Raven's View

I have several draft novels, all written in NaNoWriMo, and they all have potential. But, hours of editing are needed, and I find it hard to measure any real progress, or have an idea of when I might be finished. I don't know how to solve that. My first two novels I had a publisher already. And for these, when I'm done, the relatively easy part starts, the search for an agent/publisher. Or, maybe, I just choose self-publishing. 

I was enjoying my weekly Flash Fiction challenges, but I have been getting very little feedback, whether as constructive criticism or just a 'nice story'.  So I'll pause those for now. What I would like is to have several people taking my challenge every week. I addition, I'd like us to be able to share feedback during the week, on our WIP, and then the finished product. That way we can all hopefully improve our writing. Maybe I can start with checking out Story a Week sites to find possible victims.

I'd also like to get back into firing those short stories off to various sites and magazines, after some fine tuning. I did a few, with a 'thanks, not our thing'. I use Duotrope for places to consider, but all seem to have a slightly different format. I think this is one of those Just Do It challenges.

Related to the above are fiction contests - I've done a few. They force a specific challenge and timeframe, and result if helpful feedback, either from fellow writers or judges. NYC Midnight  has several during the year, and Furious Fiction does one the first Friday of every month. 

Finally - podcasts. This is do-able, and could be fun. I have the software and a site and a plan to do a story a week. Maybe the same story that I tweak to send out?? 

I'll ponder on the above this month, and hopefully have some solutions by ROW-1 in January. Suggestions are welcome.