Writing a book, part 5 | quarterly writing goals & nearing the end of my WIP

Hey, it’s been a while!

(My other “Writing a book” posts.)

I haven’t talked about writing on this blog since NaNoWriMo, but I’m back again to talk about more writing stuff!

So I basically took most of December off from writing, because between finals and the holidays, I just didn’t have time. But I dove back into it for the new year and I’ve been writing pretty steadily ever since! I mentioned at the end of NaNoWriMo that my goal is to finish my current WIP draft by the end of January…which might actually happen???

I ended NaNoWriMo with about 55k words, and I’m currently sitting at, um… *checks* about 79k words! I’m guessing it’ll take about another 10k words or so to reach the end, which is totally doable within the next few weeks. Woah. I’m actually gonna finish this thing.

Of course, this draft is gonna need a LOT of revising. It’s a little frustrating, because I feel like I can imagine exactly how I want this story to be, but it’s just not coming out that way. I keep having ideas that I don’t know how to incorporate in the way that I’m envisioning.

Okay, stop thinking about revising, me. We’re not there yet. In fact, I have a plan for all of that!

Quarterly Writing Goals

In my 2019 reading and blogging goals post, I didn’t mention writing goals because I wanted to talk about that separately. I’m actually not making writing goals for the whole year, but instead creating quarterly writing goals for myself. This means that I create goals for every three months, then at the end of that period look back, assess how I’ve done, and then make the goals for the next quarter. With this system, I have smaller chunks of time to achieve my goals, so I (hopefully) don’t push them off and procrastinate as much! (This is 100% inspired by Jenna Moreci on Youtube.)

So my goals for January through March are:

1. Finish my current WIP

As already mentioned, this goal is almost done! With only a few more weeks of writing, I will have a complete draft on my hands! Once again: WOAH.

2. Start outlining and researching for next WIP

While I take a step back from this WIP, I want to keep my momentum going by starting my plan for the next one. It’s an idea that’s been churning in my head for a few months now and I’m so excited about it. There’s a lot of research to be done before I get started, though, so that’ll be what’s next! I don’t want to say too much about it quite yet, but…there might be dragons involved. 😉

3. Make a plan for revision

Like I’ve mentioned a million times, my current WIP needs a lot of revision. So in the next few months, I hope to start planning out how that revision is going to look! Not quite sure yet how this step is going to look…but that’s what the planning is for, right?

^ me trying to put together all my different storylines in a way that makes sense

So that’s my update! Wish me luck with finishing my WIP! In the meantime…

An excerpt from my recent writing: “Broken now doesn’t mean broken forever.”

Writing music: Some songs that I’m Feeling™ for the end of this book:

• Meet Me in the Woods by Lord Huron (since basically this whole story takes place in the woods lol)
  • “I took a little journey to the unknown / And I come back changed, I can feel it in my bones”
• Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart (to fit the kinda melancholy mood)
  • “A year from now we’ll all be gone”
• The Anchor by Bastille (to fit the more hopeful bits at the end…)
  • “You were the light that is blinding me / You’re the anchor that I tie to my brain”
• Fools by Lauren Aquilina (because the romantic subplot is getting JUICY 😏)
  • “And I don’t want you to go but I want you so / So tell me what we choose”

Anyways, if you need me, I’ll be writing!

Anyone else have writing goals for 2019? How are WIPs looking post-NaNoWriMo?

x Margaret 

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