6. Make time for people. I always say that I need to talk to more people and I always fail. But I will keep adding it to my goals until it actually happens! I used to be so good at keeping in touch with people back when Yahoo chatrooms were a thing. I don’t know what happened to that me.

have-noidea-how-to-make-friends-as-an-adult-and-13927749 — This is not wrong.

7. Turn 32. Yup, I’m a January baby. In about 9 days, I’ll be turning 32. I’m old. But I’m okay with that.

That’s my plan for January. What about you? Do you have any goals for this month? What about goals for the new year? Feel free to share them here or on my social media pages!

Looking Forward: 2018 Goals

December 13, 2017December 12, 2017 ~ shawnaborman ~ 4 Comments

Howdy, howdy! A couple of months ago, a friend asked me if I would be interested in creating some writing goals for the new year and sharing them with each other for accountability purposes. I agreed, because accountability is the best way to motivate me. So, since we’re (not so) slowly making our way through December, I thought I would go ahead and share them with everyone. As I’ve probably said before, I don’t care for the idea of making resolutions, because they’re usually vague things (eating healthier, exercising more, going out more, spending less, etc.) that people keep up with for a few days or even weeks then forget. Goals, on the other hand, tend to be more specific, thus easier to keep track of and definitively complete. So, here are my writerly goals for 2018.

a97b5a57e4783f1a81aafdab7e4498e2 — Pretty much.

1. Finish the first draft of DS1 (code name for my novel-in-progress). I probably should’ve finished this by the end of December, but I hit a road block and decided to work on my fetish fairy tales for a little while. I’ll finish the fairy tale I’m working on this week, then get back into DS1. I should finish that by the end of January/middle of February.

2. Revise LR1 (code name for the shitty first draft of the last novel I wrote). I’m actually really interested in getting back to this one. No idea if it’s still as awesome as it felt while I was writing it (first drafts never are), but I’m looking forward to tearing it apart and making it better. Hopefully revisions won’t take me more than two months, but we’ll see. I’m not the best at revising things.

front — It’s not wrong. Though, I’m still using .doc instead of .docx.

3. Revise DS1. Despite getting a little stuck on this one, I still absolutely love the idea and the characters. I hope I feel the same way after I finish it. My biggest problem is that I know the ending, I just don’t know how to elegantly connect it to what I have thus far. I guess I’ll smash it all together and smooth things out during the revision process!

4. Query 100 agents for LR1 or DS1 depending on which is better. I’ve decided to put G&G away for a while and focus on the other two novels. Hopefully one of them will have more appeal for agents. I can always go back to G&G later, but after 100 rejections, Bailey definitely deserves a nice little break.

5. Write 10 short stories/flash pieces OR 1 new novel. I really want to use 2018 as the year of revision. But at the same time, I also want to keep producing new work. I’m leaning more towards the short stories/flash fiction option because I could take a couple of days off of revision each month to work on something fresh, but like I mentioned above, I don’t really know how long revision will take me. If it doesn’t take too long, I wouldn’t mind working on another novel.

6. Submit short stories/flash pieces (2+ subs a week). I admit that I’ve been neglecting my short story submissions this year. I want to change that in 2018. Maybe I’ll eventually snag someone’s attention!

542c38f804ca62fd98385151e1b647fb8fe02a81acf76a6a07712df4563d6359.jpg — Maybe. I doubt it. Reassurance, please!

And those are my writing goals for 2018. Do you have any goals for next year yet? Feel free to share them here or on my social media pages!

November Has Arrived

October 31, 2017October 31, 2017 ~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! I hope everyone had a delightfully scary Halloween! It was pretty dreary around here, so we just sat in the house and waited to see if any trick-or-treaters were going to show up (only my four munchkins showed up). Anyway, since it’s now the first (and apparently national author’s day), I thought I would post something writerly in celebration of the day. Actually, it’s not so much writerly as it is something to hold me accountable to my writerly things. I’m talking about goals. It worked really well for me in September, so I’m posting them publicly again.

I got a rock — Rocks are nice, Charlie Brown.

1. Write 18,000+ words. I know it’s not NaNoWriMo levels of writing (I like what little sanity I have left, so I don’t participate in that), but it’s something I can accomplish in a reasonable fashion without killing myself. Plus, it leaves me with time to do the rest of the things I have to do each day. But I wish everyone doing NaNoWriMo well. I’ll cheer you on from the sidelines!

