*staggers over to the claw sharpener...swigs from the Acid Breath bottle...flexes fangs*
So, in March, have you...
Submitted a short story, poem or other short fiction submission to a competition or magazine (one point for each submission)?
Submitted an article (one point per article, no matter how many mags the article is submitted to)?
Written and/or edited at least 4000 words (one point)?
Written more than the basic 4000 words (one additional point for each 2000 words of original writing (not editing)?
Edited more than the basic 4000 words (one additional point for each 5000 words of editing) ?
Outlined/plotted 4000 words or more (one point for each 4000)?
Beta-read read a fellow writer's novel and provided feedback (one point)?
Completed and published a new author website (one point)?
Written your query? (one point)
Written your synopsis? (one point)
Submitted a novel to an agent or editor? (Straight up to Koala Approves!)
(Anyone who's on Koala Approves while waiting for an agent response, remember that you must keep writing/editing/submitting short stories in the next month. Anyone sitting on their laurels drops down a stage. However, if an agent asks you to make changes to a novel, you get to stay on Koala Approves for the duration of your editing and negotiations, provided you get those changes to him/her in time and remember your manners. Ask for an extension or moan about your potential agent and you drop down a stage.)
A reminder... Points cannot be held over for a following month. The Koala wants consistent effort. The Koala is always right.
Special Furry Rules: Paca - adapt to suit Furry Dissertation and article submissions. In your case, job applications also apply. Over-adapt and I will claw you. And take away points.
Special Bird Rules: If Phoenix ever feels sufficiently inspired to actually start a blog and even manages a few posts, there might be a point in that..
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28 comments:
Still querying here, so I can spare myself the self shredding, which is good, because it leaves such a mess on the branches of the eucalypt.
Glad to hear you're still alive and kicking butt!
Is it too late to ask for the month off?
Been a strange one this time around - illness, overtime at work, familial visit (in which I read 4 or 5 books - I lost count).
Still trying to crank out some points this weekend, but they're not falling like the leaves on the ficus tree that our little angel is intent on destroying.
I hope this means you're feeling better!
I made 13 submissions (and no, it wasn't the same thing getting rejected and subbed 13 times :) wrote 4000+ words and edited those 4000+ words into the form of a "story." (which I may send out next month, or übernext month, or überübernext month, so that it can get rejected.)
Total: 15 points
(do I get extra points for my 10 shiny rejections? some of them were truly glorious.)
Sarah, the month off can be claimed at any time...but only once a year! (Yes, The Koala will keep a record...)
Ficus - rubber plant - is one of the few things here that can be chopped down/taken out without council permission, mainly because of it's love of invading water pipes with its supernaturally strong roots.
Much better thanks FH, trying to catch up with everything now!
Motheree, The Koala is most content.
Yay for The Koala and her little joeys all being fully recovered finally!
A couple of requests for fulls this month, so, whew, dodged the Koala Claws, thanks be to the Amighty Eucalypt.
And I'm working on next month's dodge: a bloggy website. Seems Blogger has a new feature where you can set up and link multiple pages in a more website-looking way. It appears to be a great compromise for the as-yet-unpubbed. I am putting on the finishing touches, but am purposely not launching it or posting to it till the first day of April, because I want at least one point in my back pocket ;o)
It's here, in case the new subpages feature intrigues you and you want to check it out on a live site. I think it's backwards compatible if you already have a standard Blogger template set up -- and compatible with just a minor tweak with some of the other 3rd-party templates I know a few of you are using.
Phoenix's New WIP Blog
Submitted a novel to an agent!
And, erm, have been slacking off since. But that will all change come the first of April!
Because fear is a wonderful thing.
I've been editing like crazy because I had a short story that pubbed this month and have a novel that's due back in a couple days, so I am stealing time here from trying to slap Mark's friends into shape. You said that's as good as editing for an agent, remember? *hides from claws*
But just in case, the 18K words of a novel (8?) and a subbed short story (accepted!!) should keep me out of trouble.
I submitted one novel to one agent in March. Then I wrote about 8,000 words of plotting/character for a new novel and also wrote about 2,000 words of the actual novel. I feel a little lame taking Koala Approves for the novel submission since it was only one.
April will be difficult. I am away on family vacation for 10 days, then into a three day business trip, then one day home and three days on a Boy Scout camping trip, then nearly a week home before another four-day business trip. But I will manage at least one more novel submission, if only to retain my approval status.
HEY, March isn't over yet!
March:
I submitted eight short stories: +8
I worked through 5,495 words in FoL: +1
I wrote 5,122 new words: +1
I applied to be the Writer in Residence at a pretty place in California: +1 (OK, that's not on your point structure but it counts, right?)
I worked through a full synopsis of my novel: +1
I queried my novel with the synopsis: +1 million
Hurray for Koala approves!
To be honest, I feel like a drunk barging into a room with no idea how many pints he's consumed to warrant such disgraceful behaviour.
So while I've been all over my manuscript, I've not necessarily been counting words, and I've not tackled many definable chunks.
So I'm claiming an arbitrary 10 points — 5 lots of edits, 4 of writes, and 1 of outlines.
