First: I am a finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest!

Today a list came out announcing Finalists and Semi-Finalists for the Writers of the Future Contest, and I’ve known my status for over a month now. My finalist call actually came on Thanksgiving Day, however, that call went to my voicemail at work. I dragged my butt into work that Friday (I almost took the day off), and there in my voicemail was the message that my story was a finalist! I was so glad that I’d gone to work that day. It’s been very difficult to not blurt it out to people, but now that the coordinating judge let the names loose, I’m free to at least talk about being a finalist!

So, what does all this mean? The Writers of the Future Contest (WotF) is the best known contest for writers in the science fiction and fantasy genre looking to turn Pro. The contest is judged blind (meaning only the contest administrator knows which manuscript is yours, the judges do not). The manuscripts (I’ve heard that over 1,000 entries are submitted each quarter) are read by the coordinating judge who chooses 8 finalists. Those 8 stories are then sent on to 4 judges who rank them. The top 3 out of those 8 stories are called “winners” and definitely published in the yearly anthology. If there is room in the anthology there is a chance that a “non-winning” story could be published in the anthology.

So, my finalist story is now being looked at by four more judges (these judges are all huge names in the sci-fi/fantasy world) and I just have to hope that they like it enough so that I place in the top 3.

What does winning the contest mean besides the obvious professional publication?

1. Money. WotF pays more than almost any other short story publication, and even more if you’re the Gold Award winner. The Gold Award is about the same as many advances for a full novel!

2. Workshop. The contest pays for all its winners to attend a week long workshop followed by an awards ceremony usually held in Hollywood. They pay for the airfare, limo from the airport, hotel, and the workshop.

3. Networking. Not only the other winners, but one-on-one time with professionals during the workshop and I’ve heard at the bar after hours.

4. A wonderful professional writing credit that will help when I submit other short stories and novels to publishers.

So, at this point I have to wait and see if my story made top 3, hopefully I’ll know soon. And one more thing: I can’t thank Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith enough, since I wrote my finalist story after taking their short story workshop!

2012 Writing Goals

This post is way easier to write than the life goals I just posted. Here I can really put some numbers down, and shoot for some quantifiable results.

Production:

1. Write daily with an average word count of 2,000 words. This isn’t too difficult for me, but may be ambitious depending on how crazy the day job gets. Other factors include those days when I’m trying to plot, or life happens. Maybe I’ll go for this then: 2,000 words/day, or 10,000 words/week. I know they aren’t the same, but at least with 10,000 words a week it gives me some leeway.

2. Short Stories – complete 12 short stories. This should be workable, and I would have set it higher if I didn’t want to concentrate on novels this year. In 2011 I stopped working on novels (the closest I came was a novella, but a short one really).

3. Novels – complete 3 novels. This too, shouldn’t be too difficult as I already have the ideas put together in my head or already somewhat plotted out. This gives me 3 months to write the novel, and 1/2 month planning in the beginning, and a 1/2 month for revisions at the end. This may be ambitious, but it’s something to aim for.

General:

4. Workshops and Conventions. I almost feel like I’m cheating here. I’m already signed up for World Con in Chicago as well as World Fantasy in Toronto. I’d love to attend the Kris and Dean Character Voice and Setting Workshop in March, but depending on how something else works out I may need to axe that one. Hopefully I’ll know soon if that work shop will be feasible for me this year. So, I think this goal is attainable one way or another, meaning: attend at least 1 workshop and 2 conventions.

5. Submit. Everything I start I must finish and then submit until the appropriate markets are exhausted. At that point, I’ll dive into e-publishing, but only once I’m satisfied the pro markets and select semi-pro markets are done.

6. Social Networking. Keep the website, blog, and Facebook up to date as well as Tweet a little more. This also means that I need to link these things so they update each other. I will also comment on other people’s blogs a little more. This is more of an ambiguous goal, but I’ll try to be better!

So, these are the writing goals I can think of right now, but it’s a starting point and now it’s been written down so I’m stuck!

I could go on and on about wanting to work out more, run so many miles a week, etc., but really at this point in my life I’ve already established a routine with exercise. That sort of goal isn’t really a life goal to me these days.

I could also go on and on about diet, and perhaps there I could make some adjustments, but you know what? I like eating cookies and chocolate, as well as having a beer or a mixed drink when I want one. My rigorous workouts allow me to indulge from time to time, and really the answer for me there is to simply not have it (junk food) around the house. That is easy enough, I have pretty good control when I’m at the grocery store. For diet though, I never go “on a diet”, I simply just try to be reasonable with my portions and try to keep the furnace stoked.

LIfe goals that mean something. While I was at church this morning, the words of my priest regarding resolutions made me think. The sort of goals I’d like to set for my life would be more spiritual. I want to be a better person, but that isn’t specific enough. What I really mean is that I want to be more kind to others, and not immediately think the worst of people, and if they somehow wrong me, not to simply retaliate. This is easier said than done. I don’t know how many times I’ve chastised myself for thinking or saying something about someone while driving, only to then turn around a few seconds later and do it again!! It’s crazy, and I know I’m doing it, but it just happens. I’m ultra-aware of when I’m being mean, nasty, or sarcastic, and at times it’s even funny, but it isn’t really a good way to be.

So, for my life goals it’ll be hard to really track how I’m doing, but as long as I’m thinking about my actions versus reacting all the time I’ll be on the right track. There are other goals I’d like to try, things such as keeping more in touch with friends and family. You’d think with all the various social networking tools, email, phones, etc. that it’d be easy, but I’m horrible at staying in touch. I’m lucky though, that most of my friends, and my family don’t seem to mind, but I really do need to improve in that area. My problem is that I’m so over saturated with daily interaction with people at work that I find it undesirable to be Mr. Social in the evenings.

My life goals seem simple, but they’ll really be a daily struggle for me, and most people won’t even know how hard they are for me. It isn’t easy be a good person, but maybe it isn’t supposed to be.

Rather than lump all my goals into one post, I think it makes sense to break them down into two parts. Life goals and writing goals. In general, I like the idea of goals, and I’d like to think that especially with the life goals that over time they’d become second nature and not just something you do for the new year, or over Lent.

I like the way Dean Wesley Smith discusses goals on his blog. He further breaks down goals by pointing out what should seem obvious regarding goals you can’t control. Things such as: I’ll sell a book to a publisher. That is more of a dream than a goal. A goal is something more concrete (at least in my writing world), something like: I will write and submit 20 short stories this year.

Anyway, I’m going to post two more times on goals: Life goals and then writing goals.