Commit, commit!
My normal emails are, as you know, long and baggy. They tell jokes. They digress. Sometimes (goat folding – pah!) they have no practical purpose whatsoever. This email, born as it is, in the clarity and cold of a New Year’s Day, is short and to the point.
Friends, it is time to commit.
What do you want to achieve, as a writer, in the next six months?
That’s not a rhetorical question. I actually want you to answer me. I want you to tell me – tell the world – what your intentions are.
I don’t want answers that may be unachievable. So, yes, lots of you will want to say something like:
“By 1 July 2021, I want to get a six-figure deal from a Big Five house.”, or
“By 1 July 2021, I want three books self-published on Amazon and a monthly income of at least $2,500.”
And sure, lots of you will have aspirations like those. But I want commitments that definitely lie within your capability. If you don’t achieve the goal, I want that to be because you haven’t done what you said you would do.
Put another way, we’re not, today, in the business of lifting a prayer to the universe. We’re in the business of building a To Do list that we will systematically execute.
So the kind of things I want to hear from you might be things like:
“I will completely my current manuscript. I will self-edit it hard. I will get a third-party manuscript assessment (from Jericho Writers, obviously 😊). Then I will submit the work to at least 12 properly selected agents. I will have the book out on submission to those agents no later than 30 June 2021.”
A newer author might make a commitment more like this:
“I will read at least three books on writing. I will watch and absorb all of the Jericho Writers’ video course on How To Write. I will spend at least 7 hours a week on writing, every single week. I will write at least 50,000 words of my current project. I will get beta-readers to look at 2x chunks of the book. I will commit to offering feedback to at least 12 other writers, so I contribute my share to the community. I will do all this by 30 June 2021.”
Someone who’s heading for the sunlit Land of Self-Pub might say something like this:
“I will complete my manuscript. I will get editorial feedback on it, complete my edits, and get the whole thing copy-edited. I will select a cover designer, deliver a brief, and get a quality cover that I’m happy with. I’ll research my metadata and make the choices I need. I will write and produce a lead magnet that will act as the basis for my mailing list. I will do all this by 29 June 2021.” [Why the 29th? Because self-pubbers always work harder and faster than trad authors.]
OK. You get the picture. I’m after specific commitments by you, that lie within your power to execute in the next six months.
Yes, you can simply write those on a sheet of paper and glue it above your computer, but public commitments work better. I want you to enter the public square and make your commitments visible to all.
I’ll do the same. So please make your commitments right here on Townhouse. (If you’re not a member, then become one. It’s fast and free to do so.)
That’s it from me. I promised short. Here’s short:
Make your commitment.
Make it here on Townhouse.
Do it now.
On Friday 2 July, we’re all going to check back on your promises. See how we’ve done.
Onwards!
I’m hoping to finish the first draft of my epic fantasy novel, and begin the second as soon as possible. It’s at 74 thousand words or so and the end is in sigh, but is not imminent. I’m enjoying the course and it’s opening my eyes to things I know already but have never tput a name to in this way. I’m hoping this will give me a good chance of being published eventually, whether by a traditional publisher, or myself.
Hammer out the last two drafts of my novel by May 1st. At same time, complete my list of 12 agents who seem right for my work. By the same deadline, write and submit a story to a prestigious SF mag who have loved my previous work. Get novel assessed professionally. Send out to agents. By July 1st, to have decided what my next novel will be. Hopefully by then the weather will be better for hours of blue-sky thinking in Greenwich Park….
Will receive professional, editorial advice from Jericho Writers’ own Eve Seymour on Jan. 13 on my first novel – Hot Desking, a commercial murder mystery. I will reflect on her critique, make revisions and submit to 5 agents. If I do not have a positive response from an agent in 6 months (I submitted to 15 already last year) then I will self-publish.
1a. Finish revision of my novel’s opening.
1b. Submit to another batch of agents. Table the project by mid-year if no bites; rejoice if the opposite occurs.
2. Have four more short stories accepted for publication in literary journals by mid-year.
I want to finish my first draft of my novel. I also want to get a chapter of my first novel published in a writers periodical/magazine.
1. I want to complete a novella in flash.
2. Go back to one of my Nanowrimo stories and polish it into a 2nd, 3rd, however many drafts it takes to get it worthy of pitching to agents or self-publishing. I self-published a short story collection in 2020 and learned so much from the process. I am sure it will go a lot smoother second time. Says she confidently!
1. I commit to writing 700-1000 words a day of my present manuscript.
2. I will have finished the second part (of 3) of it (rough first draft) by end of June.
3. I will have read, absorbed and begun acting upon the professional assessment my other (first) manuscript
….So no pressure there then!!
I commit to completing the first draft of my current manuscript and an initial edit. I have two completed manuscripts, neither of which have been picked up. My third book is an amalgamation of the previous two plots… I’m struggling to get my head round how to do the rewrite, so I commit to getting it done.
I also commit to sending my poetry out to more magazines/competitions and continuing to enter flash competitions.
Happy new year all! Here’s to a good writing year
Oh, my word, I hear you, Blakeney! 😂
I would commit to revising my current work in progress to the point where I’m satisfied with it. However, such a commitment would require an assumption of a resource I have no control over, and past experience says I will not be be able to acquire: namely people to give feedback. So, …
Plenty of people here will be delighted to give feedback, I’m sure. Whether you will be satisfied with it, that’s a bigger question. I would be happy to give feedback but alas I feel my knowledge of how to write is far inferior to your own!
Thanks Kate. But it’s not technical feedback I need. it’s “emotional” feedback, where I guarantee you cannot be less skilled than me.
Like I said, happy to read.