Inspired by Dean Wesley Smith’s goals posts on his journal, I think I have a good plan of action for writing in 2009. Dean’s great at breaking down huge goals and dreams into bite-sized chunks, so you aren’t overwhelmed and you can just WRITE.
So I wrote up some goals tonight — I know, working on a Saturday night, how exciting, right? But Drew and Mitch both have nasty colds that we’re hoping don’t devolve into something worse, so I skipped out on a get-together with friends to celebrate the holidays (and some other good news as well…) and stayed home to take care of my boys. and get ’em to bed at a decent time, while Lizzie went off to party. 🙂
Here are the goals I came up with to get me back on track and to stay focused in the New Year — I start small and build up to the biggies:
Daily Goal: 1500 words & 6 pages a day, at least 5 days a week (I can do about 750-1000 words per hour if I’m on a roll)
Weekly Goal: 7500 words & 30 pages per week; 375,000 words & 1500 pages per year! And that’s taking weekends off!
Yearly Goal: Write 2-3 novels per year (novels are usually 90,000 to 100,000 words long)
2009 Goals: Get 3 new novels written, revised, and ready to send out.
Five Year Goal: Make enough from writing fiction to cut Day Job hours to 3/4 or even 1/2 time. Hey, you gotta shoot high, right?
And so, after fiddling with all that goal-setting and trying to not mess with the free download of Scrivener I snagged today, I finally got some actual writing done tonight. I’m almost done with the revising portion of the novel. Soon, it’ll be new stuff, as I revamped the ending a bit, and found it easier to just re-draft the last act pretty much altogether.
Current status-o-meter:
So, what is the other good news???
Good goals…especially the 5 year.
Hope the boys are feeling better soon.
Love to all!!
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Goals look realistic to me. And in 5 years the economy should be on the upswing again, just as you’re ready to make the transition to another mode of life (or half-life, if you wish). I wish you the best of everything in 2009–good health, happiness and prosperity.
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Thanks, Shelly and Sarah! The other good news has to do with our friends Holly and Tammy and a certain piece of jewelry… 🙂
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