Monthly Archives: May 2009

Wanted, One Good Goal

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I’ve been working steadily on my novel, making decent progress, but I still don’t feel any closer to being finished.

Hm.

And today I decided that what I need is a goal. A deadline. Something to shoot for that will let me say “It’s finished and ready for the public.” Often, without a deadline, I’ll meander along forever, doing a lot, accomplishing a little.

So, with that in mind, here goes.

I will send out my first agent query letter for the novel by September 1. Of course, that means the novel will have to be finished and ready for review. I’ll also need whatever the agency typically wants (synopsis, sample chapters, etc.)

Anyone else working on a novel with no end in sight? Care to announce your goal and join me for a summer not just of writing, but of finishing as well?

Reading List

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I’ve been thinking a lot about how much I read, what I read, etc.  I also got to wondering how much I read, after reading that many people won’t even read one book this year.

So, with that in mind, I’m putting up a new blog page, my Reading List. I’ll start it off with the books I listed a couple weeks ago and keep going from there. That should include all my books read from May onward. From time to time I’ll include a blog update and maybe a short review or two.

I think you can tell a lot about a person by what they read, and I doubt I’m any exception. I’d be curious to see what people learn about me from my book list.

I’ll also be putting my Amazon affiliate link on the page, so if you’re interested in buying something from Amazon, I’d appreciate your using my link. If you do, I’ll cut a small cut to help support my lavish lifestyle. Yeah. Right.

I’m genuinely curious to see how much I read in a year. I think it’ll also be fun to be able to look back and rememberwhat I read. I know I read dozens of books last year, but I’d be hard-pressed to remember more than half a dozen of them right off.

If anyone is interested in joining me, or if you’re already doing something similar, drop a comment on this post and I’ll link to your reading list as well.

Get Inspired

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Need something to prompt your muse? Feeling a little uninspired? Try one of these writing prompts.

  1. What if there were no energy worries at all. Someone discovers a cheap, safe source of energy. What happens?
  2. A runaway teen returns to her home to confront her ________ about __________.
  3. Think of one piece of technology that most people use daily and then imagine what the world would be like if it had never been invented.
  4. A woman meets the man she’s always dreamed of and refuses to marry him.
  5. Three men walk into a bar.
  6. A teacher gets a 3 a.m. phone call from a student he taught several years ago and hasn’t heard from since.
  7. Take a character from history you like and transplant him/her to the modern world.
  8. A woman permits her child to be molested for years. Why?
  9. It’s 9:44 p.m. and _________ doesn’t know where ___________ is.
  10. What’s one item you still have from your childhood? Why did you keep it?
  11. In order to stop world poverty and hunger, a mad scientist decides to kill three fourths of the world’s population.
  12. A young man goes off to college and finds that he doesn’t fit in, although he was popular in high school.
  13. A __________ year old learns she’s pregnant.
  14. You have to barricade yourself in your home with several of your neighbors for a week or more.
  15. An abused wife returns to her dying ex-husband to confront him.

Will anyone read in fifty years from now?

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Check this out, one in four people read NO books last year.

I have a tough time understanding that, but that isn’t really what I want to write about.

As a writer, these numbers make me think.

  • Of the people who do read, the average was seven books a year. SEVEN.
  • The most avid readers are older females.
  • Fewer than 5 percent listed horror, scifi, speculative as books they’d read. I care about these because they’re what I write.

So, I can’t help but think about what this means for writers and publishing. If older people tend to read the most, then will the numbers of books read drop even further in the future, as the internet generation ages?

Will new technologies, like the kindle, replace books or bring younger people back to reading with the attraction of a cool gadget? Will they do both? Neither?

How possible is it for a writer to make a living in this market?

Will books as we know them even exist in a few decades?

I obviously don’t know the answers to these questions, but I have my own opinions. I don’t see brick and mortar bookstores going away any time soon. No Amazon or e-book can match the atmosphere of a good bookstore. Well, at least I hope they’re not going anywhere!

I’m curious. How many books have you read in the last month?

Here is my list

  • Lynn Viehl’s Dark Need
  • Plot and Structure by James Bell
  • Encyclopedia of Knitting by Donna Kooler
  • A historical novel about Bloody Mary. That author and title completely escape me, and I’m too lazy to go digging.

I’ve also started reading the Cluetrain Manifesto online.

O.K., everyone. What are you reading?

Writing Resources

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Here are the entries for the Writing Resources Carnival that ended April 30. I do wish that a few more people had participated, but many thanks to those who did!

Neil Bartlett presents A Beginners Guide To Writing For Profit | Pro Article posted at ProArticle. This is a nice, tips-oriented article for the person new to online writing and blogging.

Jim DeSantis presents An Easy Way For Newbies To Get Articles! posted at Internet Marketing at On Line Tribune. He focuses on finding cheap/free content and reworking it for your site. He has some good ideas, but take care. I’ve seen bloggers get called out for some of these techniques.