Friday, October 18, 2013

Achieving Goals by Misha Gerrick

Hello, dragon friendly people. If you perceive a strong perfume, it is the red carpet made with over one thousand roses. The dwarves are wearing their best (and cleanest) clothes because they want to make a good impression. Misha Gerrick is visiting the cave as part of her blog tour for The Vanished Knight and she'll tell us a bit about achieving goals. After that she'll be answering your comments, IF the dwarves don't overwhelm her with autograph requests and possible marriage proposals, that is. (Don't worry, Misha. This is perfectly safe. If you need a dwarf repellent, the Ninja Muse is at the ready.)





Thanks for hosting me today, Al! Since you asked me to write about achieving goals, I thought I’d tell everyone how pretty much the entire production of The Vanished Knight was about achieving goals.

Before I started on this WiP, I’d written seven other drafts for various stories. Including a few typed chapters for Doorways (which would go on to become The Vanished Knight and its sequel). Each of these drafts sort of drifted off early into the stories, pretty much as soon as the first inspiration buzz wore off. My record was nine chapters.

I think the reason for this to be three-fold. First, the other drafts weren’t meant to be my first books. Second, I still lacked the writing knowledge needed to follow through on the first idea. The last was that I’d written without any direction before. I used to plot, often in detail, but as soon as the first inspiration wore off, I stopped.

Doorways was different, though. I knew that from the beginning, so I read up on writing, wanting to see how I’d get past that first inspiration barrier. As soon as that was done, and I knew what I’d done wrong, I felt almost ready to get going. Almost.

I also knew that in my world full of distractions, I needed to find a way to focus. What I did was to start a blog. Not just any blog. One about getting my first book published. And then I went about making sure as many other bloggers as possible knew about this goal. I also made sure to post updates on my progress regularly, as well as to post on writing method. My reasoning was simple, if I wrote blog posts on what I’d learned, and wanted the blog to survive, I’d have to keep learning, and keep writing.

When my first draft was finished, I had about 300 people reading my blog, so I figured it’d be a good idea to make my self-imposed rewrite deadline public. I put up my first count down timer, and repeated the process for revisions and edits.

It definitely worked! If I even vaguely felt like not working on my book, an image of that count-down timer would pop up in my thoughts, and I’d get going. I finished the rewrite three months ahead of schedule, and the edits about a month late, due to circumstances beyond my control. But all and all, I finished faster than I’d thought I could.

These days, the count-down timer has returned. This time, for my biggest, longest term goal yet. And yes, I still feel the seconds ticking by. The stakes are higher, and there are now over a 1000 people who can either watch me fail or succeed. My choice.

Anyone else have goals? 



Blurb
Since the death of her parents, Callan Blair has been shunted from one foster family to another, her dangerous secret forcing the move each time. Her latest foster family quickly ships her off to an exclusive boarding school in the Cumbrian countryside. While her foster-brother James makes it his mission to get Callan expelled, a nearby ancient castle holds the secret doorway to another land...

When Callan is forced through the doorway, she finds herself in the magical continent of Tardith, where she’s shocked to learn her schoolmates Gawain and Darrion are respected soldiers in service to the king of Nordaine, one of Tardith's realms. More than that, the two are potential heirs to the Black Knight—Nordaine's crown prince.

But when the Black Knight fails to return from a mysterious trip, the realm teeters on the brink of war. Darrion and Gawain set out to find him, while Callan discovers there is more to her family history than she thought. The elves are claiming she is their princess.

Now with Darrion growing ever more antagonistic and her friendship with Gawain blossoming, Callan must decide whether to stay in Nordaine—where her secret grows ever more threatening—or go to the elves and uncover the truth about her family before war sets the realms afire.

Bio
M. Gerrick (AKA Misha Gericke) has basically created stories since before she could write. Many of those stories grew up with her and can be seen in her current projects.
She lives close to Cape Town, with a view over False Bay and Table Mountain.

If you’d like to contact her, feel free to mail her at warofsixcrowns(AT)gmail(DOT)com, Circle her on Google Plus or follow her on Twitter. If you'd like to see her writer-side (beware, it's pretty insane), please feel free to check out her blog. You can also add The Vanished Knight on Goodreads.

Links: 

Amazon Germany



Thank you for being with us today, Misha, and thank you, my friends, for visiting the dragon cave. The dwarves will get yet another bath because another lovely woman and writer is coming. On Monday, the stop for Mary Pax's blog tour is here and she'll tell us about dragons in the sky. I would love for you to join us. In the meantime, I leave you lots of dragon hugs!

43 comments:

  1. The count-down timer is a great idea! I have been pretty good about achieving goals, but I do need to rethink how I approach revisions and actually getting ready to publish. Because while I have written 11 novels so far, none of them are ready for publication. Most of them are nowhere near ready. ;)

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    1. Trisha, I'm almost the same. After Doorways, I wrote four unrelated drafts which are still waiting for rewrites, edits and revisions.

      My five year project is pushing me into gear, though. :-)

      BTW I found the best way to approach revisions is to take your oldest draft, read it, and decide what to fix first.

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  2. Wow. Determination and talent in the one package. No wonder your path is strewn with roses.

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    1. Awe thanks EC! The rose strewn path is a nice change, I must admit. My usual publication path can be filled with stones, landmines and nettles.

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  3. That's the way to do it! I need the same thing - deadlines and goals - if I'm going to complete a manuscript.

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    1. Yeah for me it's a matter of concentration span and priorities. If I didn't have some sort of accountability, I'd have taken three times as long to write, because I easily flit from one thing to another.

