Two More Chapters

I forgot to make a post on Saturday and announce that I had (finally) completed another chapter in "Perfect Life For Large Price".  CHAPTER 31 is now online.

And that brings us to tonight, when I have completed CHAPTER 32, which is now online.

Hopefully, you'll be seeing these updates a lot more often.

I've made some decisions for myself over the past few days.  First of all, I've come to realization that I have been WAY too passive in my writing, when I claim that it is my passion.  If it's really my passion, I need to force myself to do it more often and more regularly.

And I need to finish things.  So, I've set two deadlines for myself for two projects.

First, I plan to complete "Grinchby" before Thanksgiving.  It's a Christmastime story, so it'll be done just in time for people to read during the holidays.  It's a short story, and I'm aiming for 20,000 words, which I believe is a very realistic goal for the project.  I've been plotting it out, and have over 1,000 words of a synopsis completed and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through the story I'm planning to tell.  So, 20,000 words might be on the short side, it could easily pass that once I finish the outline.

Second, I'm planning to complete "Perfect Life For Large Price" before December 31st.  I've got most of the rest of the novel mapped out chapter by chapter, so I know pretty much where everything is going, I just need to make the time to write each one.  It's looking like Chapter 40 will be where I stop publishing online and leave everyone with a huge cliffhanger - which I'm SO excited about writing!  If I complete the first draft by January 1st, then that will give me three months to revise and have others read and give input, and hopefully have a serious/committed person to proof and edit for me, and give me some opinions.  So that I can have a serious, completed First Draft done by March 23rd, 2012 - exactly two years from the day I wrote my first chapter (and one year longer than I originally planned).

Over the past few days, I've also begun researching Literary Agents and what they look for.  So, I'm getting a lot of good input from the internet, and getting some ideas for how to approach things.  After all the years I cut indie film trailers and designed posters for our projects, I seriously think that I can put together a decent package to send with novel.  I'm sitting at almost 74,000 words right now, so I will easily break 100,000 and most likely end up close to 120,000.  Which will make me feel good and accomplished no matter what.  I know there will be lots of rejection, and if I have to self-publish first, I'm not opposed to that idea.  I also have plans to submit "Grinchby" to some online publication sites and see if I can't get one of them to run it during the holidays, which would add a little credibility to any resume I sent to a potential agent, by showing them I got another piece of work published somewhere else, even if it was only online.  I'm still doing my research, but the plan is to hopefully find someone interested in the story, and hopefully present them with a well-enough composed version that they'll give it some attention.

Time will tell.
But, I claim my passion is writing, so it's time to act like it.