2. Read two and a half books. I’m currently in the middle of The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle for my own amusement. I’m supposed to read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate for the book club I’m in. Then, I have an ARC (advanced reader copy) of The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross, also by Tuttle, to review by the end of November. Not to mention reading all the little things I have to keep up with.

51y1ZNO8aCL._SY445_QL70_ — A little slow, but decent so far.

3. Revise and send a flash fiction piece out into the slush-void. I got some wonderful feedback from my critique group on the piece I sent to them back in September. They all insisted that I clean it up and send it out. Some of them might flog me if I don’t, so here… it’s officially on my to-do list.

4. Submit a story to my critique group. It’s just another flash piece that I forgot I wrote a long time ago. It suddenly popped back into my head a few days ago. So, after I find it and clean it up a little bit, I’ll send it their way.

5. Last, but not least, I want to write one new short story or flash fiction piece. I know that I mainly want to work on my novel, but I haven’t written anything short in a long time. I miss the feel of completing something in a few days instead of months. I’m probably rusty, but I want to get back to the conciseness inherent in short stories. I’m afraid I’ve grown too accustomed to writing longer pieces. I don’t want to lose the ability to focus on something short.

VlQje

So yeah. Those are my writerly goals for November. What about you? Is there anything specific you hope to accomplish this month? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Feel free to comment here or on my social media accounts! Let’s hold each other accountable.

September Is Coming

August 30, 2017August 29, 2017 ~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! August is coming to a close, bringing the beginning of September with it. I’ve been having trouble finding the motivation to keep up with my work, despite my current novel attempt being enjoyable, so I thought I would post my main goals for the coming month right here. I find it more difficult to avoid the things I need to do once someone else knows what my goals are. The potential for public shame is an awesome motivator. Plus, I know I have a few friends who will crack the whip at me if they know I should be doing things and they catch me on Facebook instead.

whip — Whips and pleather can be motivational too, I guess.

Goal 1: write 18,000+ words. I know I’m capable of writing 4,500 words a week and September is about four weeks long, so I should at least be writing this much. Only words toward the WIP, short stories/flash pieces, and the blog count towards this number. And only words over my current written words, not revisions. It’s the goal I’ve been struggling with the most, so if I’m slacking, feel free to break out the whip.

Goal 2: read at least 2 books. One book will be for my review on the 27th, and the second will be for a book club I just joined. I’m also currently reading a book with my writing group, but we’re taking it slow, so I might not finish it by the end of the month. I admit that I don’t read nearly enough, so I’m trying to change that. I was able to read 2 books a month at Stonecoast and keep up with my writing, so it seems like a reasonable thing to do.

Goal 3: query 16 more agents. I’ve been querying four a week for what seems like forever now. No, I really have no clue how or why I settled on the number four. But I do know that I’ve currently sent out 84 queries and have no idea how many rejections/assumed rejections (because some agencies don’t send out rejections, but give you a “if you haven’t heard back in x weeks we’re passing” instead) I’ve gathered up and I don’t feel like checking my spreadsheet right now. It’s a numbers game, I’m told, and I’ll keep trying for a while longer. But I’m thinking 100 sounds like a good place to take a break and regroup and wait to see what happens with the queries still in limbo.

Goal 4: submit at least one thing to my critique group. The group seemed to go on hiatus for the past couple of months as our members used the summer for some much needed family time. But now that school has started, critique submissions are starting to trickle in and I want to be among them.

Goal 5: make time to text/message some people besides the usual two or three. Because I’ve been a shitty friend and I know that. I promise I’ll try to be better, but I usually fail miserably at this type of stuff too.

201508_1302_biidd — And I don’t even talk to them much.

So, those are my September goals. It feels a little overwhelming to see them written out like this, but I can do it. And if I can’t, you get to publicly shame me! What about you? What are your main goals for the month? Feel free to share them here or on my social media pages!

See you next week!

The New Year Is Coming

December 28, 2016December 27, 2016 ~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Hello, hello! The new year is almost upon us. Unlike a lot of people I know, I have to say that 2016 wasn’t a bad year for me. Personally, it was a quiet and uneventful year. Yeah, bad and scary things happened in the world, but good things also happened. For example, Spinraza was approved by the FDA as the first therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (which was one of my diagnoses over the years, but I was assured 7 or 8 years ago that I actually have Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy). Also, a lot of people were lost this year, including icons like Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, and Carrie Fisher. But we’ve survived. We’re still here to make 2017 a better year. To make ourselves better people.