Now, if you were judging this on sweat and blood lost...
I'll be crawling at the bottom again it seems. But I always manage to barely avoid the claws. I like living dangerously. :P
I've submitted two short stories this month so I get 2 points.
Also, I dumped http://flashfiction.in as a private blog, and converted it into a writing website where there'll be a new prompt every fortnight and anyone can come and post their take on it. (Would love to see some of you folks there)
Does a writing portal of a website count as a point?
One point is all I ask,
To you almighty a feeble task.
One point shall make me,
dance with joy and glee
And also will take my,
meagre score to three.
*crawling in on my belly and avoiding looking The Koala directly in the eye*
Perhaps there could be a catch-all category that awards a point a month for off-list things that contribute to the writing experience?
I'm thinking of things like Pete's stint volunteering at the writer's conference and Sylvia's writer-in-residence application, which made me remember I applied for a Speculative Fiction grant award this month. I also reworked my brand (including avatar, favicon, blog header, Twitter background art), so maybe marketing efforts and other out-of-the box stuff could earn discretionary points?
*bowing my way out of the presence of The Koala and flinching at the thought of Koala Claws and The Koala feasting on phoenix under glass for her impertinence*
i made an extra special effort to get back into down from the jungle just so i could report my four points.
beta read -1 point
very nearly 9k words -3 points
going back to hide in the jungle now. i don't think mckoalas fair well there.
I have two points:
Submitted one article
Written 4000 words.
Two is not great, but much better thank last month when I got smacked. :)
Decided to finish the month with a bad tooth and now have a temp crown.
I am taking this month off.
Phoenix, the signs are good...don't forget to add the ferocious koala to your people you know list, or she might have to be extra ferocious. Oh, yes, and re. the rest, keep reversing...
JJ, one submission works, lucky for you... Good planning PJD and Pam... Sylvia, hmm, nope, no points for Writer in Residence applications, good thing you submitted, he? Aniket, hmm, thinking, we'll see... Iasa, this koala can handle jungle fever...Diane J sooo lucky you didn't get a writing penalty last month, but welcome back!
Sarah, ouch! Month off granted.
This month I have edited 29K approx, and will go again tomorrow on another chapter (I'm taking some days off work to have reading/editing peace). I won't count tomorrow since it hasn't been here yet, so that's 1 point for my first 4K and 5 points for the other 25K, so far.
So: 6 points. Wow- feels like more than that to me, but there ya go!
When I can the first few days of April, I'll come back and update my final count, counting tomorrow, the 31st of March, to see the grand total.
I confess: not enough done. A bit over 2k added to the outline and the story Blood Shot, but not 4k of either.
I'll take my lumps though and won't use the month off option. Because I might need it during April.
I go to have surgery on 4/1. I do have 2 weeks off of work in which to write, but I know a few days will be taken up with narcotic pain med fog. The rest might be the lure of the almost 500 books in the TBR pile...
Okay, I sucked royally for the month of March.
1 point.
That's it, lump me up good, I'll try to get it up to a better standard in April.
I won't be online over the weekend, so I'll post the results next week! Keep reporting in!
(Naughty Merry!)
Let's see. Written 18,000 this month. That's 4,000 + 7*2,000. That's 8 points I believe. I don't ever know what counts as editing. I've edited all of the above, though I do have rewrites still. I'll take 1 point. Then I revised an article and submitted it. Article is like 12,000 words, so... let's say 3 points more. And I applied to one more job, I think.
Total: 14 points.
I might pull off something equivalent next month, but after that it'll be all downhill, I hope.
Hah, I finished my edits, and on deadline even! Okay, just barely, but close enough. :) Also did some writing and submitted a story:
1 pt. -- 1 story submission
1 pt. -- 4K words of writing
14 pts. -- did edits on 72K manuscript
===============================
16 pts. total
Yay!
Angie
Congratulations everyone on all the submissions! And writing!
About that..
Most Magnificent McKoala,
I throw myself at your feet and grovel. I did not write or submit a word of fiction in all of March. I lost my job and have been wholey occupied trying to getting a new business off the ground while simultaneously (if cowardly) trying to land a new job. So I beg you to consider to consider the following for Pity Points:
- A brand new resume
- A brand new website
- A whole mess of cover pages and thank you notes.
While I'm here, let me officially call April my vacation month.
Ack. Ack ack ack. Ack ack ack ackackkkkack.
Writing enough words? Yes. So many words...
Submitting. yes. One story published in local paper, one poem and photo published in local paper. It is now my job to publish one story a month in local paper. (yay)
Reading. Part way through beta read. Will finish this month.
OK - reporting back in, to add edits from the last day of March to add to my previous points.
Read/edited the last pages of my novel, made fixes to two scenes in other sections, and edited a long chapter down, so 11K more.
29K previously posted plus 11 K =
1 point - first 4 K
7 points - 35K
Leftover: 1 K.
Total: 8 points for March.
I just found this and it sounds like a lot of fun, not to mention that I might need a pushy Koala to urge me to write and do stuff.
Shiny new, contentless blog is here: http://valentinawoods.wordpress.com/
Plan for the rest of the month: write, write, write and fill the blog/website with content :-)
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