Rachel Starr Thomson

This time I deleted all the comments back to September 24. How depressing! I should apparently not try to deal with spam when I’m tired.

I feel bereaved …

Do your conversations fall into patterns? I have one that repeats itself regularly. I say “Guess what?”

“You’re writing a book?” answers my fellow.

“No, I — well, yes, I’m always writing a book, but that’s not the point …”

Writing books is a regular habit for me these days. This year I have four major book-related goals:

1. Begin work on The Advent (Book 3 of the Seventh World Trilogy). I realize this goal is pretty nebulous. It should take more concrete shape over the next month or two as I assess how much writing time I’ll actually have this year.

2. Write the first draft of Writing Tips. Likely that won’t be the final title, but I’m going to get that book of writing tips written! This will be a collection of short, pithy, and hopefully very helpful advice based on the most common problems I see in the writing of my own students and editing clients, as well as things I’ve learned in my own writing journey.

3. Revise Lady Moon. Back in 2007 I finally participated in NaNoWriMo, and the result is a novel I really like, but which needs a LOT of work. This year, I plan to give it that work. I want to have it ready to query by the end of the year. Which leads to my fourth goal …

4. Find an agent for Angel in the Woods. I love this particular book of mine, and I’m in the process of looking for an agent (read: queries, queries, queries). Said process really slacked over the latter part of last year, but I’m determined to get back to it. My goal is to query between 80-100 agents: once that is done, I’ll either have an agent or I’ll move on to querying Lady Moon while making new plans for Angel.

I’m dealing with an influx of comment spam at the moment, and somehow this morning I accidentally deleted most legitimate comments all the way back to October. I apologize! My blog looks a lot lonelier now, and I don’t want you to think you’re not welcome around here anymore.

*Sigh.*

If anyone knows how I can get all those comments back, please do share!

While we’re on the topic of setting goals, I thought I’d share this article by Melissa Mayntz, published in Writers Weekly. I read it this morning and really enjoyed it. Some of her suggestions I’m already taking; others have me thinking in new veins. It’s worth reading!

Here’s a sneak peek at those thirty-one resolutions:

1. Write Daily: Even if the muse vanishes, keep polishing your skills by writing every day, if only a rough draft, scattered notes, or a revision of an older piece.

2. Self-Edit: The spellchecker is nowhere near as effective as a real editor. Reread, read aloud, and revise your work to polish it perfectly.

3. Try New Genres: Expand your market by embracing new types of writing. Always write fiction? Try a how-to article on crafting believable characters. Nonfiction writers - make that attempt at a short story. Poems, greeting cards, and grant proposals are other great options.

4. Get Educated: Enhance your skills by enrolling in a writing course or expand your expertise by choosing a hobby-based class you can write about.

5. Add a Subscription: Subscribe to a new writing newsletter or magazine or choose a publication in a field you frequently write about to stay up on the latest trends.

Read the rest of Thirty-One Writing-Related Resolutions.

As I go over my 2009 goals, I note that the lion’s share of them are business-related. This makes sense: I spend the lion’s share of my time on business! This year, I want to do three major things, all of them interrelated: increase my income (by a specific amount, but I won’t actually share how much), use my time more effectively, and increase exposure for my writing.

That last one is the most fun to think about, and the most challenging. It requires investment (of time, and some money), creativity, and probably as much disappointment as success at this stage. Here are a few of the ways I hope to increase exposure this year:

1. Go on virtual tour! I hope to run at least one blog tour this year, hitting fifteen blogs in a month. I’m working on getting YouTube book trailers together, thinking over interview templates, and figuring out how many books I can afford to give away in the process of touring. This one is going to be fun!

2. Submit new work every other week, both to fiction and nonfiction markets. I’d like to break into at least one new magazine as well as writing for my regulars.

3. Build the Web site. I’d like to make this site more helpful than it is now. Among my plans: blog regular reviews of fiction and nonfiction related to writing, come up with a couple of online courses/seminars for young writers, and post writing tips (from the Writing Tips book I’m planning to write this year).

4. Go to a conference! This has been a dream for years, and this year, I’m making it happen. I’m planning to attend the Writer’s Digest writer’s conference at BEA in New York City this May.

What are some of your business goals this year? How do you plan to reach them?

