Goals -- What are yours?

[David DeLee]

I thought it would be interesting to start a thread about people's writing goals for the coming year. To start off I'll give you mine:

 

For 2011 I intend to write a minimum of 365,000 new words of fiction.

I believe this will take the form of four completed novel (between 60-90k each) and 14 short stories (avg. 6,000 each).

 

How about you. What are your writing goals for 2011? Let us know.

 

David DeLee

[David DeLee]

Way to go, Cathryn. Good luck with the novel and stories. You can do it.

 

[Richard Krauss]

Thanks for starting this thread, David. It's great to see what other writers plan to accomplish.

 

As for me, I'm going to finish a short story I began in 2010 and complete the first draft of my second novel. But more importantly, I'm going to write every day.

[David DeLee]

Good goals, Richard. Good luck.

[JackBludis]

Uh, does that including editing?

 

I have always worked with goals and goals keep us straight, but events such as a request for a novel from a publisher, general editing, and non-writing commitments always slow me down. If you write 4 novels and 14 stories and don't take the time to edit, you may find that you have had a lot of writing practice, but little publication.

 

My goals have changed as my frequency of publication has changed. For me, it's easy to write and more demanding to edit, and editing is the most time consuming part of the process. There is not just the spelling, grammar, and usage, but the juxtiposition of scenes and chapters, and the "making the sentences and word choices 'just right'" take time.

 

Keep the word goal, but the other part may be more difficult. Don't beat yourself up over it, and don't let anyone else beat you up about it either. Do what you can.

 

And as Richard Karuss says, "... write every day."

 

Jack Bludis  

 

[David DeLee]

You make a very good point, Jack, The writing is only one part of the writing process. For me the planning and the editing are equally as important. Not to mention the  time spent social networking and marketing in today's changing publishing world.

 

One thing I am trying to do this year is achieve balance. In the past I would plan and then write a first draft, edit it as needed and spend time sending it out, concentrating on each stage exclusively. This caused great gaps between actually writing new material. Slowing my overall productivity.

 

I know I have approximately 6 hours to devote to writing each day, on average. If I can train myself to write new material first, my 1000-1500 word/day. That will leave me with about 4 hrs per day to tackle editing the previous days work, research and plan for the next day's writing and work on shoring up my web presence and platform, querying editors, etc.

 

Don't know if it will work but that's my plan.How about the rest of you, how do you structure your writing time?

 

[Ronald S. Barrios]

Jack,

this was a very positive response. I'm serious. I admire your honesty and how you tempered it with encouragement. I've been on blogs where writers tear each other down for reasons I still don't understand but you, along with everyone else here, is so positive. I really like this. You're respectful of others and that's what's important. Your post was very encouraging. My Oakland A's baseball cap is off to you, sir. 

Good job.

RSB

[JackBludis]

Ronald--

Thanks, my Ravens and then My Oriole cap back attcha.

Jack

[David DeLee]

Oh, you guys are killing me. Mets and Yankee caps only. Happy new year.

[Mary McFarland]

A tilt of my Kentucky Derby hat to ya, Jack, 'cause David seems to want a little more hat variety.  LOL!  

[Mary McFarland]

Agree with you, Ronald.  Jack's response is balanced and so 100% dead on honest.  When you read his post, weren't you shaking your head, going, Oh, yeah, that's what's going on with my writing?  I was.   

[Mary McFarland]

Sage advice, Jack.  The editing and non-writing commitments (even being sick early this year) have slowed me down a bit. 

 

I'm working hard on writing better first drafts to minimize the time I spend revising, but even the best first draft requires serious attention and time to edit.  This is the first year I've been able to let go and not have to edit from hard copy: I'm doing it in the Word document.  That's helped free me mentally, from what used to be a cumbersome editing process. 

[Camille LaGuire]

Good goals.  1000 words a day is an easy target if you keep your prep-work ahead.  The hard part is the rewriting.  You can't really measure it the same way.  I try to keep myself on an on-going Novel Dare at about that rate - and I keep my blog as the reporting arm of it. I have to report every day.  (daringnovelist.blogspot.com)

 

This year I am going to concentrate on ebook publishing.  I really like to write things that don't have a good traditional market - like novellas, and cross-genres.

 

My ambitious goal, therefore, is to publish something new every month.  Which is not going to be as tough as it seems. I plan to publish a few of my screenplays, and several novellas and more of my published short fiction.  This should give me time for more work on several novels - some of which may be published this year, and some not.

 

Camille