Nothing gets you motivated like the completion of a goal.? Back in August of last year I began a series of creative writing courses.? The capstone course began in January of this year.? I submitted the final assignment on Sunday.? This morning I received an email that I passed the course!! This is the first of 11 goals I set for this year.? Yay, me!
I took the courses online at Coursera.? I admit that I really didn’t think I would learn very much, especially since the grading is in the form of reviews from your peers.
I was wrong.
Your peers are much harder with grading you than a teacher is.? They hold nothing back.? I’m pleased to say that I passed every single course with 85-100%.? The feedback from my writing colleagues was honest, but very encouraging.? In fact, they gave me really great reviews.
A lot of the tips I learned from watching the videos helped me to refine the novel I wrote back in November.? I’m working on my fourth set of revisions.? I was almost finished, but then an idea I had for one of the chapters sort of shifted the rest of the chapters so I had to go back and start from the beginning.? But that’s okay.? I want my novel to be the best it possibly can be.
My next goal is getting an agent.? I went through the Writer’s Market book and made a list of about ten agents I am going to query.? They all belong to the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), which means they don’t charge for reading, critiquing, or editing.
So this week and part of next is getting my query letter right.? All the agents I selected do online submissions only.? That’s fine with me because I save money on postage.? I’m giving myself the deadline of next Friday to send everything out.
Here’s a little thing I do any time I submit any of my writing to contests or journals, etc.: I play?Cream by Prince and let him sing to me before I hit the submit button.? It’s a really great song about believing in yourself and that you are the best at what you do.? So I know I’m the best at what I do because Prince said so.??
I’ve got some cuteness for you before I go.? This is one of my cats.? His name is Rameses.? I recently put my desk in front of 
my living room window so I can watch the world go by as I write every morning.? I should have known that was a bad idea. LOL.
Oh well.
That’s all I’ve got folks! Until I write again…
