A start...a vision.

A start.

Yesterday I managed to write a short story (Yey). I say write, I did a first rough draft, and it will need plenty of work, but it felt good!

I think the list I wrote regarding distractions, that really turned into something else, helped a lot. I may need to re visit that list regularly to remind myself.  It amazes me still, how powerful awareness can be to instigate positive change.

I also think I let the fact that my spelling and punctuation are pretty sucky, put me off, or make me feel I will fall short and be exposed as a bit stupid.

It's more that they are not perfect.

It's true what I wrote, that I put ridiculously high expectations on myself.  It's also true that as a writer, I need to be really good at those things, as it's important, but I don't need to allow them to block me moving forward in my career.

A vision.

So, the start was so important to me because it moved me forward in my vision, in my hearts desire, which is to become a paid and published writer this year.

My strategy for this vision is as follows..

1. To make a list of writing competitions happening this year that would be suitable for me to enter, and enter at least one a month.

(This also includes looking at what the competitions require and writing stories/pieces or revamping pieces I've already written, and getting them sent off. This will really boost my confidence and get me into the habit of having a continuous flow of work being sent out. My objective is that it may build some visability for my work, if any pieces are successful, and some income however small, and be something I could include in letters to agents.)

2. To work on a body of short stories suitable for the women's magazine market.

(I could also send short stories that I've sent to competitions, in to women's magazines, but I cannot do this the other way round as once I've been paid for a story I cannot publish it elsewhere).

3. To work on editing my first full novel to a high standard and get it sent off to an agent.  Even if it's only one! It will do something to my thinking, and my brain will go "well we did it once we can do it again!"

(which applies to both finishing a novel and getting it sent out with a good cover letter, and correct presentation).

4. Do some work on some of the other Novels I have started working on, the ones I feel strongly "have legs."

5. Continue to work on things like punctuation, spelling, building stamina for how long I can read and concentrate for.  This will enable me to do more work and enhance my chances of creating work of a high enough standard for publishing.

6. To go through the backlog of work I have done over the years, get everything filed, and sort out what has potential for development.  In particular getting together groups of short stories for both competitions and magazines.

7. To complete Lynne Barret-Lee's ten week course on novel writing, which I have done once before, and use this time to work on more potential stories (as we will have short homework assignments) or getting together my Novel idea's "with legs" and developing them further.

(My objective here is to continue to improve the standard and originality of my work and it's presentation).