The Grand Master Plan

As a writer- No, as a person it is important to have goals. As the old CHS cross country coach liked to say "A person without goals is like a tree..." The team spent ages trying to figure this out, but in the end just pretended to be insightful and put it on our t-shirts.

I'd like to think that quote means that without goals you won't go anywhere, much like a tree doesn't move from where it is planted. Though, a tree does grow upward and that is certainly an accomplishment if you think about it so maybe it's just a bad quote.

Goals are nevertheless important. Because without goals we are likely to squander our lives in events and tasks that don't take us to where we most desire to go. They don't add up to The Grand Master Plan.

The Grand Master Plan, for me, is the somewhat vague and oh-so-flexible plan I have for my life. It encompasses my future career, personal life, writing life, and family life. It's not something I spent hours contemplating and it's really not something I'll hold myself to forever (plans change, of course), but it's a basic outline of where I'd like to go in my life.

Now in order to fulfill the desires in my Grand Master Plan, I have to set goals for myself which will advance me along the path of the Plan. Currently I'm thinking a lot about the writing part of that Plan, and since this is my writing blog I'll share a bit of that plan.

Mostly I'm focused on Eventide, with the occasional side project (mostly short stories) to break up my focus (I find it difficult to stay interested in one thing for a long time if I try to focus solely on that one thing). I've been doing a lot of thinking about Eventide and my previous goals. These goals more or less failed, more or less because I keep changing up plot related items.

So now, ladies and gentlemen, here is where Eventide fits in on The Grand Master Plan:

- Finish the entire first draft of Eventide (which I'm imagining will end up somewhere around 100,000 words) by June.
- Spend the summer as a camp counselor at a church camp I attended when I was younger (making money to finance study abroad adventures).
- Get busy on editing and have a shiny second draft within six months of returning to the world of computers, internet, and writing.
- Post it up on YWS, either in the Advanced Critiques or chapter-by-chapter in the Fantasy Fiction Novel forum (an alternative to this would be to get several beta readers).
- Edit some more with the advice of YWS/beta readers and come up with a shiny third draft.
- Get a handful of beta readers to read for different purposes. One to read for grammer/spelling mistakes, one to read for content, one to read for pure enjoyment.
- Make a few more edits based on the advice of these new beta readers to come up with shiny fourth draft.
- Query agents/publishers
Now this is where the plan becomes tricky. There are two ways to go from here. Either A: the manuscript is loved and I make a deal or B: I'm rejected and need to work on the story more.
- In case of B (see further down for A). Do some hard core editing, find another beta reader, Query, rinse and repeat (this step is repeated as many times as possible).
- In case of A. Rejoice in the splendor that is making a book deal and go through all that is involved with publishing a book.
- Get on to a new project (there are several waiting patiently).

So that's basically it. Looks like a lot, but it isn't so much. And if I really get to work on it I should get through a lot of these items rather quickly. Editing is easier (for me) than the initial writing process and goes a lot faster. If all goes well, I'd love to get Eventide published by the time I graduate from college.

That's about it. This blog mainly fell into my musings and ramblings and goal-settings that are mostly for my own benefit. Oh well. It's my blog, I'll do what I want.

-Lauren-

Frabols-licious!

Very recently, I reached a massive milestone in my life: adulthood. It's lovely to be eighteen, and it was a lovely birthday. But the day really isn't the point. The point is that I recieved Frabols: The Bubblegum Ball from two of my best friends.

Now, I love them both deeply, but they must have lost it. These Frabols are probably the least satisfying things I've ever had. If you've ever spent twenty-five cents on a bubblegum machine at the supermarket, you know what I'm talking about. They're the exact same thing.

While I tend to be someone who enjoys and appreciates bubblegum, I can't seem to appreciate these. For one, only a few flavors (or, colors I suppose) are even good. (I've found purple to be my favorite, and orange is just nasty). But what really is the problem is that the flavor (color) only lasts for about thirty seconds before the Frabols descends into a pit of bland yuck.

So I'm left popping an unsatisfying Frabols into my mouth, chewing it for a minute at most, and then spitting it out into a tissue only to grab for another Frabols in the next motion. I don't know why I do this, it just happens. It's like the Frabols control my life now.

In (completely un)related news, I woke up this morning with the fabulous intention to spend a lot of time writing Eventide today. Unfortunately I did noth-

Dear God, the yellow Frabols are the worst yet! They taste like nail polish!

-ing of the sort. I did chores, and university-prep stuff, but no writing. Actually, I take that back. I wrote... a grand total of thirty words today. Well, I never was one to make deadlines or achieve goals anyway.

-Lauren-

Long Time, No Blog

Well it has been a while hasn't it? Not only did life seem to get in the way of my blogging experience, but I needed some time to actually figure out what I want from this thing.

What I've pretty much decided is that I want to focus on writing and my career as a writer with this blog. A bit of shameless self promotion here and there, as well as my own exploration into the world of literature and creative writing. I'm starting university as an english-creative writing major so I should kind of know what I'm rambling about here in a month or so.

I'm going to try and focus my blog posts on something writing related, since when I blog about life in general I tend to rant and that's never as interesting as I imagine it will be. Though, since writing is a major part of my life it will still get in there somewhere. ;)

That's pretty much all the updating I have right now. I'm going to work on spiffing things up a bit more around here, getting a few quality posts up, and then getting the word around my writing community so I'm not just talking to myself here.

-Lauren-