2011, the year before the end, might as well write.

I like making goals. But I’m a flip flopper because I tweak and change them all the time. For the past few weeks I’ve mulled over this idea, and I think I’m going to try my best to make it happen. The goal is to write a first draft of my novel in 2011, to start right after the New Year and finish by the next New Year.

Last fall I wrote that I was stopping my novel attempt. That was the right decision. I had consistency issues and worked on the thing for a year and a half. Since I stopped I’ve written semi regularly for my blog. This is a lot more stress free than trying to write serious or writing pieces for submission. I’ve had the blog since August and I feel my writing has improved during that time. I write faster and I make less mistakes. Also, writing strictly about myself I’m tinkering and figuring out my voice. Finding a good realistic voice is essential for my first person fiction novel to work.

Why wait until 2011? The reason is to continue on the improvement from this blog. In the past week I’ve made several entries, and if I can continue to write entries regularly the sky is the limit. I’m shooting for blogging 3 to 4 nights a week. They will be similar to my previous ones, with me trying to figure out things. I think it’s important when practicing writing to organize your thoughts, and articulate them with care so other people can understand it and be interested in it. I notice a lot of blogs are simply a paragraph. That’s fine for people that have an audience or product people are focused on, but it’s lousy for people trying to practice writing.  So my goal for each blog is at least 600 words and better yet more around a 1000 words. In school this would be the length of a 2 to 5 page paper. Relatively short for articles, but long enough for practice. It is now nearly May so it is 7 months until the year 2011. If I succeed in writing 3 to 4 entries a week, that would be over a hundred entries by then. That should be enough practice.

My whole thought on making a novel attempt successful is to first make the act of writing routine, a regular part of life. I think that is essential before taking on writing of substantial length. You can go from nothing to writing a blog or a diary, but you need a foundation of writing before writing a novel. For the book I want to write, it will be the same story of my previous novel attempt. I believe I had something there, and eventually I will succeed in writing it out. Since it is a first person narrative I think I need to figure out the tone and voice to make it even through the entire book. I also plan to thoroughly plot it out between now and January. I also should do some research before I start. So the goal will be in January I’ll be able to start and simply write until it’s done. No interruptions, and write it consistently. I would transfer the blog writing time of 3 to 4 times a week into the time for writing in my novel.

That’s all for tonight, but I hope this is not a hollow goal like I often make up and then don’t follow through on.

For my mandatory blog picture I got inspired to pull out my old writing drafts. It’s seems bulky and takes up a large drawer, but most of it is unfinished!