Since October, I’ve further modified my writing goals. Norse City Limits has been put on hold (as mentioned in October), as have all my other fiction writing projects. I’m focusing solely on Shards of Stole Breath (the middle-reader dragon book I’m writing for my children).
This decision came about because I was sick of juggling so many projects and feeling like I never made progress on the “big ones” (aka the novels). My children won’t be young forever, and they won’t necessarily like dragons forever, so I figured finishing Shards was the top priority.
I once considered myself a “promiscuous writer” in the same way I’m a promiscuous reader (i.e.: I read multiple books at a time, flitting from one to the next as the mood suits me). But this kind of flitting in my writing has led to shorter things getting completed while longer things would fall by the wayside. I like writing short stories, but it started to feel as if my short stories were giving me cover to avoid working on the longer, more complex novels.
So in October, I put my goals related to NCL, Ysbaddaden on hold while my Shards of Stolen Breath goal was pushed to the top. However, what’s new here in June is that I’m also putting all my short story-related goals on hold too. Non-fiction, Substack, blogging, etc. are different enough to not compete with Shards, but until I finish Shards, I’m looking to hold off on any other fiction goals at the moment.
Okay, now, on to the goals!
- Shards of Stolen Breath (middle grade novel): I guess my idea of writing books in “seasons” (stolen from Stephen King) hasn’t quite worked out. Winter has turned into spring has turned now into summer and Shards is still a work-in-progress. I’m about 30k words into the thing, and while I originally thought it would be around 60k, I’m not putting any definitive number on length just yet. If I start thinking it’s a 60k book, I’ll start shaping the story to fit that length instead of letting the story be the length it wants to be. I’m also revising several of these middle chapters because I had a better idea of who some new characters are and what will happen when they try to restore the dragons’ magic.
- Blog every day: Not even close. Until this week, I haven’t blogged since April. This is partly due to putting more focus on my fiction and Substack, but blogging uses such different writing “muscles” that I could still do it more frequently than I have. My idea of delving into my writing notebooks and “stealing” stuff to put on the blog is probably how I’ll get more blogging done.
- Send out a Substack newsletter every two weeks: Nope. BUT… I have been more consistent with sending out a Substack each month, especially since I’m doing my Dolmenwood book club. This is where the “fail to succeed” comes into play. I have a goal (perhaps too ambitious) of sending out a Substack every two weeks, and while I’ve failed at said goal, I’m trying to achieve it, which means I’m sending out a Substack every month, give or take. I want to continue striving for every two weeks, but for now, I’m proud of this year’s Substack efforts.
- Play more role-playing games with my kids, my husband, family, and friends: I am rocking this one! At least when it comes to family and friends. I’ve been playing at game stores consistently for several months, at least three times per month, and on Sundays, I’ve started GMing a Dolmenwood game for my husband, brother, and cousin. The one area where I’m not making progress is playing with my kids. Now that it’s summer, I think I’ll get some games out and cajole them to join me, especially on rainy days. For the kids: Mausritter, Hero Kids, and maybe some Cairn 2e.
- Create some RPG modules for
Norse City Limits and Merlin’s Last MagicDolmenwood: I’m amending this goal partly due to some ideas I’ve had since starting my Dolmenwood book club on Substack. I realize that with all this reading I’m doing related to the game and its inspirations, that I kinda want to start making content for the game itself. Perhaps a “Goblin Market” module, or something inspired by “Mrs. Mabb”? I haven’t really done much with this goal other than think about it, but if I’m going to dip my toe into making RPG stuff, Dolmenwood feels like the right way to go.
- Make a “Saturday Morning” zine series and publish an issue every month: Not yet. Have sketched out some ideas for what each issue might be about, but other than that, I’ve not worked on this goal.
- Make other zines: Not yet, but I did do some brainstorming about possibilities. I want to get my kids involved as well, particularly as illustrators. A family-made zine, if you will. This has me quite excited, but the ideas are all embryonic at this stage and need more fleshing out, thought, experimentation, discussion, etc.
- Read more books with my kids (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Half-Magic, James and the Giant Peach, the Hobbit, the Silver Chair, Horse and His Boy, Magician’s Nephew, Last Battle, more Little House books, How to Train Your Dragon series, Harry Potter): Yes!!! We finished NIMH, Silver Chair, Horse and His Boy, Magician’s Nephew, The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, and we’re about to begin Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This has been going very well, and in addition to the above mentioned books, we’re currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth, Skunk and Badger, and The Castle of Llyr. At some point, I hope to return to The Hobbit as well.
- Start naalbinding again (finish the hat I started for my son and make another one for my other son): No, and I’m sad about it. I see my little bag on its hook that has the yarn and naalbinding needles, and I always pass it by. I’m worried that I’ve forgotten how to do it. I think I’ll need to start a little beginners loop and get the hang of it again before I jump back into my son’s winter hat. Maybe by this coming winter I’ll be able to finish it…
- Practice my cartooning/comics drawing (for the zines): A little. We bought a box of blank greeting cards so we could make cards for people instead of buying them, and I’ve done two homemade cards using cutesy little creatures I copied out of this book: How to Draw Cute Woodland Friends. I also created two possible characters to be my zine mascots: a pillbug named Pillburt and a preying mantis named Manty.
- Start a podcast: Nope. Haven’t really thought or worked on it either. I feel like I’m in such a “finish Shards” mode that starting a big project like this feels impossible. Maybe that’s the wrong attitude. Maybe I need to keep pushing on this so that I build momentum. Small daily actions build to big things. I need to remember that (for this podcast goal but also for my fiction writing and everything else).
- Write essays, poems, and fiction that will serve as models for my students next school year: No, and I think what I need to do is not write these ahead of time but write them alongside my students. So, for now, I’ll not be working on these, but when school resumes in the fall, I’ll get back to writing more model texts and drafting in the classroom, in front of my students, so they can see how a writer does it. Both the good and the bad, the ease and the struggle.
This list of goals is much less ambitious than in previous iterations (only 12 items this time), but I’m okay with that. I still stand by having big(ish) goals and “failing to succeed,” but I also realize that when it comes to fiction especially, the number of goals was more a procrastination technique than a productivity one.
Jane Yolen, one of my GOATs, just passed away at 87, and I’m reminded of why she’s such an inspiration: She wrote every possible kind of genre and type, from picture books to novels to non-fiction to poetry, and she wrote with incredible gusto. She was beyond prolific.
I always admire the really prolific ones. Yolen, Bradbury, Sanderson.
But I’m not prolific. For whatever reason, I can’t seem to write at the same volume as my heroes. In the obit I read of Yolen yesterday, she was quoted as saying that there are often two types of writers, the mule team drivers and the horse and buggy writers. The mule teamers can handle several projects at once, whereas the buggy writers finish one thing then move on to the next.
I want to be a mule team driver, but I think I might be a horse and buggy person. Yolen wasn’t critical of the horse and buggy writer, she was simply describing these two types. Sanderson, from what I can tell, is more of a horse and buggy guy, finishing one thing at a time and then switching gears to work on something completely different after each project is completed.
I think I need to experiment with this and see if I’m right about my type. If I can finish Shards this year, and if I can keep going without getting blocked or too bogged down, then perhaps I am better suited to the horse and buggy style. After I finish Shards, maybe that’s when I go back to one of my unfinished short stories. Then, when that’s finished, move on to maybe Ysbadadden. Etc., etc.
But if I stall out, if I find myself struggling and not writing at all, then perhaps I need to reconsider that I may be a mule teamer after all. I’ll know more at the next goal update.
