The Fabulist Flash

Issue 120

with Photography by Gregory A. Kompes

2007 Wall Calendar

In This Issue:

1. This Week
2. Write SMART
3. How to Set Writing Goals That Work
4. Stacey Kannenberg takes the 18Q
5. About The Fabulist Flash

1. This Week

What a year it's been. From the great to the small, from the fun to the boring, from the published to the rejected, it's been a year of ups and downs and I suspect 2007 will hold a similar roller coaster ride. I like roller coasters, the anticipation of the rise, that thrill of the first big drop that creates momentum getting me through all the twists and turns.

This issue presents the last goal setting articles to help you plan for your own 2007 ride. Katey Coffing's Write SMART: How to Create Terrific Writing Goals--And Achieve Them! and Donna Sundblad's How to Set Writing Goals That Work . Plus, Stacey Kannenberg takes the 18Q.

I hope that these December issues of The Fabulist Flash have helped you reflect on your year past and helped you begin dreaming and planning for your year ahead.

My best wishes for a New Year filled with great success for all of us!

Until next week,

Gregory

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Gregory A. Kompes (www.kompes.com) is a writer, manuscript consultant and author of the bestseller 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live, The Endorsement Quest, The Everyday Gay Activist, Turning Your Writing Hobby into a Writing Career and Should You Write an eBook?

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Preview 9 essential books for writers on The Writer's Bookshelf

2. Write SMART

Write SMART: How to Create Terrific Writing Goals--And Achieve Them!
by Katey Coffing, Ph.D.

Open up your favorite calendar and circle today's date.

Why? Because no matter what day it is, you've been given a wonderful gift: a bright and shiny year ahead to make your writing dreams come true.

What are your writing goals for the coming year? If you don't have any, this is the perfect time to create them. Clear goals help you stay focused as a writer. If you choose what you want to accomplish, you can arrange your time and priorities to get them done.

Take five minutes right now to decide what big things you'd like to achieve this year. (I'll focus on your writing, but this technique can work for any area of your life.)

A long-established acronym, SMART, can help you create great goals. SMART stands for

Specific
Measurable
Action-Oriented
Risk/Realistic
Timed

Here's how each of these words can help you succeed.

Specific:

When determining your goals, be precise. Instead of "I'll write more this year," consider "I'll complete a new chapter every two weeks."

Measurable:

For each goal you choose, make sure you can measure progress. For example, how will know you've completed it?

Action-oriented:

Choose goals you control so they're not at anyone else's mercy. Rather than "This year I'll get a book contract," set goals to complete and polish two novels or mail 30 queries to agents.

Risk/Realistic:

It's always good to stretch yourself. However, if writing ten pages usually takes you several weeks, don't count on writing six novels this year. Unrealistic expectations can get you so frustrated you'll lose momentum. Instead, create goals that motivate you without being burdens.

Timed:

Setting a particular deadline will help you pace yourself to get things done. For each of your goals, establish a completion date.

Next, take these big SMART goals and figure out what smaller steps you'll need to achieve each of them. Design these subgoals to be SMART too!

Once you have a list of goals for the year, put them where you'll see them every day. Print them out and tape them to your computer, your office wall, even your bathroom mirror.

See them, know them...do them.

Writers, I hope this coming year brings everything you wish for. More importantly, I want you to *make your dreams come true*!

About the Author
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Katey Coffing, Ph.D. is a novelist and book coach who helps women delight in writing (and finishing!) their books. Visit her at http://www.Women-Ink.com/.

To receive additional articles and tips for women writers, subscribe to Katey's ezine, The Write Calling, at http://www.Women-Ink.com/the-write-calling.htm.

3. How to Set Writing Goals That Work

How to Set Writing Goals That Work
by Donna Sundblad

To successfully set writing goals, break tasks into manageable pieces. Start with the big targets and work backwards.

Yearly Goals – First, identify your overall objective. Let's say you want to write a novel. Give the story a working title (giving the piece a working title is the first step in making it tangible) and set it as a goal for the year.

Be specific. Identify whether you plan to submit the novel by the end of the year or just get the first draft written. Specifics define the objective. Do you plan to write a first draft or submit the manuscript by the end of the year? To show how to effectively set more than one goal we'll also target finishing and submitting a manuscript.

Yearly Goals 2007:

1. Write a novel
2. Submit the novel

With goals in hand, you're ready to write a novel. But where do you begin?

