Success breeds success, because if you do well one day you’ll want that great feeling again, so you’ll try to replicate it. That’s why I set goals and do my best to keep at them day after day.

Right now I’m asking myself to spend at least 1/2 hour daily on each of four projects. Quite often my 1/2 hour small bite of work will blossom into an hour or two, but if I require only 1/2 hour it helps me get started.

My current four projects are:

(1) Critique of a novel for a friend in my Silverweb Children’s Writers Critique Group. (By the way – we’re looking for new members – I’ll tell how to apply at the end of this post.)

(2) Oja – my NaNoWriMo novel needs to be finished. I’ve been working on plotting and character issues that need to be resolved before heading into the writing of the third and final act. I’m using the Snowflake Pro software to do this.

(3) River Girl – my 2004 novel, a short MG, is going through a fourth or fifth revision (I lost count!) My critique group friends went over it earlier this year and I’m now including their suggestions. I think this one is just about done.

(4) The Alyssa Project – I wrote this YA in 2002 and am working on the second revision. There’s still a lot of work left to do on it. Yesterday I revised chapters eight and nine… out of 63 short chapters. Once I get done with this revision I’ll use the Snowflake Pro software to improve the characterization and plot.

When I hit a home run, meaning: when I manage to get work done on all four projects, it feels so good, I want to do it again and again. I love that I’m getting so much revision work done. Reviewing my earlier writing and watching my characters develop gives me a charge unlike any other.

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Now then, if you’re interested in joining a friendly critique group for YA and MG novelists, send a short bio and a writing sample of less than 1000 words to us at silverwebcritiquegroup[at]gmail.com. We will let you know whether or not you’ve been chosen to be in the group. We’ve got seven members now but some are inactive. We don’t have requirements for forced submissions or critiques… it is done on an as-needed and goodwill basis. Friendships before rules! Members can submit either full novel manuscripts or stories/chapters. So, if you’re interested, don’t be shy… we would love to know about you and your novels.

Now that I have several hours daily for writing I’d like to clarify how these precious hours can best be used.

1. Revision - I have so much of this to do! I’ve written quite a few novels, some of which have never been revised. If I was to revise one chapter daily for the next year – I’d get a lot done. In my dream world I’ll be able to hire an editor to help me with my projects. Meanwhile, looks like I’m still my own editor and I should get to work!

2. Submissions - currently I have two novels revised sufficiently enough to submit.

3. Critiques - I belong to two writing groups. Silverweb is a small critique group for writers of middle grade and young adult novels. I get a lot of help there so I need to reciprocate as much as possible. We have two published authors in the group: Beverly Stowe McClure, author of Rebel in Blue Jeans and other YA novels, and Daniel Chase, co-writer of a book-length memoir, Lost in the Fog. My second writing group consists of twenty novelists over age fifty who met on the NaNoWriMo message boards in November 2007. I trade critiques with some of these angels as well.

4. Reviewing and Adding To My Writer’s Notebook - What good is a writer’s notebook if you never read it? I occasionally glance through mine to refresh my memory about all the good ideas I’ve stored there over the course of many months. And while I’m there, I often add notes. One of these days I’m going to start another notebook because this one is nearly full. That day is coming soon.

5. Planning New Novels - When I start a novel, I like to have a good idea of where it is going. I like to know the beginning, the end, and some worthy plot points. I’ve tried writing novels without these and honestly, I think plotting is better, though I don’t get too detailed because I love to have room for my imagination to roam while I’m writing.

6. Characterization Work - My strategy for novel writing includes a deep knowledge of my characters. I’ve found a method of characterization I love — I use Martha Alderson’s method which I learned from a video of one of her workshops: Blockbuster Plots Writers Workshop.

7. Adding to My Chapbook - I’ll bet you didn’t know I’ve got a chapbook in progress. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it in this blog before. The chapbook is being written for people living in the river valley I live in, or for those who used to live here, who still want to read about it. The chapbook will contain a couple of short stories or poems featuring characters from some of my novels… which I hope will intrigue my friends and neighbors enough that they’ll want to buy my novels once they’re published. The novels I’ll feature here all have some relation to this area. Anyhow, you can expect a variety of Klamath River Valley stories, poems, and articles in this.

8. Writing Practice - I’m constantly writing about the value of writing practice sessions. I write some of my best flash fiction this way. Great hobby!

9. Digitizing My Songs and Poems - Back in the day, I wrote lots of poetry, and evenually became a song writer. Most of this work is still on paper. I need to collect it in a digital file, and think of some way to publish it.

10. Writing a New Novel - This is always the challenge, isn’t it? For the last year I’ve been very hesitant about writing more new material since I have so many novels in need of revision.