It’s that time of year again! Literally, the very beginning when goals are made and determination to achieve is high. However, it’s no secret that goals made at the new year are more often than not quickly abandoned. To help my writing goals stick, I’m going to share them.
*Full disclosure, I am working in uncharted territory. While I’ve submitted and had two short stories published, this is the first time I’ve completed a first draft of a novel. And it was a long one. So yes, I plan on keeping my goals to the best of my ability, there’s going to be a lot of reevaluating as I discover my process.
Here are my goals as they stand now:
- Cut 75k-95k words
- Finish the second draft by the end of March
- Final draft for book 1 done by the end of the year
- Start book 2 in September
- Finish book 2 first draft for NaNoWriMo 2022
There you have it. I’ve set a tall order for myself, but with the first draft already under my belt, I’ll admit I’m feeling a little emboldened.
One aspect about myself as a writer I discovered while writing this first draft was that I am not interested in writing sprawling epics. I found that I started to dislike the idea of the story being 150k words long. Ultimately, if that is what it needs, then so be it, but I feel that between 100k and 120k will be more manageable for readers and for me. Again, I’ll have to see how it goes, but that’s the motivation behind one of my new year’s writing goals.
Before I sign off, there are questions that have been plaguing me since I started putting my nose to the grindstone for this book: what if I go through all this effort to write this book (three books, by the end) and it’s never accepted by an agent or publisher? Is it worth it? Should I abandon this project in favor of a newer one?
The answer: I don’t know. Yes, I’ll be disappointed that I spent years on this series if it’s never accepted. I’m sure it will be worth it for the experience, and I won’t abandon it because I want to learn how to see novels through. So failure ahead or not, here I go.