May begins.
Maybe I can’t do what I set out to do. Well, what I set out to do is be a published & read author. There are too many factors beyond my control for that. More immediately, I’ve set out to blog every day and write a short story too.
During the month I’ll post excerpts and rough drafts of these stories over at The Imaginary Lake. Previous bloggy discussions have caused me to worry just a titch if posting a story is a good idea if I want them to be published “properly” (whatever that means these days). Maybe I won’t care by the end of the month.
For May: finish rewrites on novel, send said novel to agent, write a short story a day, blog every day, prepare for my summer classes (teaching a new class & must create all new lessons!), keep the apartment from collapsing in on itself, get the kiddo to skate practice four times a week, take the kiddo to his two-day skate competition, walk dogs, watch new season of Doctor Who, take down current art show, go to the hair salon, go to the dentist, go to meeting with new school director, don’t forget to make gift for mother-in-law (Mother’s Day–not my fav), and don’t alienate everyone around me.
Is that a plan for 31 days? Maybe.
What kind of story are you working on this month?
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
Good luck with all that! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up with your blog posts and short stories. I’m planning to write 80,000 words in 80 days, which is a lot for me. See you in July!
If you kept up with all I’m doing, you wouldn’t be writing enough! The 80k sounds like a great challenge. Good luck and have fun with it.
I’m doing a series of stories in which a teen ends up at historical events via her history book. They’re going to be short, 2-5 pages max.
That sounds like a great idea. I’ll be interested in which historical events! Good luck.
Seeing through it all, Malpelba, it sounds like you are enjoying your life and approaching everything with a zestful felling. This is the most important thing. (Mothers day isn’t my fav either – it’s become so commercial).
I’m kind of different – no plans to write a book and no plans to write anything, actually. No plans to write everyday. It’s funny, when my stats line starts to baseline (0 hits), I start thinking . . . I should write something new. Usually the impetus comes from something someone else writes and I make a comment. The comment looks good to me and I think – hmmm – that would make a good blog article – so – I expand on it and, voila! Other times, something will happen in my life or someone will ask me a question, comment etc., and it will trigger my inspiration – and away I go another blog article.
When I write, my goal is two things: First to always reveal myself to people in a truthful way and second to express my personality with humour so people don’t think I’m too serious (which I am most of the time).
Hope this helps – the English is probably terrible, but it’s early morning and I’m not even caring about grammar today.
Love your writing – you are so honest.
. . ./John
Except for the housework, I do enjoy most of what I do. It is hard for me to understand people who say they are bored. Maybe it is vanity on my part but if I decide to work on something, I find it interesting.
Thanks for reading, and don’t worry about your English. Your blog posts seem to meet your goal for your writing. From the bit I’ve read, your personality comes through. Far as I can tell, of course, through cyberspace.
Blogging is a great way to find your voice and put it out into the world.
I think I’ll try to write as much as possible in order to finish my novel. Then I’ll go through it to try to edit some things on my own.
If I manage to finish this one by the end of May I’ll probably take a break from it and put it aside for a while–start a new one, and go back to editing the first one after a few weeks.
I hope you’ll be able to succeed in doing everything you planned/have to do.
After you finish your novel, you should put it aside for a while. That way when you look at it again, you’ll have fresh eyes. Keep writing! And let me know how it is going.
So the theme of NaBloPoMo (is that right?) is “Maybe,” and the first two syllables of the month’s posts here are “May” and “be-.” Ha! You sly NaBloPoMo-er, you.
Your schedule always sounds nuts to me, although I agree with John Archer that it also sounds (more often than not) that you enjoy it all. I mean, as it is I feel like I have no time to do ANYTHING satisfactorily — and I have far fewer scheduled activities than you do.
The kinds of stories I’ll be working on this month are pretty much the kinds of stories I’ve been working on for three years: fantastic enough to be interesting, “real” enough to be convincing. They may include some jokes, too. Also a motor home. And an Irish wolfhound. And Wales. And beer. And loyalty, metalworking, friendship, and the weight of history.
Huh. Maybe I’ll adapt that paragraph for my first query… which probably will NOT (alas) be written this month.
I am so looking forward to the day when you have query letters out in the world! (And get positive responses too.) Wolfhound! Wales! Beer! Sounds like an excellent query already.
I hate being tired, but I love what I do. I want to do more. I want to do everything well. And I can’t seem to stop driving myself a little crazy.
Off to be sly…;)
“You may believe in ghosts”: ha!
I’ve about 95% decided that once my querying starts, I’ll never breathe a word about it online. It’ll freak me out enough in its own right without the added pressure of friends’ knowing what’s going on (or not going on, as the case may be).
If the querying succeeds, well, oh yeah: there will probably be a whisper or two about that. 🙂