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  4. Thanks again for letting me visit, Father Dragon! The elves made me feel very welcome. X

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  5. Those sneaky dwarves. I thought a few had escaped and come over to my blog last week, but I was mistaken. LOL

    Great post, Misha. How many marriage proposals did you get? :P

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  6. It's a great idea to make goals public. My writing group that meets monthly does that. We post them in our newsletter and then at the next meeting have to confess to meeting them or not.

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  7. Thanks Melissa. Got a few. Quite flattering, I must admit. ;-)

    Susan that's a great motivator. My big goals blog hop does the same sort of thing. :-)

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  8. Goals are so important! I am big on goal-setting. If you don't set goals, you'll just float aimlessly like a leaf on a river.

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    1. Definitely! That's why I always keep setting goals.

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  9. Goals are important... at least to get started. Many times we need to alter them for whatever reasons. SO GLAD it all worked out for you Misha!!!!!

    I had a goal this year and I may have achieved it.... Stay tuned!

    All the best!!

    HI, FD.... Hope you are well! Hugs to you and Misha and happy weekend!

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    1. Oh wow that sounds exciting! Looking forward to your news.

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    2. Hi, Sir Michael! Doing very well here, thank you very much. I am glad to hear you're doing so well too. I knew you could only expect success. You're determined like that. Keep it up!

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  10. I can't believe the poor dwarves have to take yet another bath. I bet Mary wouldn't mind if they were a little stinky. :D

    Your goal process inspires me, Misha! I think I'm close to getting enough nerve to sign up on your blog. I need to just get the goal out there.

    Happy weekend to both of you!

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    1. Would be awesome if you do sign up. :-)

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    2. Not to worry, Julie, then can handle more baths. Later they will have free therapy for overexposure to soap :)

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  11. Love that you are so willing to share it all! And I'm a goal setter from way back - it works!

    Congratulations and good luck!

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  12. It's great motivation when people are holding your accountable for something. Good idea posting your progress on your blog. It's been fun following your journey to to see your book out in the world for readers!!

    Happy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines

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  13. Thanks Yolanda!

    Laura making goals public really works wonders. :-)

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  14. I think goals are important in any walk of life. No goals, no achievements. Congratulations on achieving.

    Hi Al

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    1. Thanks Jo! I agree with you that measurable, clearly set goals can give the structure and focus one needs to succeed in something. :-)

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  15. I'm seeing Misha all
    Over the place and learning a whole lot of very interesting facts about her. I love this style of blog tour. Best of
    Luck on what sounds like an awesome story.

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    1. Thank!

      Hahaha the funny thing is that the blog tour happened this way quite by accident. :-D

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  16. Goals are easy to set but follow-through is not so easy. Glad you found something to get you beyond the initial inspiration buzz and to the end. It lets you fly like dandelion fluffs on the wind of inspiration but you control the destination. :-)

    Btw, Al, the dwarves look particularly nice today. Love the red carpet. :-)

    Sia McKye Over Coffee

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    1. Sia you're so right. If you set goals, you also need to take action to make them come about. Or else they're nothing better than New Year's Resolutions. :-D

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    2. Hi there, Sia! Thanks in behalf of the dwarves. :)

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  17. Misha, now I get the point of the count down timer on your page. Accountability. I can see how that would be inspiring. So what book did you read that was most helpful in terms of understanding the process and overcoming the obstacles? There are tons of writing books out there. Hard to know where to put your time...

    Al, I love what you did with Misha's cover... putting it on the fire like that. You are one creative man!!! Awesome:)

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    1. Thank you very much Robin, but it is dragon, one creative dragon. ;)

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    2. Yep, it looks like a terribly long time to count down, but soon, there'll be a few months left and then that timer will take things to another level. :-D

      The book that definitely got my butt into gear was Julia Cameron's The Right to Write. It wasn't a pushy sort of book, but it did help me put certain things that had been hampering my writing into perspective. And without that, I'd probably still be leaving a path of unfinished drafts. :-)

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    3. Also, I agree with Robin, Al. The fire really makes my cover pop. ;-)

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  18. What an interesting idea to use blogging as motivation. I sometimes join ROW80 or What's Up Wednesday to motivate myself, but your blog showed a lot of dedication.

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    1. Might as well let my blog do double duty. ;-)

      For some reason, I never got around to joining ROW80, although I wanted to. Nowadays, though, I have my own bloghop for people who have big goals like mine.

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  19. Something tangible is always the best motivator, and you are completely right about the relationship between learning and blogging :)

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    1. I agree. I find there should be a consistent way for me to measure my progress vs. the amount of time I have left. And for that, the count down timer is excellent.

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  20. Greetings Al and Misha,

    Human, Misha, I think that was an interesting idea to get it out there on your blog. Let folks and animals, for that matter, see how you were progressing. Personally, although I respect what you did, neither my human or I could do that. We are not structured and just let the words flow when they flow.

    Well done, my human friend. And Al, thanks for having Misha on your site.

    Pawsitive wishes,

    Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar! :)

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    1. Thanks Penny. I agree with you, not all people are goal setting types. Without them, though, I'd be quite lost.

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    2. Dragon hugs back at you, Penny. Thanks for coming!

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  21. I think I love goal setting even more than achieving goals - it's always full of so much promise - but I like your idea and I'm gonna get me a count downer :)

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  22. Great post, Misha! I'm with you - I find that being accountable to many others helps keep me on track.

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