Writing goals for 2010

Finish Sacrifice! Yep, that's basically it for this year. I want to get Sacrifice into a suitable state for sending to agents and I want to do that by the end of August.

I'm going to aim for 2000 words a week and that should get me to 75000 words by the end of March, which I think is about right for this novel. That then gives me about four months to finish the editing. Given that the 40000 words I already have been edited a bit, I think four months is a challenging but achievable goal.

I've got a calendar of inspirational quotes for the year and I'll share the ones that I like the most. Today's was from Dara Torres, a US olympic swimmer:

"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams."

Babylon, Statuephilia and the Muse of History

I went to the British Museum for their Babylon exhibition this week. It was wonderful and very inspiring.

The Long Way Home is a fantasy novel I wrote a couple of years ago, still languishing in first draft status, and it has a middle eastern themed world. The pictures and model of the Processional Way and Ishtar Gate gave me some good ideas for imagining my protagonist's home city. When I get back to it, after I've finished Sacrifice...




Statuephilia is a collection of contemporary sculpture inspired by the exhibits at the BM. This is my favourite, Dark Stuff by Sue Webster and Tim Noble. It's really disturbing.




Then I had afternoon tea in the Great Court restaurant and worked out the plot for Alexandria. Apparently high blood glucose is beneficial to writing. I do so enjoy being told what I want to hear.