Writing projects for 2023: plans and support

[GrandMarnierChocolate]

Anyone else making new plans for creative writing in the new year? My 2022 plans fell apart, as usual 😭

So, 2023 is the year I finally publish something. This was my 2022 goal too… 👀

I intend to log my progress here to keep myself accountable. I’m leaving novels aside for now and am aiming to write a short story every week for the year and to publish at least ONE of those on Amazon so that I can learn the whole self-publishing process. Ideally I’ll publish 12 short stories in the year and, most importantly, get some feedback to help me steer my writing.

Short history: I’ve written about 5 or 6 novels over the last 30 years, taking years to edit each of them, swap critiques with writer friends, revise, polish and proofread, and finally submit to agents, only to abandon them eventually (two requests for fulls in all that time that went nowhere). I know my weakness is plotting, so I’ve been reading how-to books on that, plus I’m armed with Plottr software now, which I’m pretty sure is going to change my life.😜

I’d love some company on my journey. Anyone else ready to check in for support, advice, encouragement, all the things?😅

Can I tentatively step in too....I set goals every year but life always gets in the way. I've been quite unwell for a few years, had surgery end of last year and finally feeling a bit more energised and motivated. I'm writing a fantasy novel. Still on the 12k words roughly I had about 2yrs ago, but I'm determined to get it done this year! 😫

You're absolutely right @LuciferRising I keep reminding myself I can't edit a blank piece of paper. It's quite freeing to slog on irrespective of the nonsense on the page (my MC has just "smiled a smile of relief "😂)

Week 10: 3K words written. Story that started as a flash fiction piece in February. Hope to continue it later.

Just saw this activatedauthors.com/prep/ It's the same people who did the flash fiction challenge. They're doing a sort of NaNoWriMo but in April and they have a preparation week next week. I'm not going to do it personally as I'm not ready to tackle a novel but it might interest some of you.

Can I join?

I have been writing since my teens but committed to writing fully in my 20s. During that time I wrote around four different drafts of a high fantasy YA novel with the story idea of returning all the evils to Pandora's Box. It is heavily influenced by Greek Mythology as I love the subject. Creating those drafts were easy but creating a formidable outline/plot and trying to rewrite/edit.

I said to myself at the beginning of the year I will have a solid novel by the end of the year and not jargon but I am losing faith. I have bought Save The Cat, John Truby's book and Joesph Campbell's The Hero's Journey to try and work through the outline problem. Also paid for a year's access to Plottr to see if that helps.

So far no such luck.

I hope all of your writing projects are doing well. 🙂

Hi @Phoenixwings1989 Welcome! God, it's such a slog, isn't it! Hope you made some progress this week. Reading all the books can be so time-consuming.

I'm trying to look at it very long term – by the end of this year I'd like to have achieved X but I will be happy with Y. In my case, Y= self-publish at least ONE of the short stories I'm writing this year. If nothing else, I'll learn more about the process of self-publishing. Is that helpful? Is it worth you making your goal more SMART i.e. what does a "solid novel" actually mean?

Week 11 update: A very bad week for me. I was very busy with work so my writing time just disappeared. I ended up copy/pasting a story I'd written previously and edited it a little – taking shortcuts, in other words, same as last week, except this time, the result is not worth the paper/digital space it's written on 😪Oh well. Onwards!

Week 12 update: A nothing story, a badly disguised memory that isn't a story. Unfortunately, my efforts are getting worse and worse. I need to figure out how to reboot this project before I end up abandoning the whole thing.

On a positive note, I did revise a different story I wrote previously (a flash fiction piece). I like the result. I can only hope that everything I write that I think is awful at the time can eventually be revived and improved. I'm contemplating publishing this piece (it's just 1300 words) on the internet somewhere anonymously to see what kind of reaction I get. If any.

How's everyone else doing? Would love to hear some positive stories to give us all hope.

I'm still editing my first draft. I really think I'll need several rounds of edits. My plan is:

• finish this edit looking for plot, structure, character etc and that it holds together. I'm reading each scene and making changes, trying not to get too caught up in line editing.

• look at world building checklists and adding in elements ad hoc to make the world richer.

• adding in more background details of the war. It is too character focused and the bigger picture isn't there yet.

• search for filter words, overused words, emotion words, was etc and change the sentence structure.

• line edit

• run through grammalry and hemingway.

@LuciferRising

"run through grammalry"

Good idea 😉

I've had my report through from the editor. It's encouraging and daunting in equal measures.

