I say over and over how important it is to set concrete written goals with a deadline if you want to achieve success. The problem is I don’t always follow my own advice.
That’s not entirely true; I do set daily and weekly writing goals, but I often get so caught on up the short-term, that I overlook the long-term goals.
So in effort to do a better job setting some long-term goals and, hopefully holding myself more accountable, I’d like to take a moment here to outline my writing goals for the next four-and-a-half months. It’s actually just one big writing goal.
This year has been a weird one. I spent more time on writing relating things this year than any year in the last five year, but as far as actual words counts are concerned, I probably wrote less fiction than any year since 2011.
My focus this year has been more on platform-building and publicity more than on anything else. After launching this blog, redesigning my other two sites, becoming more active on the social media front, attending conferences (even participating in a few writing panels) and releasing my first novel, I haven’t put enough time aside for actual writing.
And that is totally okay. No regrets as all of that stuff needed to get done and is just as important at this point in the game.
But now, with 2015 nearly 2/3 of the way done, I’m planning to shift focus a bit and get back to some serious writing. I’ve got a full plate, sure, but all that really means is that I’ll need to better prioritize.
As far as writing is concerned, finishing another novel is the most important thing. Now, I know I’ve mentioned that I have a first (or second) draft of a novel I’ve been working on. But to be honest, I’m just not feeling that one. I also have some doubts about its marketability at this point in time, so I’m going to put it away for a while.
Instead I’m going to work on another novel that I’ve got a simple outline to. It’s a YA horror novel that, if done right, could be a lot of fun. I’m about 1200 words in so far, and I like where it’s going.
In my head, I’m seeing about 70,000 words in this, so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. My goal is to have a first draft finished by Halloween. That comes out to over 5000 words per week, which really isn’t that difficult if broken down properly.
So I’m giving myself this crazy goal and we’ll see how it goes. If I can get actually it done by Halloween, then I’ll reward myself by writing a few more short stories to finish out the year. If not, I’ll extend my self-imposed deadline to December 31. We shall see.
The long-term goal is to have this novel ready to query sometime in the first half of 2016. I think that’s a fair deadline and gives plenty of time to revise and pass around to beta readers.
So wish me well, and leave a comment if you’ve got some writing goals you’d like to share too.
