Beautiful People || Writing Goals

One goal I have for this new year is to write an entire book, and not let myself get distracted by other story ideas until I finish. It would be a first for me, but I'm trying to be optimistic, and I don't think I'm off to a bad start. Also, with working on writing consistently, I'd like to get back to participating in Beautiful People. The questions are always good for getting me thinking about my story and characters. It's fun to be able to share what I've been working on with you guys, and get some feedback on it.

So here I go!

1) What were your writing achievments last year?

I didn't do much writing besides school assignments last year...except for my murder mystery that I got almost 13,000 words into. Who knows what will happen to that story. :)

2) Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?

I would really, really, really like to finish a novel this year, so I'm going to work on an idea I've had for probably around a year, which started off as just a title- "Mithras and Myrrh". It's set in the ancient Roman empire and centers around two brothers. I'm still outlining it, but I have a pretty good tagline.

"A soldier and a slave- united by blood, divided by faith."

3) List five areas you'd like to work the hardest to improve this year.

Writing consistently, sticking with a story until it's finished, eliminating distractions while writing, not going back to do any editing until I have the entire first draft written, and being humble when I get constructive criticism.

4) Are you participating in any writing challenges this year?

Not that I know of yet.

5) What's your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?

My family is pretty much it right now, but Becca has some ideas of of organizing a group among our homeschool friends.

6) Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research?

I'm reading K. M. Weiland's book "Outlining Your Novel" (which I'm finding very helpful), and was going to go through "90 days to Your Novel" by Sarah Domet,  which I will still finish, but it's not as helpful as I thought it would be. :) And I'll need to do a lot of research reading for my setting, but that should be fun.

7) Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?

Hmmm, this isn't just one character, but I really need to work on getting to know the family that my main character belongs to as a slave. I want them to be realistic, and not cliched. I'll do this by brainstorming, and doing some interviews with them.

8) Do you plan to edit or query, and what’s your plan of attack?

Haha, hopefully I'll get to an editing stage, but we'll see what my attack plan will be when I get there.

9) Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”  What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

I'd like to see more Historical fiction from a Christian perspective that doesn't center around a cheesy romance plot.  There's a hole in good Christian fiction of any genre, a major lack in good writing, strong plots, and realistic characters. I know there's a lot of young writers with a passion to fill that hole, and I want to be a part of that too.

10) What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2016?

A novel, a few drafts in, that I could maybe start looking to be published! Wouldn't that be incredible? :)