It’s been a little over two months now since I published my first short stories and began my journey as a self-published fantasy author. Over the past ten or fifteen years, my writing schedule has been incredibly erratic, with long stretches where I did not write at all punctuated by bursts of writing here and there as the muse (and the calendar) afforded opportunity. I always enjoyed writing, but I didn’t always make it a priority, and we all know how life intervenes to slow down tasks that aren’t made a priority.
But now that I’m embarking on this new adventure of indie publishing, I think that it’s high time to dedicate a renewed focus to the most important thing of all: actually writing. Dean Wesley Smith has (amongst many other great posts) written some sage advice about goal-setting and making plans to achieve those goals. In this spirit, then, I think it is time for me to set some goals for 2013. These goals are ambitious. They scare me a little bit (OK, a lot). I think that they should be attainable, but it will take some stretching. I may fall short, but even if I do, I expect that my writing output in 2013 will be substantially higher than it has ever been in any year before.
The goal: 200,000 words
Translated into books, what does this mean? I have already finished revising one short story that will be published in the coming days. I am finishing two more short stories. That will finish my current set of short stories, and all five stories will be published together in a collection that will offer a discount over purchasing them individually. I will complete and publish my first novel and be well on my way to the second. If I can stretch that 200,000 word total closer to 250,000, I may be able to get two novels out this year. We’ll have to see how it goes.
The production schedule for 2013:
3 short stories
1 short story collection
1 novel (and maaaaaaybe 2)
The most important part of attaining my 2013 goals is going to be writing regularly. I’m going to try to write every day if I can, but one key is to not despair if I miss a day. Just get back in the saddle and write again the next day. To maintain some degree of public accountability, I will post my monthly word count totals on this blog. That will give me some incentive to push hard, because I’d much rather write about how successful I was than make up a set of hollow-sounding excuses like “the dog ate my laptop.” :-)
To all the other writers out there, good luck with your own 2013 goals! And to the readers out there, I hope that you find a great many good reads over the coming year! (In fact, if you’re looking for some great short stories, I know a good place to point you ;-) )