Writing

The Writing Plan: 2015 Edition

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dreamstimefree_206298Time to share what I’ve got in mind for writing and publishing goals for 2015.

I believe, with the experience I’ve had dictating in the last little while, with some focus, I can could actually maintain the NaNoWriMo pace I set during November. Even allowing for a little Christmas and Summer vacation, I believe it’s possible for me to draft a 60 to 80,000 word novel every single month. I’m actually not going to try to do that for 2015.

(Although that would be a really cool experiment. Maybe in 2016. Probably not.)

For 2015, there are other things I want to do too, so I am tailoring things and coming up with a more well-rounded plan.

Still, that plan is looking for me to attempt six novels, and I’ve made a first pass at selecting which six of the crazy number of stories I want to tell. It’s a possible, but unrealistic goal, but here it is:

  1.  Draugr Rising (urban fantasy)
  2. Becoming Alien (near future SF)
  3. Tashiik Dreams (a couple of centuries post being conquered by aliens YA SF)
  4. Neanderthal (alternate history)
  5. Border Guards (adventure fantasy)
  6. My Cousin Hans (historical fiction set during the Nazi occupation of Denmark)

Draugr Rising should be the easy one—I started the year within 25,000 words of the end, that is, if I manage to find four or five chapters written long hand and never yet committed to the keyboard. Two of the others depend heavily on research. I reserve the right to swap one project for another at any time.

Short fiction, I’m going to get back to The Undead. In fact, by the time this posts, I should already have a ghost story finished. The primary target here is to get the rest of the stories done for this collection. But I hope to write some other short fiction, too.

 

The Weekly Schedule

I get five drafting days per week. These are my commute, so whatever words I can spit into the microphone, and I’m looking for this to run 2,500 to 3,000 words per day, hopefully the latter most of the time.

Monday to Wednesday is for novel work, Thursday is for short fiction, and Friday is classed as “Other”, meaning blog posts and some other non-fiction, and occasionally stuff that isn’t technically writing at all.

No drafting while on vacation or taking special days off for conventions and the like.

But this works out to 12,500 words per week, nowhere near the NaNoWriMo pace of 17,000, but that’s okay. Sometimes I’ll hit that and keep going, making up for the lighter weeks. I hope.

 

Publishing Goals

I’m putting most of last year’s publishing goals back on the table, generalizing them, adding one, and will take whatever time I can get.

  • Three indie-publishing projects selected from:
    • A Novelette/Novella
    • A Novel
    • A Short Story Collection
    • A Children’s story
  • Shop Ancient Runes, Graceland, and Heroes Inc.
  • 100 short story submissions.

I’d better get started, hmm?

Be well, everyone.

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