A few weeks ago, a writing friend posted her review of her 2014 writing goals. I read the post, Liked it, and moved on.
Then I realized that the whole reason she revised a novella into a novel, sold it, and wrote the second book in a two-book deal, and wrote a 14k and a 10k short story, is because she had writing goals in the first place.
There are hundreds if not thousands of articles about setting clear, reasonable, and measurable goals as a way to help keep your efforts on track in any industry. Setting clear goals (and writing them down) keeps you focused and gives you a concrete way to keep yourself on track.
I realized that a lack of clear, written goals is one reason I’ve not written more than I have. I’ve got The Sad Girl out, but only on Amazon and Kindle. I haven’t gotten around to figuring out publishing it to the Nook, so I’ve probably lost sales because of that. So here are my 2015 writing goals, in no particular order. I’m posting them here to keep me accountable, and to maybe inspire others to do the same. Feel free to keep me accountable.
- Publish The Sad Girl Sequel. At the moment, I’m at 41k words, and expecting it to end up around 70k. Goal: 1st draft completed by 31 January 2015. Published by 30 May 2015.
- Release Don’t Stop Believin’ to Wattpad. I rewrote a substantial portion of it a while back, so it’s in draft 1.5. Goal: Start weekly chapter release in April 2015.
- Finish the first draft of the first book in my Red Dirt Justice or Paratus Group series. Still not sure at this point which series I want to start. I think my goal for now is going to be one book in each series every year. I’ve got 1 solid idea for Paratus Group, and about half a dozen for Red Dirt Justice. Goal: 30 September 2015.
- Write a supporting short story for the book in #3 in the 7.5 – 10k and publish to Wattpad or Kindle. Fall 2015.
- Plot/outline the second book in whichever series I start in #3. Fall 2015.
- Write two substantial blog posts per month. “Substantial” as in at least 500 words, and more than just “I did this and that and the other thing.” Book and product reviews count. Administrative posts don’t. I have been horribly deficient in keeping my blog up. I really want to change that.
- Revisit/report on these goals monthly.
What are your goals (writing or other professional) for the coming year? Share them in the comments.
[…] schedule changes what I had laid out in my 2015 Writing Goals at the beginning of the year, but not drastically, and still keeps in line with the spirit of the […]