2014 Goals: November Status Report

Overall November was a very successful month in terms of writing goals. Besides getting some solid work done on The Muse, my poetic muscle got a workout as well!

1) Pitch The Muse.

As announced last week, final edits on The Muse are now complete, (see The Finish Line). This, of course, means I’m ready for another round of sending out queries. Hopefully, a shiny new manuscript and a new query letter will incite some interest for my project.

2) Outline and start writing The Muse: Lineage

While plugging a plot hole in the epilogue for The Muse, I got a better sense of where I want to start with Lineage. In addition, I got an idea for a stunning plot twist. Can’t wait to start piecing together the logistics for what I consider a game changing event.

I also added a couple of new songs to the Lineage playlist:

• Cecilia and the Satellite by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
• Bleeding Out by Imagine Dragons

3) Submit writing.

This space has been filled with a lot of poetry this month thanks to the 2014 November Poem A Day Chapbook Challenge over on Poetic Asides(via Writer’s Digest). I completed the challenge of writing a poem a day, while also achieving my goal of writing 30 Haikus in 30 Days, (I ended up with 45 haikus).

The next phase of the challenge involves submitting a chapbook collection of 20 poems written during the challenge. Over the  next few weeks, I’ll be deciding which haikus to include and figuring out the sequence of how they’ll appear in my chapbook draft.

The entire experience has been nothing short of amazing. Between exploring the haiku form and finding my voice within haiku, I sit in awe of how much I found hiding within 17 syllables.

4) Continue to build author platform.

Social media continues to be a positive experience. My favorite hangout is still over at Facebook. Interaction and traffic continues to rise and I am genuinely having fun.

Facebook likes went from 378 to 384

Twitter followers went from 548 to 550

Thanks so much to everyone for clicking those follow and like buttons! Your support is greatly appreciated.

5) Inspire others.

As always, I hope I am a positive presence.

The invisible goal:

6) Be flexible.

My exploration of haiku took me down many unexpected paths. The form isn’t as rigid as I thought.* We’ve all been taught to write in three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable count, but english language haiku has evolved into a much more liberal format. I’m anxious to experiment with the modern concept of haiku and see where it takes me.

* A little reading brought me to this realization:

• The Classic Tradition of Haiku ed. Faubion Bowers
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho
• The Haiku Anthology ed. by Cor van den Heuvel

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c.b.w. 2014

 

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