When I was very young, my father taught my siblings and me that goal-setting should become a regular habit in our lives. For a while we were required to write out daily goals every morning and have them approved before the day went on. At the time it seemed rather pointless — our lists commonly looked like this:

1. Get up

2. Take pajamas off

3. Put clothes on

4. Eat breakfast

Daily goal-setting trailed off after a while, but as we girls have gotten older, many of us have reverted back to the habit. Without it, forward motion seems an unattainable dream. Dad taught us that goals are more than a to-do list, and far more specific than your typical New Year’s resolutions. He urged us to set yearly goals, to break those down into monthly and weekly goals, and to break those down into daily goals. So if your goal is to write a book this year, you figure out how many words you need to write per day to make that happen. Goals can and should evolve as time goes by; some will be dropped, others revised, others renewed.

My goals are not quite that detailed, but I do break long-term goals into short-term steps, and my daily to-do lists keep all my desires and projects moving forward. I’ve taken to setting and revising goals twice a year: once at the new year (which is roughly when the Fall Semester ends) and once at the beginning of summer (when the Spring Semester ends).

In the spirit of New Year’s, I’m currently writing and streamlining a list of goals and plans for 2009. It includes business and marketing ideas, educational goals, books I want to write, relationships I want to invest in, and personal lifestyle changes. I’ll be blogging about some of these things over the next few days.

I’d love to hear from you: do you set yearly goals? In what areas? What are some of yours for this year?

As we come into the last days of the year, I have a distinct feeling of standing on tip-toe–trying to peek over  the edge of the coming year to see what grand and glorious things lie in store. Anno Domini Two Thousand and Eight has been an amazing year in many ways. It’s been a year of beginnings, of growth, of past, present, and future all meeting together.

This is my first day solidly back at work after the holidays. I have three weeks off between WriteAtHome semesters, so I’m hoping to write a great deal — to do significant editing on a couple of novels — to read — to pray — to do a lot of the foundational work for our next Soli Deo Gloria Ballet tour. The work should carry me into January, and I go gladly, with great expectations.

For some reason, I’m pulling a late night. I’ve had a few involuntary late ones, so now my body doesn’t want to go to bed … and I’m a bit behind on marking papers, so despite an unexpected reprieve in their due date, I’d like to mark some tonight. It’s nearly midnight and I’ve got five to go, so I really ought to get cracking!

In mid-December of last year, I was visiting the Curreys, and Carolyn and I were looking over the year ahead and detailing our plans. Two ballet/performing arts productions to create, rehearse, and tour; promotion and publication of our book Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled, publication of my book Burning Light, the launch of Soli Deo Gloria Ballet as a business and ministry, plus various personal goals. I looked at her and said, “This time next year, I am going to collapse on your bed and just lay there and palpitate.”

Well, “this time next year” came, and I was so busy I forgot to palpitate! That’s ok … the holidays are just around the corner. I finish the semester with WriteAtHome on December 24, and then I have three weeks “off” (which is not really “off,” just doing other things). During this season, one of my cousins and oldest friends returns from a long time away in Bolivia, another of my dearest friends comes to visit from Florida, yet another of my dearest friends drives up from Virginia with her beautiful boys, and well, I suppose even the holidays are shaping up to be busy!

But as I look back on the year, on the launch of Soli Deo, the productions of Emmanuel and Father, the books published, growth experienced, and experiences grown, I look back with satisfaction and joy. It is a good life, and I could not be more blessed.

Today I made use of my still-new driver’s license, spending five and a half hours on the road on my way home to my wonderful family. The sky was cloudy and wintery and glorious, with the sun pouring through in cream and yellow streaks. I listened to music and prayed and missed people and looked forward to seeing others. What a beautiful, wonderful life.

Last night we performed Emmanuel at an Anglican church called St. John the Evangelist in Niagara Falls. It was a small crowd, but I really enjoyed the performance — something about it was very warm. It’s a privilege to be able to read the Word of God in these performances, along with my own narrations, and to sing the songs of Christmas — the songs of Emmanuel, God With Us.

Earlier today I got online to listen to a radio show being hosted down in Louisiana. My friends Katie, Paige, and Steven Rees (three parts of the family Cajun band L’Angelus) were on, doing an interview and performing a few songs from their new Christmas album, O Night Divine. (You can hear song clips and purchase the CD at this link.) I dearly wish they lived closer, but it was fun to hear them, and very special to know that we’re not the only ones singing the songs of Emmanuel at this time of year!