96-365 Year3 Sheep Play a Very Defensive Game (By John Garghan via Flickr CC)

It’s Spring! Although the weather hasn’t quite sprung here in New England (we keep getting snow flurries. It doesn’t stick, but it’s annoying and it really interfered with Sunday’s Easter Egg hunt) I am ready and raring to go for 2015’s second Round of Words in Eighty Days. This is an odd round. The first round of the year saw me crawling out of the disillusionment of my series of lunar shorts, and turning around all my goals to focus on other things. I revised a manuscript, sent it to beta readers, and I’m currently doing the final proofreading-style revisions. This round also contains a major family vacation. Hubby and I celebrated our 20th anniversary last week, and later this summer my parents will celebrate their 50th. We’re taking the family to Disney World, including a Disney cruise! So, my goals are rather specific this round:

1. At least an hour of editing every day until revisions are done.
2. Send the query to the agent. (It’s already written.) Preferably this will happen before the family’s vacation.
3. Be present with the family during vacation. It’s fine to make some notes or even do a little writing, but time will primarily be spent with my loved ones.
4. Be prepared to send the agent anything she wants if and when she asks for it.
5. After vacation, assess what should be the next thing to work on. There are a couple of things in progress, and various reasons to choose one or the other.
6. The following word count goals work well:
   1. 500-1,000 words isn’t a good day, but at least I did something.
   2. 1,000-2,000 words is a good day
   3. 2,000 words or more is what I’d like to be doing on a regular basis
7. Tweak the above goals if the task turns out to be editing/revising instead of writing.
8. Read and critique a friend’s new novel. (I won’t do this for just anyone, anytime…)
9. Don’t stick my foot in my mouth if the agent says ‘yes’
10. Don’t jump off a cliff if the agent says ‘no’