It's that time of month to deem my Jan goals success or failure and make goals for February:
January Goal #1 - Final Draft of Utility Query
Status: SUCCESS! Reworked my original draft and sent to 6 agents (3 form rejections, 3 yet to reply, 0 Personalized Rejections, 0 Manuscript Requests). Then, I rewrote the whole thing and sent that (hopefully) improved draft to 2 agents (neither has replied).
January Goal #2 - Final Draft of "The Was"
Status: SUCCESS! I have a final manuscript that I've sent to 6 literary journals thus far.
January Goal #3 - First Draft of at Least One Scene from "Predisposed"
Status: Revised. This was a bit of a filler goal, and so I took it in another direction and worked on several flash fiction pieces. I have a flash fiction "triptych" almost completely drafted and have a flash nonfiction piece drafted but not completely polished yet.
February Goals
Goal #1a: Send 3-5 more of my current query letter draft for Utility. If I get any success, then send 5-7 more. If not, then reassess, revise, etc.
1b: I have enough ideas for improvements that it's about that time to go through the draft and make adjustments. Implement ALL of these ideas.
1c: Read through Part 2 and reassess, rewrite, etc (I already did this with Part 1 a few months ago).
Goal #2: Get through the alphabet on the directory of places to send "The Was." I am currently in the early Ds. Response times are so long that I'm going to send to every single high-profile journal that I think is a good fit. If it's July and I haven't been accepted, then I'll start sending to all of my backup plans (places with a lower profile, but where I have advantage, either because it's a magazine specifically geared toward health and sickness or Delaware Valley-area writers, etc).
Goal #3: Get a publishable draft of Wake (the flash fiction triptych) together by MID-FEBRUARY. A lot of reading periods end around there, so I don't want to miss out on any opportunities. It's pretty niche and experimental so I'm just gonna send it to every publication I think is a good fit. My research for Goal 2 is preparing me well for good places to send it, I just have to finish writing it then edit.
GOGO ME!
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