RoW80: Round 3 Goals.

It’s July 7th! Know what that means? A Round of Words in 80 Days Round 3! Starting now and running until…erm, 80 days from now, RoW80 touts itself as “the writing challenge that knows you have a life.” I’ve been in love with this community since I first discovered it years ago, and I’m thrilled to be tackling another challenge that truly has helped me to move forward with my writing career. What do I hope to accomplish this round? Let’s have a look-see:

Goal One: Soulless. Since The Slayer Sage: Soulless is set to be released on August 15th, this goal won’t get me through the full 80 days, but, until then, it’s my top priority. My goal is to edit at least a chapter every day. I want to be revising and fine-tuning this thing until the very last moment…and I’ll need to. During the “break,” I’ve written up three whole chapters (approximately 30 pages in my little notebooks) to fit in towards the beginning that changes the scope of the rest of the book a little, so I’ve really got to work in that new tone and some of the new details. It’s kind of amazing how different a book it’s going to be than what my beta readers read, though the changes are heavily based on their suggestions. For that, I’m utterly grateful to them. Changing a book this much in about a month is daunting as hell, but it’s also exciting and keeping me really chugging along full speed towards the finish line.

Keep an eye out for posts looking for people to help spread the word about the book once we get closer to August. I’d really love it if anyone would want to do an interview or join in on the cover reveal or even book reviews once we get to that point.

Goal Two: Short Stories. Just like last round, I’ll be striving to finish and shop more short stories out in the great publishing wilderness. Lately, because of those three added chapters, I haven’t been touching many shorts, but that should change now that I’m back to full-on editing mode with Soulless. Besides, I have all my current wheelhouse out in the ether at the moment, six stories all together, one of which got passed on up to the next level of editing. Really, you can’t ask for much more than that. Although ten shots is more likely to hit than six. And twenty is more likely to hit than ten… My goal here is to get a short story written (and submitted somewhere!) every day. The usual goal. I rarely make it. But I’ll keep striving.

Goal Three: Heartless. Due to the changes in Soulless, I have to go back and restart the progress I’ve made on the next book, Heartless. No big loss there, it’s only a few chapters in, and some of them I’ll reuse, but the focus shifted a little and I was heading into some messy territory. My goal is at least a page a day, which is rarely a problem for me. I’ve got plenty of time to get the rough draft finished before its release day in August of 2015.

Goal One-Point-Five (To be taken up after August 15): Serpent in a Cage. SiaC‘s rough draft has had time to marinate; my brain has had time to separate itself from it, so once Soulless is dressed up and out the door, I will return to it and attempt to edit it and cross my fingers in the hopes that it doesn’t call for a fourth completely new re-write. I shall attempt to edit a chapter a day.

Second verse, same as the first, really, with a few alterations here and there. Really, my goals are pretty steady. I’ve found something that works astonishingly well for myself, and I intend to stick with it for the next two years, when the entirety of The Slayer Saga will be complete. Then I might have to focus on a different approach, but, until then, it’s steady as she goes.

Be sure to check out the goals of my fellow RoWers here and cheer them on voraciously!

Happy writing!