15726690_10154915430007848_1371003916072326513_n — R.I.P. General Organa

If we want the new year to be better, we have to start with ourselves. Many people make New Year’s Resolutions, which are great if you stick with them, but most of us don’t. A week into January and that resolution to exercise more flies out the window with that first pulled muscle. That resolution to be more positive disappears with the jerk who dents your car in the grocery store parking lot and doesn’t bother leaving a note. It’s hard to change our habits. And that’s okay. But if you really want the year to be better, you’re going to have to make an effort. That’s why I’m making a goal for myself for 2017.

For 2017, instead of trying to change my habits (which is what resolutions usually entail), I’ve decided to pick one area of my life that I want to advance in and create a high (but reachable) goal for myself. Right now, I’m mostly concerned about my career, so my goal is to find an agent by the end of 2017. Hopefully, it won’t take an entire year, but it’s a goal I’m comfortable with. If I were feeling courageous, I might go so far as to make my goal having my first novel published, but that takes time and requires an agent first (okay, so I don’t technically have to have an agent and I could go the whole self-publishing route for those who want to argue those points, but I don’t feel comfortable with those options for myself, so an agent I shall search for).

So, that’s my one big goal for 2017: find an agent.

I simply feel that if we aim to improve one part of our lives at a time (whether it’s our career, personal relationships, health, or whatever) with a concrete and reachable goal, we’ll have a better chance of achieving it and thus improving our year. By all means, make some resolutions or extravagant goals. Aim to change the world if that’s what you’re into, but remember that change starts at home. By improving yourself, you’re improving the world. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

quote-if-you-want-to-change-the-world-first-try-to-improve-and-bring-about-change-within-yourself-dalai-lama-106-25-22 — Exactly.

Do you have any resolutions or goals for the coming year? What area of your life would you most like to advance in during 2017? Leave a comment here or on my social media pages to share your plans for the year.

See you next year!

Writing Challenge Turned Q&A

March 30, 2016March 29, 2016 ~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Hello again! It’s that time of year again, where people start posting those weird “30 Day Writing Challenge” things. They always sound like a fun idea and every time I see one, I say that I should do it, but then I read the “challenges.” Honestly, they’re rarely creative and most often read as a list of Q&A topics. So, since I’m running low on things to ramble about, I thought I’d post one of these challenges here and let you guys pick a number between 1 and 30 (only one number per person, so choose wisely)! Each week, I’ll do one of the challenges you guys pick. I can think of a few people who will participate, so this should keep me busy for a few weeks at least.

30-day-writing-challenge-1 — It was the first list Google came up with. Pick a number and I’ll do the corresponding exercise!

To start this off randomly, I asked a friend to pick a number, but to be fair she had no idea why I asked and hadn’t seen the list, so she gets another number if she wants. Anyway, she chose 29. I suppose that means that I’m talking about my goals for next month!

Honestly, I don’t really plan that far ahead. I have trouble making up weekly goals, let alone monthly. I have my writing goals (which I’ve been struggling with). I’m trying to write at least 4,500 words a week, so I’m aiming for around 18,000 words for April. Otherwise, I want to post consistently on my author pages and of course do the weekly blog. I also want to finish the book I’m reading in the next couple of weeks. That’s about it, really.

5354927497_b50558716e_z — Maybe I should use a Daruma doll for my goals. I have a blank one somewhere.

If you’ve been stalking me, you know that I’m also trying to be better about keeping in touch with people. It’s not an easy thing, but I’m going to keep working at it. I did talk to someone last week about creating a daily goal calendar, though, so socializing does help! I already keep track of my word count, but it hasn’t been a big motivator lately. The daily goal calendar involves using stickers to denote certain achievements depending on what you want to accomplish and creating a key (example: gold star = 500 words, blue dot = half an hour of reading, purple heart = an hour of family time, etc.), then marking down what you do each day. I’m going to try to create a computer version for April to see if something visual like that helps me.

12916791_273486852983356_6246745458090268754_o — The example my friend sent me.

Anyway, my goals are basically the same as usual, but with a new way to keep track. That’s all I really have to say on that.

What do you guys think about the whole picking a number thing? If you’d like to choose one, comment here or find me on social media (Facebook, Twitter, or G+). I’m looking forward to seeing who chooses what!

See if you next week!

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