Monthly Goals – Base monthly goals on yearly goals. Monthly goals echo steps necessary to attain yearly goals. To write a novel, how many words are needed by the end of the year? (Check writer's guidelines for genre standards.) Let's say it's 100,000 words. Divide the 100,000 by 12 months, you'll reach a monthly goal of just over 8,300 words. However, the overall goal is to submit the novel in 12 months. Goals must reflect time to rewrite and edit. Adjust the goal to complete the draft in 9 months and the monthly word count jumps to 11,000 a month. This goal allows three months for editing, revisions and the submission process.

Revisit yearly goals when setting monthly goals. The goal "submit the novel" is not benign. It takes work. Consider steps needed to accomplish the goal. In this case, first you need to identify potential markets and study submission guidelines. This generates new goals such as writing a synopsis, query, cover letter or proposal.

Monthly Goal:

1. Write 11,000 words
2. Research potential markets

Weekly Goals – Weekly goals slice monthly goals into manageable pieces. The 11,000 word monthly chunk breaks down to 2,800 a week. It's no longer a monster. In the same way, researching markets teaches what's needed for the submission process. Set smaller goals to write and organize submission documents.

Keep weekly goals achievable. If you plan to find one market each week during the month, by the end of the month you hold a list of four potential markets. If the publisher wants clips and you haven't been published, you'll have to fit submitting articles and short stories into goals throughout the year in hopes that at least one of them gets accepted. If you know you don't have time to write other than your novel, consider another market. Keep your eyes on the objective--Completed novel, submitted.

What Makes It Work?

Hone the vague burning desire to write by identifying goals on paper. Even when life swamps you with things to do, the goal list stays steady. It offers a target. Look at it each morning. If you miss once in awhile, goals for the weeks following adjust to absorb the shortfall.

Update goals each year, month and week. Set goals for the New Year. On the first of each month set monthly goals based on attaining Yearly Goals. Set aside one day each week to update weekly goals based on what needs to be done. Monday works for me; do what works for you.

About the Author
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Author and freelance writer, Donna Sundblad, resides in Georgia with her husband, Rick. Together, they are working on a budgeting book that will be out in electronic format by early 2007. Donna serves as the Fantasy Topic Editor at Inspired Author, and her books, Pumping Your Muse and Windwalker are available in paper or ebook formats at epress-online.com. Check her website for more information at www.theinkslinger.net.

Coming soon: Light at the Edge of Darkness-- From fallen angels to aliens, this short story collection has it all. Scheduled for release in 2007.

4. Stacey Kannenberg takes the 18Q

Biography:
Stacey Kannenberg is an award-winning author. Her first book, "Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten" has been a hot topic among morning TV talk show hosts, newspapers and radio and has garnished several awards. Her next book, "Let’s Get Ready for First Grade!" will be out in early March 2006 and has already won the Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom Award. It can be pre-ordered at www.CedarValleyPublishing.com. She and her family live in Fredonia, WI.

Bibliography:
Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten!
Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!

URL:
www.cedarvalleypublishing.com

1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you?
As a Journalism major I choose the writing profession, yet was never in the writing profession after college, instead I ended up in sales management for 14 years before becoming a stay-at-home mom. Ironically, it was while trying to get my oldest child ready for Kindergarten, that I decided to start writing professionally. I couldn’t find what I wanted so I created, published and co-authored Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!

2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.)
I was the editor of our school newspaper and enjoyed a free-lance career while in high school contributing to several surrounding local newspapers. I continued writing in college, graduating with a Journalism Major, English Major and Technical Writing Minor. I developed a magazine during college called Professional Sales and was surprisingly offered a book contract to release it in book form. I passed as I felt I needed experience in sales in order to write it. So I spent 14 years as a sales professional to get experience in sales and worked up the corporate latter at several Fortune 500 companies and had many positions created for me based on my recommendations and passion. Ironically, I forgot about the book and magazine on sales and decided to become a stay-at-home mom. And getting my daughter ready for kindergarten, gave me the idea so I fell back into writing and then to self- publishing. It seems as if every job and professional experience I have ever had, has prepared me for this one, as if this is what I was meant to do!

3. When did you 'know' you were a writer?
In high school, when I was getting paid to write for several local newspapers. I was a natural born story-teller and that's really what writing is....telling a story with words.

4. How would you describe your style of writing?
I am a conversational writer, if there is such a thing. Those that know we well, say they can hear me talking when reading my writing.

5. What is your writing process?
I try to get something down on paper until I am stuck. Then I read it over and over again and make continuous edits until I am able to move on again, until I get stuck. So then I read it over and over again and make continuous edits until I am able to move on again, until I get stuck. And on and on we go. I never have a completed manuscript until I am ready for press, because the editing process for me never ends, I continually read it over and over and edit it over and over and over again.

