The Race for the New Year

New Years Resolutions, blah, blah blah.  Almost everyone makes them and almost everyone forgets them.  And even those who don't forget them don't follow through with them.  Don't believe me?  What were your goals from last year?  The year before?

And how are you doing on them?

Ah, but I digress.

For the last two or three months I've been making writing goals, and for the most part achieving them.  (I'll probably fall short of the new 30,000 words for this month but there's an outside chance to make that goal if I can stop blogging about it.)

Making goals for next month is nothing new.  But, since it is a new year, let's make something worthwhile.  Something achievable.

I'm entering two races.

Dean Wesley Smith (I mention him a lot here) wrote a long time back about making goals.  Somewhere along the line the goal setting method became known as The Race.  I couldn't dig out the original post of his, but this website references it.
https://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-race-an-explanation/

It goes like this.  You get:

• 1 point for every short fiction piece you have submitted to paying markets
• 3 points for every novel synopsis + 3 chapters (to markets, agents don't count)
• 8 points for every complete novel submitted to paying markets (again, agents don't count. Only places that can but the novel)
• As soon as it sells the points come off.  Previously sold pieces that is in the market for other sales (anthologies and so on) count towards the tally

The idea, or one of them, is that the higher number you have, the more you sale.  This is due to two reasons.  1) More chances to sale and 2) The more work you produce, the more practice you get and thus, the better your work should become.

Writers with high numbers (50 and above) tend to make it.  Writers with lower numbers (Mine is currently at 11) tend to not make it.

So what about the e-publishing world?  Dean discussed that sometime back here (courtesy of Amanda McCarter and Annie Bellet):

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=2617

The eRace.  It's similar, but the points don't come off.  You get 

• 1 Point for every short story e-published
• 3 Points for every short story collection e-published (5 or more)
• 5 Points for every novel e-published

The points don't go off so it's possible to have a number in the 1000's.

Oh, and I just read this before publishing this post:

http://amandamccarter.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/race-scores-and-e-publishing/

So you have to get 5 sales in the epub world before it counts towards your eRace total.

One of my goals is to be a successful hybrid writer, publishing in both worlds.

So yeah.  I'd like to complete 2 novels this year and, say 30-50 short stories.  I keep playing with that number.

But how about something more lofty?  This year I will achieve the following:

A Race score of 60.

An eRace score of 40.

I'm not sure how lofty those goals are.  The 60 seems easier, as I haven't put any new e-works out there.  (I guess I currently have a score of 5 in the eRace.  You're welcome to go find and buy those stories, they're out there.  But I wrote them years ago and I'm not happy with them.  I can't bring myself to take them down yet, but eventually I will.  Probably.  I think.)

60 and 50?  Can it be done?  Stay tuned here to find out. I sure hope the answer is yes.

The Courage To Be Bad

I've been reading Dean Wesley's Writing in Public blog, and if you're interested in writing you should too. 

In this post, the comments section contains a great nugget of truth.  In fact when I chewed on the nugget it got caught between my teeth.  My wife said, "You've got something in your teeth.  Have you been reading Dean's blog again?"

I'll give her this, she knows me.

It seems every day I have to reeducate myself.

A question and Dean's response is posted here with his permission (with my added emphasis) :
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=10720

The Question:

Ian H says:November 8, 2013 at 7:02 amDean, like everyone else I want to say thanks for sharing with us for so long, it’s very encouraging … your persistence and work rate are amazing. A question which might be a bit tricky to ask when you are still in the middle of a novel, so maybe you might leave it until after you finish — in the last two novels, you seem to have come up against situations where (my interpretation) your normal method of turning off the conscious mind and writing the next sentence couldn’t get you all the way through. Apart from chats with Kris and twenty six (?) years of experience, do you know consciously how you figured things out, did you have a trick to sneak the solutions into the creative side of your mind without upsetting the flow?

The Answer:

dwsmith says:November 8, 2013 at 3:50 pmIan, the real base line key is not being afraid of failing. And having an inability to not finish a story. (Heinlein’s Rules #2) I very, very, very seldom not finish what I start writing. Sometimes I get side-tracked and forget, but if my focus is on finishing, I finish.And another baseline is the courage to be bad. Goes with the not being afraid to fail.99% of all reasons writers can’t finish a story is that their conscious brain comes in and convinces them it’s bad and that they shouldn’t type another sentence. I don’t care. Finished is far, far better than anything even if the story sucks.I would love to say that my ability in this comes from 38 years of writing, but it doesn’t. In 1982, when I finally dug myself out of the myths and found Heinlein’s Rules and started following them, and realized it took no courage at all to stop, only courage to finish and maybe fail, something snapped in my mind and I’ve never had the issue. I just flat said I was going to follow Heinlein’s Rules and they work and I have never looked back.One more point, realize your question assumes there is a “right” or “best” way to finish something. Nope. Finishing is all that matters. Who cares if the flow is upset? Whatever that is.Hope that helped.

Making a Living with Your Short Fiction by Dean Wesley Smith

I finally took the time to look up an article I read on Dean Wesley Smith's blog.  This is required reading for those interested in writing short fiction and considering indie publishing electronically.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457

The blog discusses the need for:

• Work ethic
• Writing in multiple genres
• A love for Short Fiction

The math involved fascinates me.

Finishing

Finished the short story.  Other than how it started I had no idea where it was going.

I'm neither an outliner nor a seat-of-the-panters.  Typically I shape a story, jotting down notes, key points, questions the story should answer and what not.  I may not always know how it's going to end but I have a pretty good idea of how it's getting there.

Not this time.  I promised myself I'd write every day, and so I did.  Beyond an extremely vague idea for a character I had no clue where things were going.  The story takes two sharp turns that make sense now but surprised me at the time.

Writing the story reminded me of spinning in the car because it hit a sheet of ice.  Not that it went quickly.  I just wanted to stop.

So I did what Neil Gaiman said. I finished.  I did what Dean Wesley Smith said.  I wrote the next line.

Is it good?  I hope so.  Maybe.  The important thing is I finished it and submitted it.  I learned I could write a story even when the writing doesn't flow out of me.  And I learned actually writing.

It feels good.

Word Count and Dean Wesley Smith

Dean Wesley Smith's Writing in Public blog fascinates me.

I'd taken to heart the necessity of writing each day.  Also, I'd already figured out the need to simply "write the next line,"  as Dean has said multiple times.

Over the last several weeks I've focused on that.  Travel, work and family have limited my opportunities, but there is never going to be a time when that is not true.  Not unless my career gets to a point where the writing is the only work, and that's years away (if it ever happens.)

Some of my days have included massive (for me) word output.  I figured I was doing much more than I actually was.  Yesterday I decided it was time to take a look at Dean's website.  I've enjoyed his novels in the past, and his advice on writing.  It thrilled me to see the new daily word count feature he is writing.

It settled my internal debate on whether or nor to track my daily count.  I was able to figure out what I'd done for the entire month.  On average- 400 words a day.  That's pretty far away from where I want to be, although it is substantially better than my previous sporadic attempts at writing.

So I'll keep tracking and I'll get the average up.  Thanks Dean.

Here is the link that feature on his website.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?page_id=9659