For the Love of Words: Q2 Wrap-Up and a Look at Q3

Y’all, I can’t believe it’s already July and that the year is halfway over. 2017 has been a fantastic year in terms of producing manuscripts, but in terms of my personal life, it’s been a bit rocky. In addition to being a writer, I’ve worked full time but lost my job back at the end of 2016. After looking for a new job for six months, I’m finally happy to have landed at a major tech company.

3rd Quarter Goals

That’s not the important part of this, but it is a pretty exciting part of my life. The important part is that we’re finally at another quarter, so I want to update everyone and set some new goals for Q3.

Quarter Two Goals and Recap

It’s amazing how much everything can change in three months. 90 days. 12 weeks. I had a few simple goals this past quarter.

Finish the first draft of Hit List – I finished this one! It’s a little shorter than I wanted for a first draft, but it’s nice to see where the ending of this “First half” of the series is. Even since finishing this draft, I’ve rediscovered things I want to add in the edits. But going back to edits on this book rely a lot on the next goal.

Start edits on Justice & Lies – I started edits and I’m almost done with a draft of edits, but the truth is, I need to go back at least one more time before I send it to my editor.

There’s a supercharged plot in Justice & Lies, and I want to make sure that I really dive into that and do the story correctly – both to those who live it in real life and the characters in this book. It’s a finite balancing act, and I know it’s going to take time.

My last goal for the quarter was to read six books.

I definitely started six books, but to be honest, I think I finished one, and it was one in a series I was already reading. So this time, I’m going to list all the books I want to read this quarter.

QUARTER THREE GOALS

Finish Justice & Lies – Finish this dang draft. I’ll probably put away for a few weeks and just take a break from writing when I do finish writing it so I can get some clear eyes. Hopefully, by August, I’ll be back to editing it. Once that’s done, I’ll be sending it to the editor to check it again.

Start Hit List edits – Hit List needs a bit more work, just because I haven’t looked at it as long. There’s some international travel in it, so I’m going to check everything I can to make sure that’s it’s accurate.

Possibly start planning my NaNoWriMo novel – I’m planning to do NaNoWriMo this year and I already have a novel idea in mind. It’s a story I’ve had in my mind since high school, but never knew how to fully attack it. I’m hoping to do so this year. Fingers crossed. Hopefully, at the end of September, I’ll start planning.

Read all the books – My new job has some down time where I’ll be able to read a lot, so I’m planning to take full advantage of those breaks to read. I’m finishing up Big Little Lies – which is freaking fantastic, but I’ll be adding more books to the plate. I want to mix it up with a variety of fiction and nonfiction.

A few books I’m planning to read this quarter:

  • Who Killed These Girls?: Cold Case: The Yogurt Shop Murders by Beverly Lowery. Turns out this cold case happened about three miles from my house.
  • Settle for More by Megyn Kelly.
  • Poison and Prejudice by Chelsea Field
  • The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
  • The One with all the Writing Advice by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant

I don’t think it’ll take me all three months to read all of this, but you never know. Either way, I’m excited for all that Q3 holds!