6. What was your path to publication?
It was a series of Oprah shows that inspired the idea to write the book. So I did. Then it was a show on self-publishing that Oprah had that gave me that idea. And then it was Dan Poynter's book that guided me down the path to becoming a self-publishing success story.

7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
Dan Poynter's Marketplace newsletter is a great place to network with authors. I email author's looking for additional information for their book about many different subjects, if it is a topic that I feel is of interest to me, I write a 10 minute email and BAM the next thing I know we are emailing back and forth and it's my blurb on the back of their book, promoting me too. I also review other people's books to build my name recognition and credibility on the web -- every review listed is another potential place someone will see my name on the web...it is free and it is priceless credibility.

8. What are the biggest surprises you've encountered as a writer?
I am continually amazed at how small the world of publishing really is and that in a short time you can start building a following and a reputation! I have found that the best friends you will ever find, are those people that are trying to do the thing you are doing and working just as hard as you and are often people you have never met but they become your closest friends via email. Networking, editing, turning obstacles into opportunities, some more editing, network and jumping hurdles are key!

9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity?
This isn't a job for me. It's not about money. This is my passion. This is what I was meant to do. I have a mission. This is not work to me; this is truly a labor of love. I have never been so sure about anything as I am about this amazing journey of mine! This is what I love to do and I will be telling my story and doing the exact same thing, just reinventing it for many, many years to come!

10. What is your proudest writer moment?
Both of my Let's Get Ready Series book were just approved into the prestigious and rigorous State of California's Educational Purchasing Program. Schools districts purchase them for the entire Kindergarten and/or First Grade enrollment. Or when a parent tells me how the book has helped a child that has never shown any interest in school, excel.

11. What's the best advice you were given about writing?
Judy Bridges, my book consultant extraordinaire, "Just shut up and write. Edit it and write some more. And did you buy Dan's Poynter's book, The Self Publishing Manual yet?"

12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment?
I was honored to publish a couple of books for Jodie Lynn, syndicated columnist and parenting expert. I missed a huge typo in her Syndication Secrets book that still makes me cringe. When adding the page numbers, they were flush on the right on both sides, so on the right side they were correct, but on the left side the number was near the binding......yikes!!! Miss Perfectionist meets reality. It happens so let's turn it into an opportunity and tell everyone how I messed up to save them from ever making the same mistake.

13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer?
I am now the sole owner of Cedar Valley Publishing. Becoming the sole owner of the company was a legal and emotional nightmare that reinvented me to becoming even better! That means I am now the writer, the marketer, the public relations guru, the publisher, the distributor, the printer, the chief financial officer, the sales rep and the editor all rolled into one. It's hard now finding time to write.

14. What is your writer life philosophy?
Inspiring Others Empowers Me ~ Stacey Kannenberg

15. When you're not writing what do you do for fun?
I am Mom to little girls ages 7 and 5 and wife to a semi-pro fisherman and part owner in the family tool and die shop, so we like to fish and go boating. We live for tearing up the yard on our ATV's and enjoy trail riding as a family.

16. Who do you like to read?
I am embarrassed to admit this but I love regency romances. That is my favorite thing to do, grab a great book and escape for the night! I am currently reading Michael Levine's Broken Windows. I recently read and absolutely loved, Dan Castro's Critical Choices That Change Lives: How Heroes Turn Tragedy Into Triumph and Dr. John Mike, Brilliant Babies, Powerful Adults. Both were life-changing reads for me!!!

17. What's your advice for new writers?
Don't be afraid to ask questions and listen to answers. Most importantly, if you are in this business because you want to make money, then you might be in the wrong business. If you plan to be talking about your book for the next twenty years, then you might be in the right business. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as an over-night best seller, instead in was many, many nights that went into that over-night sensation.

18. What are you currently working on?
I am consulting for numerous first time authors, such as: Man The Rails by Leah McDermott, Bobby Brights Christmas By John Brooks and Tom Hignite's Miracle Mouse, due out in July. I am publishing Barb Rockaway’s Mommy, Where are You? and Daddy, Where are You? slated for July of 2006 and Aaron Hurvitz’s, Here, There and Everywhere to be released in fall. I am working with Hignite's Miracle Studio to animate the Cedar Valley Kids and bring them to DVD. I am working on Let's Get Ready for Pre School! and Let's Get Ready For Second Grade! as well as Spanish and Hmong translations for Let's Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let's Get Ready For First Grade! I am working with Oklahoma Legendary Sportscaster, John Brooks on an educational patent.

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Are you a published writer? Take the 18Q today!

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