Dear Me

January 13, 2007

Dear Me:

All right, it’s only the 13th of January and already you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the things you want to accomplish this year. I know you’re looking for a new job, but you just cannot neglect your writing anymore. You bought that Ireland planner at work, now get it out and start making notes. You wrote down six goals for the year for your writing. Now let’s break them down and make them smaller and accomplishable. We’ll use your sister’s idea since you liked that and take them month by month.

January: Well here you’re already 1/6 of your way to your goal of entering 6 writing.com contests- once you submit this letter. For the rest of January, let’s concentrate on finishing “Jack’s Story”. You do remember that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for your sister, right?

February: Now that you spent a month working on a sci-fi story, let’s switch to vampires for a little bit. Your sister sent you the “The Resurrected Stake & Garlic Contest”. Pick one of the prompts and write, write, write. It's due the last day of the month, so if you finish “Jack’s Story” early, get started right away.

March: Happy St. Patty’s Day! I know you’d rather be partying in Chicago with Gaelic Storm, but you just couldn’t afford it this year. Now you can afford some postage, so break out Blood Oath and write that summary. You started it in the month of March in 1995; March is the perfect time to start shopping it around.

April: Time to go back to those contests. You’ve entered two on writing.com, now pick one from the list you made from the Writer’s Market and submit to that. You probably just got your tax refund back so you can afford that entry fee.

May: I know you’re taking a trip with your sister this month, but make sure to take your notebook (or two or three). You’ll have at least a plane ride to write on. Your sister will probably bring her laptop, so you can check on writing.com while you’re away. Since you’ll be with your sister, this is the perfect time to work on either “Samantha’s Story” or “Galen’s Story”. You need to finish one of those before August.

June: Work on another contest this month. You’re halfway to your goal of six! Work on one off-line, unless all of the dates have passed. In that case, find one on writing.com. You can hit Stake and Garlic again or even the Fairy Tales contest by Ivy, you’ve always liked that one in the past.

July: Well if you’re still working for that same company, you’re on shortened hours for the summer. This is the perfect time to start shopping around and submitting “Countin’ in the Kitchen”. Its perfect for an Irish heritage magazine but if you can’t find that, try one of the nostalgia magazines. You’ve got to be able to sell it somewhere, even if you don’t get much money for it—its still a publishing credit.

August: Hopefully you’ve gotten one of your sister’s stories done and you can give it to her on her birthday. I’m assuming you’ll be up there visiting for her birthday like usual, but you cannot neglect your writing. This month, I want you to re-read Come the Fire. Just read it this month and make notes on it. While you are still writing, enter another contest.

September: Now you’re celebrating your birthday. I know it’s a big one this year and you aren’t thrilled about it, but, hey, everyone has to get older. Maybe you’ve already gotten one of your stories or your novel accepted for publication this year. If you did, you reached that goal of having something published before you turned thirty. Meanwhile, since you’re back at work full-time, I want you to work on Come the Fire. Note I did not say finish, but work on. You aren’t going to finish this in a month. Work on your characters, flesh them out, and write out a continuity.

October: Happy Halloween! You need to enter a Halloween contest this month. Search the web or writing.com and pick one. You entered one a few years ago about a ghost that comes back to his wife. It was sweet and comforting, maybe you can write something scary this year!

November: This is the month you go back to your sister’s stories. Whichever one you didn’t finish already, break it out. You’ve got the whole month to finish it, so either decide you like the beginning or scrap it and start over. Make sure its finished before Christmas, though, so you can send it out to your sister.

December: Take a deep breath, you’re almost through the year. Aren’t you proud of yourself? Hopefully you’ve accomplished everything you set for yourself this year. Remember you didn’t say you were going to get published, just submit stuff. You didn’t say you were going to win every contest you entered, just enter them. Small manageable goals are the way to go. You can make sure you get things done this year. For this last month, pick one last contest. I know you said six for the year, but one more won’t hurt.

Good luck. Remember to breathe. And write those goals down in your planner! Its not just there to look pretty!

Sincerely,
You