That February Goal

That original goal of being completely done by February really crept up on me. For the longest time, it had just been a far off date, like a light glowing at the end of a very long tunnel. Now it's right around the corner and I'm facing the fact that I am just not going to be done.

When the idea of After originally started to form in my mind, I only had two scenes planned out. Joss wasn't even a POV. Hell, Joss didn't even exist when I first clawed my way into Ali's mind and started putting her story into words.

Two scenes were all I had. The birth of an idea.

100k words in, and neither one of those scenes have been written yet.

I would guestimate I still have a good 30k words to get us to the end of this book. I've been taking it slow, maybe a little too slow, after finishing Part 2. It's clear I need to pick up the pace again.

So here goes. I plan to put out a minimum of 2k words a day until I can wrap this baby up, and give it a name. Then I'll be starting the long editing process that I hope will go smoother than I'm imagining. I've never done this before, and I have to admit I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I think this post is mostly a shove to get me motivated again, and push past my fears.

Wish me luck.

Resolutions

Resolutions. We all have them right? At least most of us have made one at some point in our life. They're almost always pretty generic. Loose weight, get healthy, stop drinking coffee/alcohol, stop smoking, stop secretly listening to Justin Bieber in your room while crying and eating waffles and ice cream. Pretty mundane stuff.

Last year I made three resolutions, but I prefer to think of them as challenges. They were exactly that. Challenges for myself. Nothing TOO difficult, so it wasn't like I was trying to reach unattainable goals that I would end up failing miserably. Nothing like giving up video games, or reading War and Peace. I went with something a little more reasonable.

Read Java for Dummies - This should have been the easiest one to do, yet I failed at it. My drive started pretty good, but then other shiny baubles popped up that I longed to pursue, and the book ended up collecting dust in my Kindle library. As the end of the year approached, I could have easily picked it up again and finished in a couple days, but I knew I wouldn't retain/learn anything. What would be the point of the challenge had I done that? I chalked it up as a loss and moved on.

Generic/obligatory Weight Loss - I succeeded in this. Yay me! I lost 20 lbs, and kept 15 of it off. I am also not finished with this, and it will reappear in my 2013 list of challenges.

Write 6 Chapters in a book. Any book. Just write, dammit! - This was the one I feared, and figured I would fail at most miserably. As the year was drawing into the last quarter, all I had been able to write was one measly little scene in January. I was about to write this challenge off as a bust but, in October, I stumbled upon something that I'm going to chalk up as 'life changing.' NaNoWriMo.org. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. I will leave that story for another time, but without this great group of people, I would not have even started what I considered to be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

And this is only the beginning.

So here I will 'pen' my list of reasonable challenges for 2013. I truly intend to meet all of these.

Generic/obligatory Weight Loss -  Sorry, but it had to be said.

Finish writing a novel - I will succeed in this. After is so close to being finished, it would be a crime to stop now. This journey that I am going on with Ali and Joss has been amazing. Not only will After be finished before the end of the year, but I also plan to have the 2nd book in the series ready to publish as well. Working title for book 2 is Haven. I can't convey how exciting this has been for me.

Run a 5k - Was that me? Did I just type that? Crap. This year, this is the one that scares me. Here is my motivation for this. Run for your lives. It looks to be great fun, how could I pass this up? I figure I'm going to end up zombie chow, but what a fun way to go.

I believe this one is a given so I won't enter it in bold, but I will complete the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year. I already have a couple ideas for a brand new novel to start on during November. Wouldn't it be perfect if I'm ready to start book 3 in the After series?

So there you have it. My goals for 2013. This is going to be a very exciting year.

Halfway through...

the month.

Can't say that I'm halfway through Part 3 yet, although the writing is still going well. I pulled a couple mini marathons with my daughter this weekend to help us both focus on our writing. It worked pretty well. She got two short chapters finished, and I am now well underway into Chapter 14. Anything it takes to keep that focus!

I do have big plans for this last half of the book. Really excited to get this thing done and get it out there for everyone!

And, with that I leave you with a comment from Tarter on the best part of the Golden Globes.  I will say that when the camera landed on Tommy's face, it was the one point during the night that all of us watching busted out into uproarious laughter.

He was totally about to go Tommy Lee Jones on Will Ferrell's ass.

Thank you Mr. Jones. You still remain one of my favorites actors.