Thursday 29 August 2013

Maria - What Do I Know?

Get Ready! - Maria A Smith

I'm not claiming to be an expert on goal setting, but what I do know is goals need to be measurable, attainable and meaningful.

Measurable - Goals are useless if we can't determine if they have been met, therefore keep a record, i.e. How many queries have you sent this week? How many competitions have you entered? I post my goals  here on my personal blog every Sunday. It took a few weeks to get into the habit, but it does keep me on track.

Attainable -  Make sure you aren't signing up for Mission Impossible, the journey to where you want to be needs to be attainable, otherwise its going to have a negative effect on you when you can't reach it.  Don't forget, attainability is also realising what is physically possible for you. I know I can't write if I'm tired, so I try to keep two evenings a week a writing free zone. 

Meaningful - Make sure the goals you set are what you really want to do? Sometimes a goal that seems worthwhile, doesn't lead to where you want to be, in fact it might even conflict with your plan. A good way of determining this would be to ask yourself where you want to be with your writing in 6 months? 

My list,

Long-term goals 
  • Publish my novel
  • Sell six non-fiction articles a year
  • Win a writing competition
  • Make Phoenix Subs Club successful
  • Produce an anthology of short stories written by members of the Phoenix Writers group
  • Maintain my blog
Short-term goals
  • Finish the current  re-write/edit of my novel by December 1st 2013
  • Query an  Editor every month for a non-fiction article, or send something to the Letters page of a magazine
  • Enter one writing related competition a month
  • Regularly attend Phoenix Writers on Saturday mornings
  • Attend, chair and motivate members of the  Phoenix Subs Club
  • Formulate an idea which involves writers working together on a project
Maria A Smith
Break your short term goals even further, draw yourself a 'road' map of the route you need to take to get to the big goal. Work out how long you'll need to get through each stage along the route, and break that down even further.

Remember, the short term goals are measured by output, where as your long-term goals are measured by results. 

Good Luck!

Maria A Smith

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Keith - Room For Manoeuvre


Its 1943 and life in Nazi occupied Europe is grim. I know, because I’m running and trying to reach Gibraltar. Not when I sit down at the PC and get into ‘the zone’, or have an hour’s window to scribble out a chapter. That doesn't work for me - I wish it did. I have to absorb myself into the fabric of that world and the memories of ordinary people, who did extraordinary things.

This is at the heart of my goals and why some long term targets are not too distant from the short term ones. They should all be challenging, realistic and achievable and part of an overall plan that works. Life can still get in the way, even in 1943, so there must be room for manoeuvre. Nailing your colours to the mast on this kind of challenge is no bad thing. I’m up and running.

Long Term Goals

  • Submit manuscript, synopsis and letter of introduction to literary agents.
  • Publish my book
  • The Escape Line blog link to reach 30,000 hits by 31 December 2013
  • Win prizes in Flash Fiction Writing Competitions

Short Term Goals

  • Draw up a timetable and targets for short term goals (September-December 2013) by 31 August 2013.
  • Complete manuscript by 31 October 2013.
  • Submit to agent with accompanying letters by 30 November 2013
  • Continue to blog weekly
  • Enter 2 Flash Fiction competitions by 31 December 2013
  • Write 2 Flash Fiction pieces a month

Keith Morley

Monday 26 August 2013

Sheila - No Time To Waste


Image Credit - Flicker: notfrancois'

There’s no point in putting it off any longer; the clothes are ironed, the bathroom’s sparkling  and the dust bunnies blown to kingdom come. The  hour is nigh: time to retrieve  the ‘Submissions’ folder from its hiding place. I haven’t so much as glanced at it in months, but I do now. After all, a target is a target. Right?

   Everything is out of date. No surprise there.  By the time I finish shredding and recycling, the folder contains nothing more than evidence of my failure – the pieces I reworked and submitted to no avail.   And here, hidden underneath, the last communication from the chair of our group, Maria who exhorted us on  May 7,  to ‘get it out there!’ Sooooo long ago. Where’s the time gone? Not to mention the inspiration. My husband volunteers unasked that it might have got buried or misplaced somewhere north of the border, where we have spent too much of our time lately.

   So, with the air of a recalcitrant teenager forced to do homework, I go through various competition sites and download the contents of one or two  because once viewed, the sites just seem to disappear. Personally, I blame it all on those sneaky algorithms from  Google  which  decide they know better than I do what I need.

    I read through the long list searching for inspiration and as I look out of the window see the post person taking a short cut across my garden stepping on plants as she goes. At last I have discovered   who crushed the life out of my Hebe,  chopped  a branch off my orange Azalea and committed other acts of horticultural vandalism too many to list.  Way back in May, our last task was to write a letter to a  journal, newspaper or magazine of our choice.  Finally, three months too late, I can feel a subterranean stirring: the birth pangs of a letter of  complaint to  Royal Mail.

