“Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day
of your life.”
Mark Twain
One Writer’s
Top Three Goals for 2019
Accomplishments in 2018: Holidays are over
and it’s time to look back at 2018 and forward to 2019. Last year was amazing.
I self-published my debut historical novel, Deserter, Rebel, Renegade, and I’m 12,000 words into my second book, a murder mystery set in
1915 San Diego, California. So many lessons learned in 2018 and plenty of
adventures on the way to publication. Some were good adventures, and some were
not. Second time around should be easier. Right? Right.
My
Target for 2019: Finish my 70,000 word historical murder mystery (only
58,000 swords to go) by October for self-publication.
Potential
Problems: I classify myself as a spits-and-spurts type of writer. Not the
most efficient way, I agree. Stephen King writes in his book, Stephen King On Writing, that he spends
the morning writing and the rest of the day reading, family time and other
everyday activities. Other authors say they write a target number of words or
pages a day. Of those three methods, I’d like to give the number-of-words-a-day
method a try. If I write 500 words a day, in four months I’ll have met my
70,000 word goal. After a professional edit, input from Betta Readers and
rewrites it should be ready for publication in October. Seems workable, don’t
you think? I’m thinking positive. :o)
But, there is a stumbling block I need
to address--distractions. I think most people can relate to these same distractions:
unnecessary checking and gabbing on social media, unproductive groups/organizations
and negative people. Time to get a grip and start an elimination list and learn
to say “No.” So my top three goals…
Number
One Goal: hunker down each day until my 500 words are typed into my
computer.
Number
Two Goal:
Begin an elimination list of distractions to eliminate and learn to say “Yes”
only to people and things that will further my writing and personal improvement.
Number
Three Goal:
Complete my novel and self-publish before the end of 2019.
Can’t wait until January 1, 2020 to tell
you what transpired in 2019 and how my new writing method worked out.
* * *
A peek at my research:
* * *
Would love to hear about your writing
style. Do you set targets to complete your novel? What works for you and what
doesn’t work?
Have an amazing and productive 2019
everyone. Warmest of wishes.
* * *
Thank you for reading my blog and see
you here Feb 1st as I
talk about the Bestselling Historical
Fiction books of 2018 and breakdown eras, locations, genders, etc.
Other places to find
me:
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