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

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

As I've gotten older, I noticed that the birthday greetings I used to get dropped off pretty sharply. The people who actually remember on their own really impress me. But since I have a crap memory for dates, I don't expect much in the way of memory from everyone else. :) (It could just be that where birthday greetings are concerned, I prefer quantity over quality. *g*)

Tangent: Are you still thinking about doing a guest blog for me on myth? I'd still love to have you. ;) Most of the people I've asked are busy through October, so I'm not looking to start particularly soon, but soonish.

[dragonladyflame.livejournal.com]

I'm just having trouble thinking of a topic. Any suggestions? What's the general audience / purpose of this blog?

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I'm mutually read by a bunch of writer/gamer types, so honestly using myth in role playing would be a fun topic, and something that I imagine you've done. ;)

[dragonladyflame.livejournal.com]

You know, someone just emailed me about that the other day. I have used myth in RPGs, but not to any large extent and I'm not sure how much could be said that's interesting, aside from the fact that myths make good benchmarks and therefore good common ground starting points for RPG stuff. Hmm.