   Eight thousand words max looks a bit much, even three thousand, but I’ve got a couple of pieces I can rework for a limit of two thousand  in September and November. Plus two Flash Fiction with deadlines  of 26 August and 30 September. Dark Tales don’t float my boat, but  might someone else’s in the group. Some competitions don’t state the subject but merit further investigation. And of course, it’s way past time I picked up where I left off with Harriet and her Viscount.

     So, no time to waste. All that’s needed is a bit of discipline, the sort I used to have when I was working! I can do this. Yes I can. Every morning from seven until nine for the next nine days starting on Thursday. You’ll see!


Tom - Getting Started

Image Credit - Remi


'As a relative newcomer to competitive writing, I've found it a much harder task than I was expecting. I, therefore, am looking at a more manageable short term goal: 

I shall be applying to at least one flash fiction competition each month in a bid to get myself into a pattern of submitting work.


This month, I'm going for the flash (250 words) competition with Creative Writing Matters.

In the long term, I have a few longer pieces that I want to get back on track - I'm hoping to have one of my short stories finished by the end of next month and, with any luck, restart my novel before the new year.'

http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk/2013-flash-fiction-competition.htm


Leah - My Goals Are Pretty Simple




I'm Leah. You may know me around the blue nowhere as Ileandra Young or Raven Shadowhawk. However you know me, it's a pleasure to make your online acquaintance. :) Goals. Blimey. I love them and hate them all at once. I know their worth, but planning things and setting them out with text makes it all far more real. And I'm so much more accountable through an exercise like this. But isn't that the point of the Phoenix Writers' Subs Club? 

I'm going to take a brief moment to be all mushy (I know!) and say I'm both honoured and proud to be part of the Phoenix Writers and the splinter group Subs Club. Every member is incredibly talented and a true joy to know. Their support and kind words have brought me on a long way, to the point that making a list like this is even possible *sniffle* Right! That's enough of that! 

My goals are pretty simple. There are some projects I've been working on for a while and others I haven't. Either way I used the SMART(ER) method of making these goals to move me further along the path I want to be on. So here it is. 

 Long Term Goals
  • Publish Silk Over Razor Blades through self-publishing or traditional means by December 2014
  • Publish the first part of Slippers & Chains by January 2014 through my self-publishing label Little Vamp Press
  • Win a short story or flash fiction competition by December 2014
  • Publish at least two of the short stories in my erotic 'Meeting Each Other' series by May 2014 through my self-publishing label Little Vamp Press
  • Continue to earn at least £50 a month by way of writing activities (The Write Feeling, competitions, transcribing, sales)
Short Term Goals
  • Complete profiles on at least two the freelancing sites I found and find at least one job through them by the end of October 2013
  • Enter one competition a month (Writers Forum, Writing Magazine or Flash500.)
  • Organise a sensible and manageable timetable by 31 August that I can use to make these goals doable without losing my mind (!)
And that's that! Okay folks, let's do this! 


Wayne - A Little bit About Me


Wayne Kelly

A little bit about me . . . 
I'm one of the more recent additions to The Phoenix Writers, having joined in March of this year. I am working my way through the first draft of my novel, "Let Sleeping Gods Lie" as well as writing short stories, flash fiction pieces and regular posts over at my blog, Kelly's Eye 

He shoots . . . he scores . . . GOAL!!
Well, that's the idea anyway. I am yet to submit any of my work for competition or publication, so having spent a long time producing flash fiction and multiple short story drafts, the time has come to declare some of my work 'finished' and to send it out in to the world. So, the question is . . .

What's the plan?

Long Term Goals 
To complete the first draft of my novel by January 2014
To win a short story or flash fiction competition within the the next 6 months

Short Term Goals -
To submit 2 short stories for competition by the end of September.
To submit at least 3 pieces of flash fiction for competition by the end of September.

A simple confidence trick

It's an oft-repeated truth that as writers, artists and human beings, the greatest obstacle to our success is the voice of self-doubt.
I think that the more work I submit, the more my confidence will grow and the more my writing will continue to develop. It's great to be part of a group of writers that encourage and motivate each other to greater success. I look forward to keeping you all up to date with my progress.
See you in September!

Wednesday 21 August 2013

What's It All About?

Image Credit - Bert Aguir
Once a month a small group gathers to discuss getting their writing out into the world. They don't critique each others writing at these sessions, that is taken care of in the previous two hours, when the main Phoenix Writers group meets at Phoenix Square in Leicester.

Everyone who is part of the Subs Club, (so called because we submit our work) is dedicated to getting their work out there. It might be in the form of an e book, or a traditionally published novel, a script for the stage, or a performance piece. Flash fiction, short stories and poetry are popular too. The group regularly enters competitions, submits to printed magazines, anthologies, and e-zines.

Each month you'll learn a little more about the writers and their long term goals for the rest of 2013 and beyond! Everyone has set their own goals, and will be updating their progress each  month.

There will never be a better time to get started than now!