Funky but Not in a Good Way...

I've been in a bit of a writing funk lately. After the craziness of November, working on edits for book 1 and dictating book 2, I've been burnt out. Add to that a lot of stress and not feeling well, and I've accomplished little during the month of December. Well, I got a short story edited and submitted, but that's about all.

Thanks to one of my fabulous friends from #amwritingparty on Twitter, the amazing L.K. Gardner-Griffie, I realized that I needed to get over this funk and put my butt in the writing chair. (BTW- please go to L.K.'s website here and read samples of her awesome work and buy her books!) In order to motivate myself, I realized that I needed a deadline. That's why I like NaNoWriMo so much- it keeps me accountable because I will not lose face with everyone by quitting! lol

So, I'm creating my own little "writing month" to get me out of this funk and get my butt in the writing chair. If I ever want to do this full-time (which I do), I have to get used to writing every day like it's my job. Even if it's only a page, I need to be consistent. Not having a set work schedule this year has been great for me in some ways but has really hurt me in other ways. It makes it so much easier to be lazy and procrastinate.

I love book 1, but now that I'm halfway through book 2, I realized that I want to change a few things in book 1. I know my characters and where I want the story to go better than I did when I started. I'm at 65,000 words now, but I'd like to be at 70,000. I think there's a lot of places where I can make the book stronger by increasing tension, adding some foreshadowing, and adding some scenes that give more "meat" to the story, including some that were originally going to be in book 2 but I feel will fit better if I move them to book 1.

So here's where I need help. I must have a deadline to keep me accountable. I need everyone to encourage and support me and (gently) kick me in the butt to meet my goal. By the end of the night on January 25, I will be done with additions, edits, and changes to book 1, including any comments from my critique people and beta readers. By the end of the night on January 31, the first batch of query letters to agents will go out.

I'm making these goals public so that I will force myself to meet them! lol Sometime in the next few days I'll be posting my overall writing goals for 2010, as well as a look back at the books I read this year. There will even be a contest in which I'll be giving away some of the books I read in 2009, new and old.

Here's to a great end to 2009 and start to 2010. It's gonna be a great year!