Goals for 2021-2022

Now that my 2020-2021 writing year has come to an end, I can feel like I’ve let go of one more level of 2020. I’m no longer constantly ghosted by what my year looked like then, as I prepare for my 2021-2022 writing year to begin.

This year is a little different for me than the years past in regards to my writing. Where the years before have been all about the manuscripts that already exist, this year is going to be opening up time for some completely new manuscripts to begin to take shape. As always for my writing goals, I am going to write a new manuscript for NaNoWriMo. As I’ve mentioned before, the manuscript I’ll draft for NaNo is based off of a story idea I’ve had for awhile. While I’m looking forward getting the first draft of the story down, I also know that it is going to be a difficult one to write. For new writing, I’m giving myself a few months in the winter to chase new stories. I want to give my mind over to the space it needs to find the next story I’m going to write and in order to do that I need to be very intentional about setting aside time for it. My brain has been with these characters so long and I’ve worked hard to know them deeply in order to write their story the best that I can and it’s time to let them rest (a bit). I am going to take the first part of this 2021-2022 writing year to finish the revision of MS:D I am in currently and to revise MS:TS (these are the stories I am going to query for representation) and then I am going to just play with my writing. I have an idea of what I want to write, as in age and maybe genre, but I haven’t found the characters who live in whatever story it will be. I actually tried to give myself some space to let them walk on the page a bit, but nothing came. I can feel a couple of different characters waiting behind the curtain, but they refuse to introduce themselves until the current cast of characters walks off stage. I respect that, and I look forward to meeting them when they do introduce themselves. 🙂 So, for June 2021-May of 2022 my major goals are to finish the revisions of MS:D and MS:TS, to write the first draft of MS:SOS, and to give myself the creative space to find the next stories I’m meant to write. That sentence thrills me in all the ways the idea of chasing my dream and making this journey should feel. 🙂

Last week, I spent the time I needed to complete my goals for the year. I also spent some time working in MS:D, more so in doing revisions on paper than typing them into my Scrivener doc. We are officially in summer vacation mode with of our girls both done school and we are taking some time to just enjoy the laziness of the days and the freedom to relax a little bit before summer camps and other events kick in. We are going to have plenty of time to relax and I am excited to enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful New England weather when and where we can. I am also going to continue making my way through MS:D. I actually spent some time in my Scrivener doc last week playing with the formatting of the actual doc itself and that was really eye-opening. I haven’t spent a lot of time messing around with the settings. I had no idea I could change the icons to denote different types of pages in my document, and after watching a few YouTube videos on it I got brave and made some changes in mine. I love how it came out and I think it will help my work flow. This week I’m excited to revise the chapters in MS:D where my characters are really on the move. They are in a place where they’ll be on the move in one way or another for quite awhile and the tension is going to continue to ratchet up slowly. My characters are really showing who they are and how they react to the different stressful circumstances and I just love it. I’m hoping to have as many sunny days to revise on the deck as we can this week. 🙂

In case no one has told you today, you are more than enough.

Happy Writing!