Birthday Goals

[alanajoli]

One of the best things about the internet is how easy the various social networking sites make it for friends to remember your birthday. I don't think I've had so many greetings from friends (some who I haven't seen in years!) since college at the very latest. It was so nice to hear from well-wishers that I've decided to make an extra effort to do the same for folks in my network. Hopefully I'll actually succeed!

Birthdays are also a retrospective time, and even though antonstrout was talking about how "resolution" times aren't the best to set goals ("If you want to write, write"--and he's right about that), I do work best under deadlines. So I'm setting a deadline for myself on the new novel I've been percolating/simmering/kicking around for months now. I'm giving myself three months (until January 5) to have a bare-bones draft. This involves giving myself permission to leave gaping holes where I need more research. But I've been batting it around long enough that I need to actually start putting words to screen/paper and making something actually come of it.

Because I also like the word count tools, I'd also love to hear from YA writers/editors on what the ideal word count is for a stand-alone urban fantasy for teens. Any thoughts on that?

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Probably 80k is a good thing to aim at, but let the story be what it needs to be, and then worry about those things.

And good luck!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm looking just for a ball park for the draft so I can make a nice pretty graphic, but I won't take it too seriously at this stage.