March Goals

I've got a lot of long-term writing goals for the year, but haven't put enough thought into my short-term goals.  Really, it's just as important to set short-term goals as is it to set long-term ones, so I'm going to start setting some specific monthly goals starting right now.  I'll post them here with the idea being that if I have them in writing for the world to see, then I'll be more likely to get them done.

So with that said, here are my written, short-term goals for the month of March, listed in order of importance: 

1) Finish current revision of novel.  My query is ready.  The novel is nearly ready, and could even be considered ready, but I made a few changes to the overall story arc and one of the subplots and need to finish cleaning them up.  I'd hate to have a full request and then have to rush through the final edits to send it off.

2) Send a query to an agent that doesn't require a synopsis.  See goal # 3.

3) Rewrite the synopsis.  This isn't as pressing as the query and the final manuscript, because quite a few agents never ask for one, but it definitely needs to be done because there are still quite a few agents that do ask for one.  Also, most publishers taking non-agented submissions will want a synopsis.  I need to make mine a little more reader-friendly.  At this point, I feel like it strips all of the personality out of the story and reads more like a book report.

3) To be done if and only if goals # 1 and 2 are done, I have a short story called "A Reunion in Cloverbrook."  I think it's written pretty well, but has one huge problem that I've always known about and have had at least two rejection letters mention that specific problem.  I need to fix it and get it back into the slush piles.

4) If (by the grace of God) I can get goals # 1, 2, and 3 completed, there is a short story I have that is about half-way done.  It's about space pirates and I think I owe it to the fans to finish it and get it out there.

So there you have it.  The top three goals will be the focus of my writing in March and I'll post an update on this at the end of the month.