Some of it I can see immediately how to do and totally agree with.
Some of it I agree with, but aren't quite sure how I can do it.
A a small amount I'm not really in agreement with.

So currently I'm trying to edit or rewrite. I must now have rewritten the first chapter around 576 times . And then I get some time talking through with the editor. I'll ask them about the bits I disagree with, and see if with more of their reasoning I agree.

What I do find a little frustrating, is me! The bits I agree with, I'm not sure I'd spot on my own, and I was hoping that it wouldn't just help me with this story but it would help my writing overall.

Oh well!

I still don't like editing much although the editor did tell me it was the most exciting part! I'm not convinced. 🤣

@MargaretThursday is it an editor you have used before or the first time?

First time! (been saving up!)

I'd be interested in doing this once I've completed my WIP!

I have a few questions @MargaretThursday. Do you mind if I ask them?

That's great, Margaret Thursday, I hope your editorial report proves inspiring!

Some of it I agree with, but aren't quite sure how I can do it.

Don't be afraid to go back to your editor and ask for clarification, examples, etc. (Unless her service doesn't allow for that, of course.) As a former editor, I found it sometimes hard to tell in advance what clients would find easy to grasp and what would be baffling. So I liked it when writers got back to me with queries. Editing works best as a dialogue IMO.

@LuciferRising
Feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to answer.
I haven't had the meeting with the editor yet, just the report, so I can't say anything about that.

@Squiblet Thanks for giving your experience. It's good to know that you found dialogue helpful.
You get a report plus a zoom/telephone call after the report. You can email questions but they don't go directly as I don't have the direct email address, so I may (before I have the zoom call) send some across that they can either answer by email or in the call.

Thank you MargaretThursday.

I guess my questions are:

• How completed was your manuscript? Did you go through and edit it yourself?
• What did you ask for? Was it a structure-type edit or a line edit? Did they look at the characters etc?
• How did you find the person?
• Was it expensive?
• Would you do it again?

• How completed was your manuscript? Did you go through and edit it yourself?

It was complete. I write as a "pantser" and then I put it through critiques with Scribophile, firstly line edits and then more general story edits chapter by chapter. That helped a lot to get rid of the first set of inconsistencies, typos and SPAG.

• What did you ask for? Was it a structure-type edit or a line edit? Did they look at the characters etc?

Structure edit. They look at the plot/characters etc. They've done the report in various headings. Roughly: General comments First chapter Improving overall plot (split into several headings) Characters Query on an inconsistency Action Dialogue Synopsis

I don't know whether that's a set layout for the editors, whether that's how that particular editor works, or just how they worked for this book. At any rate it's very clear, and they're saying what works for them, what doesn't work, and making suggestions that they think will help overall. They way it's done worked well for me anyway!

• How did you find the person?

I went through a literacy agency. You send your first few pages, and they say if they think it's ready for an edit (tbf I have no idea if they say no to anyone, but they say they do!) and then gave me a choice of two of their editors, both of whom are published authors.

• Was it expensive?

I think this is a how long is a piece of string question. It was a lot more than I'd normally spend on myself for anything. However I suspect for the hours put in by the editor it is good value. Hope that makes sense.

• Would you do it again?

I'm not sure at the moment. Maybe ask me when I've completed it! I've really enjoyed doing it, but I'm not sure I can justify the expense again.

Sounds very exciting. Keep us updated with how it goes. It will likely the the route I take with my first WIP because I would hope to learn a fair bit from it.

I'm a member of some creative writing forums and plan to submit a chapter soon for review. Need to work out how to find beta readers.

Why is there no edit button?😄

How are you progressing Margaret?

@LuciferRising

I'm still (slowly) going through on the edits. Most of them I can see the sense in. What I'm struggling most with is that the first bit is quite slow (agree with the editor there) but that's because there's a fair bit of world building going on, and I take a bit out, then if I put it later it feels very shoehorned in because by then the characters should know it.

I will definitely be doing what you have done. I am hoping by the end of the summer I will have a third draft ready to submit to an editor.

I am concerned I do not have enough world-building in mine, but I have been using ChatGPT to comment on a few paragraphs to see if it can tell me what the tone, atmosphere or relationships are. I also ask if it is bland or evocative and it seems to pick up if I haven't used varied sentence structure etc.

How did it go, @CrepuscularCritter ?

Could I join if you're still active?
I've written a short story and some poems for some competitions this year so far, I have my early YA paranormal mystery novel that I querying (but I'm losing hope!), and I've just decided to enter the Bridport Memoir award.

@MargaretThursday how did you find the feedback from the editor in the end?