4F Day! Four Questions for Friday

Welcome to 4 Questions Friday! If this is your first visit for 4F Day, I've put the questions at the bottom of the article, because we want to hear from you! We hope you enjoy!

Carol Ryles

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?
The one goal I always aim for is to just sit down and write something  creative. 1000 words is my ideal. 500 is good. 200 is better than 100.  If I'm real lucky I can get 3000, but then I usually end up trading quality for quantity, so I tend not to set my goals excessively high. I've always liked to read slowly, and find writing slowly just as enjoyable.

2) What Goals do you have over all?
My overall goal is to improve my writing and publish at least one  novel. One of the reasons I like to write slowly is that I like to sit  and think about where each paragraph is going. Not so much like editing, but more like trying to get the most out of what I have in front of me. I'm hoping I'll get quicker with practice so for me that will be part of the improvement as well.

3) What Award would you most like to win?
I'm not fussy about awards. Any one will do. Unlike word counts, I aim for quantity over quality. Though I wouldn't be disappointed with  quality either. In fact, I would feel extremely fortunate either way.

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)
I'd love to teach creative writing and/or run workshops. Preferably face to face, as I already spend enough time writing in front of  computers.  Maybe I should have been a teacher instead of my original profession as a registered nurse. Back in 1985, I was almost going to  apply to become a clinical instructor, but ended up getting a job in  China instead. That job involved setting up and running a clinic, but I ended up teaching anyway, running health classes for expats, and helping out with teaching English to the locals at schools and colleges. I have one year left to work on my PhD, plus I'm also involved in a uni teaching and learning project, and really enjoy the challenge and interaction.

Sarah Parker

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?
It depends on what phase I'm in. When I am writing, I vary my goals depending ony family life. I usually aim for 10K a week as a constant. I'm still finding my way with the learning and editing side, so I don't have a specific set of goal systems in place yet.

2) What Goals do you have over all?
I want to sell my writing. I love doing it, and have a ball.

3) What Award would you most like to win?
A Hugo. :D I doubt I will, but if we don't aim for the stars, we'll never even reach the sky. I would like to win a James Tiptree Award, and a Norma K Hemming Award.

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)
I'd love to learn how to give good workshops, and I love teaching things. I guess I'll find out which I prefer as I come in contact with them!

Joanna Fay

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?
My goal is to write a scene every day, which is generally in the vicinity of 1000-1500 wds. I'm currently up to scene 3 of chapter 3 of book 3 of the epic quartet!! But that's first draft, and I'll soon be starting the third draft of book one. It gives me a chance to flip between fresh writing and editing/rewriting, although when editing, I aim for two scenes per day. "Aim" being the operative word, especially if there's much rewriting involved!

2) What Goals do you have over all?
Overall, I want this big fantasy saga to get published and turn into a gigantic blockbuster! But I'll settle for finishing it and getting it published. I have other publishing goals, which include continuing to have poems published and, ultimately, an anthology.

3) What Award would you most like to win?
 I suppose any of the awards I currently have pieces entered in (which would be relatively instant gratification); they include the Katharine Susannah Prichard Speculative Fiction Award, the Dublin Book Review Once Off Flash Fiction Competition, the Gilgamesh Fable Competition and the Blake Poetry Award. Fingers crossed for all and any of the above!!

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)
Well, I am most comfortable one to one when it comes to imparting knowledge/advice and have mentored the willing in areas other than writing (specifically tapestry weaving and astrology); it's always rewarding to teach skills you feel passionate about. I don't think my writing craft is sufficiently developed yet to merit running workshops, certainly not as a novelist, although I have run a poetry workshop on the Japanese short form called tanka, which was great fun.

Satima Flavell

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?
It depends where I am in the process. Right now I'm revising the WIP (again!) and I aim to do a chapter a day. When I'm writing from scratch I aim for 1,000ww per day but I don't always make it, yet sometimes I'll do 3,000. Depends on whether or not the muse is with me:-)

2) What Goals do you have over all?
To finish this series I've been working on for so long. Warning: if you are embarking on your first novel, make sure it's a stand-alone. Trilogies are Too Hard. I blame Lee Battersby. He set a writing exercise at Swancon 2003 and the piece I wrote for that became a chapter in what's now book three of my series. Perhaps I should warn you against writing exercises as well.

3) What Award would you most like to win?
At this point, almost anything short of a cereal packet toy would look good on my mantlepiece. And on my CV! Until last week I hadn't entered any contests or awards since I was in school but I've put a piece in this year's Katharine Susannah Prichard SF award. I'd be so happy if it even got Commended!

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)
I love giving workshops (just give me a topic and I'll research it and put a good and useful workshop together) but I don't think I'd like the commitment of running regular classes. Besides, there are many competent people already doing that, probably much better than I could.

Helen Venn

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?
I've been aiming at writing and doing other writing related work like editing or subbing each for a set time each week day so basically I treat it like a job. I don't worry so much about a specific word count although a deadline is a great incentive. One of the reasons I applied to Clarion South was to learn how to write to one and it certainly taught me to focus when I need to.

2) What Goals do you have over all?
I really want to finish my trilogy and get it published - I'm halfway through it now. I love writing short fiction and I want to see more of that in print too and - since this is a wish list - having some of my poems published would be great.

3) What Award would you most like to win?
I enter a lot of competitions and any wins are gratefully accepted. I've been focused on Writers of the Future for the past year and made it to a finalist in the First Quarter this year so I guess my immediate goal is to keep trying to break through there for now.

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)
I'm a teacher by profession so I really enjoy the teaching aspects. I love giving workshops which make the participants explore creative areas they don't usually think about so you might find yourself being asked to write from unexpected triggers. As well I enjoy critiquing and I'm happy to mentor.


You!

1) What Specific Goals do you have for your every day Writing?

2) What Goals do you have over all?

3) What Award would you most like to win?

4) What extra Writing activity would you like to do? (Ie, teaching some aspect of writing, workshops, editing, mentoring, online teaching...)