Five Authors + Five Questions : Goals
Writers write. It’s what we do. To go above and beyond that, by answering interview questions they receive in email, is astounding indeed! For this round of Five Authors/Five Questions, I’ve barged into the workdays of Louise Marley, Lavie Tidhar, Lisa Mantchev, E.C. Myers, and Jay Lake.
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Question one: Do you make yearly writing goals? Monthly goals? Are goals measured by word count, story count, or something different?
Louise Marley: My goal is to write every day. Even on vacation, I typically spend some time each day on the current project. As I plan my schedule, working in exercise and household commitments, I try to set aside a block of completely unencumbered time each day when I can eliminate all distractions and concentrate on the novel or story I’m writing. Distractions, I’m convinced, are the greatest enemies of creativity. In the world of the 21st century, we have an abundance of them: internet, TV, radio, cell phones, and so forth. My best work gets done when there’s no interference by any of these things, and the only person who can turn them off or tune them out is ME!
Lavie Tidhar: I’ll aim for a minimum of 1000 words a day, but obviously some days you end up not writing anything, or falling short, and some days you get all your work done before 11am in the morning. My goal for 2012 is just to finish a whole bunch of half- or third-completed projects. Generally I like to alternate, and to work on more than one thing at a time. But I take a fairly relaxed approach to goals. I don’t really think in terms of years or months or even know what I’ll be working on, exactly. As long as I’m enjoying myself–and as long as I do complete things! –I’m quite happy.
Lisa Mantchev: I usually measure my goals by project. “Need to draft a new novel. That’s about 75,000 words,” or “Have a story due for an anthology, about 8,000 words.” I like writing at least one new novel and a handful of shorter pieces every year.
E.C. Myers: These days my goals are purely based on deadlines. Having a contractual obligation to deliver a manuscript by a certain date is a powerful motivator! But left to my own devices, I’m fairly focused on project-oriented goals: to complete another novel revision in X months, to draft a new short story for the next writing group meeting, to submit three short stories to markets. I find word count and story count to be good markers of progress and productivity, but not necessarily goals in themselves. As long as I’m writing and have concrete measures of success, like a completed draft—and, of course, as long as I’m happy with the work—the work takes as long as it takes, and it’s as long as it needs to be… Unless I’m falling behind on those deadlines! Then I’d probably better set some kind of schedule, and stick to it.
Jay Lake: I make yearly goals these days. Essentially, I plan out what I intend to write for the year, in a fairly high level way, and assign a production calendar. It might say something like, “Jan-Feb, draft novel X. March, work on short fiction. April, revise novel Y.” I also have goals for individual projects. For example, when working on a first draft of a novel, I try to write 2,500 words per day. When working on a revision of a novel, I try to do at least an hour a day on the project. I do track these, and self-report, to keep myself honest. Also, I allow myself up to two days off a week for brain breaks or dealing with life’s inevitable interruptions. At other times in my career, I’ve had other kinds of goals. For example, from 2001 to about 2005, my practice was to finish a short story or novel chapter every week, all year long. As I shifted more heavily into writing novels, that stopped being practical, but it served me well at the time.
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How do you structure your own writing goals? What goals have you set for 2012? Leave us a comment! Next Wednesday, we talk about the “typical” writing day. Is there any such thing?
Shimmer Seeks Spectacular Slushers
It’s time to add some new first readers to the Shimmer team.
Interested? Here’s what it takes:
Selecting Ore
You’ll carefully pore over the mountain of submissions, looking for gems. For each story, you’ll decide whether to pass the story up for further consideration, or gently reject it. The job generally takes less than five hours a week, once you get rolling. It requires consistency, alignment with the editorial team’s taste, and compassionate communication. We’ll also ask you not to submit your own fiction to Shimmer while you’re on staff.
Being a Shimmer reader means you’re part of a thriving and beautiful publication, working closely with a team of smart, fun people. If you’re a writer, you’ll learn a hell of a lot from the slush pile about what works and what doesn’t work. The position pays in glory, copies of Shimmer issues, and drinks if our paths ever cross at a convention. (But mostly glory.)
To apply, download the electronic version of Issue 10. (Get it free, here.) Then tell me which story you liked the most, and why? And which story you liked the least, and why? It’s not about the stories you pick as much as it is about why you picked them. We’re trying to get a sense of whether our tastes are in synch.
Send your response to beth@shimmerzine.com no later than the end of the day, January 31, 2012.
Shimmer #14
Shimmer Issue 14
Over at Locus Magazine, Lois Tilton has her usual rundown of recent and current short fiction, including Shimmer #14! Of our ten stories, two are recommended reads.
“A nice issue of this little magazine, with several stories more science-fictional than fantastic.”
Award Season, 2011
Who appeared in Shimmer‘s pages in 2011? A handy guide as you perhaps consider Nebula and Hugo Awards, an annual tradition in these parts!
Shimmer Issue 14
Food My Father Feeds Me, Love My Husband Shows Me, by A. A. Balaskovits
Chinvat, by Sunny Moraine
Made of Mud, by Ari Goelman
This House was Never a Castle, by Aaron Polson
Minnow, by Carlea Holl-Jensen
Trashman, by A.C. Wise
We Make Tea, by Meryl Ferguson
Bad Moon Risen, by Eric Del Carlo
Some Letters for Ove Lindström, by Karin Tidbeck
Gödel Apparition Fugue, by Craig DeLancey
Shimmer Issue 13
Bullet Oracle Instinct, by K. M. Ferebee
Labrusca Cognatus, by Erik T. Johnson
Gutted, by L. L. Hannett
Frosty’s Lament, by Richard Larson
All the Lonely People, by E. C. Myers
Haniver, by J. J. Irwin
Dogs, by Georgina Bruce
Barstone, by Stephen Case
A Window, Clear as a Mirror, by Ferrett Steinmetz
Four Household Tales, by Poor Mojo’s Giant Squid
Windows, Mirrors, PodCastles!
Ferrett Steinmetz’s “A Window, Clear as a Mirror” is this week’s featured story at PodCastle. The story first appeared in Shimmer 13. Congrats, Ferrett! Readers, if you haven’t already lost yourself in this tale, seems like now is an ideal time.
Malcolm Gebrowski returned from his job at the stamp factory to discover his wife had left him for a magic portal. He stared numbly at the linoleum floor of his apartment’s walk-in kitchen, all scuffed up with hoofprints, the smell of lilacs gradually being overpowered by the mildewy stink of the paper plant next door. All that was left of eight years of marriage was a scribbled note on the back of the telephone bill.
He’d crumpled the note in his fist without thinking. He smoothed it out against the refrigerator to read Julianne’s last words again:
Malcolm,
Remember when I said you could sleep with Dakota Jewel if she ever dropped by? I sure hope so. ‘Cause if you had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sleep with the most beautiful movie star in the world, I’d want you to take it. And remember when you said that if I ever found a magic portal, I could go?
Guess what? A magic portal opened.