Writing Goals for 2014: Building a Sustainable Writing Life

My goals for 2014 keep me company at work

Each January I try to set goals for myself for the coming year. Writing down my goals helps me visualize the smaller steps I need to take to meet those targets. As suggested by countless other writers, I try to keep my goals focused on actions I can control - numbers of submissions instead of acceptances.

So! Before I set my goals for 2014, I checked in on my goals for 2013 to see which ones I met and where I might have fallen a little short.

Goals for 2013 Check-in

• Complete the first draft of one novel
• I did not meet this goal, so I'm carrying it over to 2014. 

• Attend a residential writing workshop
• Check! I attended the Beginning Novel Writers Workshop held at the University of Kansas, hosted by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, taught by the amazing Kij Johnson and Barbara Webb. It was a great experience, and helped me find the right path for my novel. 

• Keep my current stories in the submission/ revision queue until they sell or I run out of suitable markets.
• Check! My stories have been on a steady submission regimen. I've been pretty good at sticking with the "send it out to a new market as soon as you receive a rejection" strategy. 

• Write 3 new stories and submit them. 
• I've not stuck with this one as closely as I should have. However, I have done serious revisions on a few stories I have faith in and have submitted them. I'm going to carry this goal on to 2014 and try to write fresh stories and work less on the revisions. 

• Experiment with storytelling in different genres (like visual narratives and non-fiction). 
• I didn't meet this goal either. I'd still like to write a graphic narrative and write non-fiction, but I'm not adding them to my goal list for 2014 at the moment. I want to wait until I have a specific idea for each of these projects so that I can have a more concrete goal. 

Goals for 2014

Looking at the goals I set for myself in 2013, I think I need to hold myself accountable for more writerly development, interactions with other writers, and set hard goals for activities I've had on my idea back burner for a while.

I've divided my goals for 2014 into different categories. My big idea, right at the top of my goal list, is to build a sustainable writing life. I'm not sure what this means yet. Ultimately, I'd like for it to mean a pleasant, steady job that gives me enough money and time to work on my writing life, which includes writing, attending workshops and conventions, and teaching writing to others. Until I can find a job that fulfills all of those needs, I'll try building sustainability daily in small ways.

What are your goals for 2014? How are you stretching yourself from last year?

Apply to Clarion West by March 1st!

If you're a writer of short fiction looking to spend six weeks making friends with your peers, meeting amazing authors, and receiving invaluable feedback on your writing, then I cannot encourage you enough to submit your stories to the Clarion West Writers Workshop.

Here's this summer's awesome instructor line-up. 

Paul Park was one of my instructors at Clarion West in 2011, and he is the perfect week one instructor. After lunch he read to us, and it helped me transition from the Outside World, full of work and not much love for literature, to Clarion Space, where your brain is steeped so long in words that you begin to see your stories differently. 

I also studied with Kij Johnson last summer at her Beginning Novel Workshop at the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas (which you should apply to if you're writing a novel!). Kij is not only amazingly fun to be around, but she also has a way of teasing out the heart of your writing and helping you knit that heart back into a more solid whole.  

And though I haven't studied with the other instructors, I know they are just as wonderful, because the workshop administrators know how to put together just the right combination of instructors to push you to write your hardest and cajole you into having fun. 

Go here for more information on how to apply to this year's workshop. The deadline is March 1st. Good luck! 

Booth 5 in The Review Review

Over at The Review Review, Josh Magill gives an overview of Booth in "A Midwestern Journal Goes Beyond Our Failings to Bring Amazement."

My story "Libration" gets a paragraph, and the review gives a good sense of the experience of reading the issue.

Running across the review in the weekly newsletter was a nice bump to get me through Wednesday. And hey, if you sub to literary magazines and haven't subscribed to their newsletter yet, you're missing out on a really lovely, funny missive full of lit mag news. Go! Sign-up!

Mason's Road Summer 2013 Literary Award

Many thanks to the lovely writers and editors at Mason's Road for choosing my short story, "Helpline," as the winner of their Summer 2013 Literary Award.

The staff at Mason's Road have been a pleasure to work with, and I'm honored to have my work appear in this publication.

I'm pretty fond of this story. It has a Star Trek enthusiast as the protagonist, characters who make it their life's work to help others, and a more satisfying ending than some of my other stories.

One of the best parts of winning a contest is that you get really wonderful feedback from the contest judge. This year Michael C. White judged the contest, and these were his kind comments:

As the story went on, it assumed a striking depth of both feeling and gravitas. The simple voice of the narrator became complex, and the story's narrative pivoted at the precise moment it had to, so that the heft of the story and of the narrator's voice and past unified to create a really compelling story. The narrator does, in the truest sense, become sagely, and he offers that hard-won wisdom both to this client and to his colleague. The story ends as both revelation and reaffirmation, of what humans can learn and can affirm. A really fine story!

If you'd like to read the full story, it's up on the Mason's Road website here.

And if you have a short story that is looking for a home, consider sending your work to Mason's Road. They're open for submissions from August 26th - October 20th, 2013. There's no fee for submissions unless you'd like to enter your story for consideration for their Winter 2013 Literary Award. They have a very modest contest entry fee of $10 and the winner receives publication and a $500 prize. I've had a wonderful experience with the editors and wholeheartedly recommend the journal.

Trek Club at the Movies

It has been a few months since the movie came out, but I wanted to share some photographs from my local screenings. Here's a short peek at what it's like to be part of a Star Trek group when a new movie opens.  

My local Star Trek group, the USS Wernher von Braun, had tables at two different theaters on the Friday and Saturday of the opening weekend of Star Trek Into Darkness. Two members of my group went above and beyond your usual movie promotional table, and made hundreds of gift bags with a comic, action figure, or tribble in each. Our group helped out a little with stuffing and sewing the tribbles at a few get togethers, but truthfully, Michael and Joanna and their family made the gift bags almost entirely on their own.

Tribbles in the making

They gave the gift bags away for free to anyone attending the movie. But that's not where the awesomeness ends. They also donated a ton of amazing Star Trek memorabilia for free drawings at every movie screening. And we are talking about some super cool items.

Gorgeous plates

Lovely TOS action figures

The movie events were really fun. It was interesting, though, how many people couldn't believe that we were giving away items for free. No fee to enter. No catch. Not even requiring that you sign up for an email list first.

It was fun to stand behind the table and have short, enthusiastic conversations about Star Trek with movie goers. I didn't get to see the movie until Sunday of the opening weekend, but in the end, meeting so many old and new Trek fans was my favorite part of the movie experience. 

"Libration" Published at Booth Online

My short story "Libration" is now available to read on the Booth website. This is a wonderful journal and I'm very proud to have my story appear online as well as in the print version of Issue 5. 

Check out all of the amazing writing in their archives, while you're there! 

Sponsor Gifts for the Clarion West Write-a-thon

Right now there's a sorority house in Seattle filled with eighteen amazing science fiction and fantasy writers. They're studying with some of the best writers and editors in the field, forming lifelong friendships, and learning so much about their writing that will shape and propel their stories for years to come. 

Two years ago I was lucky enough to be in that house. And a scholarship from Clarion West donors helped me get there. 

The 2013 Clarion West class is about to enter their last week of the workshop, and it will also be the last week of this year's write-a-thon. 

I signed up for the write-a-thon and have been working on my first novel, Recovery. It's a story about a young woman and her two ravens living in Fairbanks. She's a former activist, suffering from care fatigue, and slowly gaining the power to enact change from an unsuspected source. 

In June I went to the Center for the Study of Science Fiction beginning novel writing workshop, which was a wonderful experience and gave me a much clearer vision of where my novel is headed. I wouldn't have even applied to this workshop, however, if it were not for the encouragement of my Clarion West classmate (and amazing writer) Alisa Alering. 

I'm hoping to get a few sponsors for the Clarion West Write-a-thon, and in return I will mail each donor a broadside with an excerpt from my novel in progress and an image to inspire you to write a new short story.

Interested? Here's how it works:

1. Go to my Write-a-thon profile and click on the donate button http://www.clarionwest.org/writeathon/jennimoody  
2. Donate any amount to support Clarion West ($1, $5 - every bit helps) 
3. At the end of the week I'll receive an email from Clarion West listing my donors and their addresses. At this point I'll send the goodies off to you in the mail. 
4. Goodies will arrive in your mail! Hooray! 

Clarion West made such an amazing difference in my life, and from stories I've heard from others, I know I'm not alone. Please join me in supporting the amazing stories of tomorrow.