My latest short story "The Night the Lights Came On"

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Writing Projects, Writing Goals

Right now I am working on many writing projects. As I look at the list and how I wish all of these projects were completed today, it makes me realize that I need to make some goals. Here's my list:
  • Finish the first draft of my forth fiction novel called Zombie Super Powers.
  • Finish the first draft of my fifth novel, my first attempt at non-fiction, called Fostering With Love.
  • Finish a short story called The Realm of Fire to submit to an anthology.
  • Do a third draft of a novella called Sword and Urn I've received feedback on from two people.
  • Finish a novella I started called Catching the Cat's Killer.
  • Finish a novel I started called The Meadowhill Ghost.
  • Finish a short story I started called The Ride Down Austin Road.
  • Write a short story for the current Every Photo Tells prompt.

I don't mind having several projects going at once, it's how I read too. Several books at a time. I've tried reading and writing one story at a time but I've come to realize that's just not how I work. That said, I am usually focused on reading or writing one book that I spend the most time on. 


Here's the thing though, I need to start writing way more. I don't have much free time. Much of my free time I use to record, edit, and produce audiobooks for other authors. This is something I love and am passionate about and want to grow in and eventually do even more of. I also want to be a writer. I love writing. I need to start doing it consistently. Currently I'll find a sliver of time and splash 500 to 1,000 words onto my screen at a time. I keep seeing authors say that you have to write everyday, even if it's a little. All those words add up. So I think I'm going to try and do this. I'll still be a binge writer, getting my biggest word count days in rare spurts, but in the mean time I'll just keep building those chapters a few paragraphs at a time.

I'll start small, and just try and really get the words down every day for a good 30 day stretch even if they're very few. 250 words. That's it. Just a few paragraphs. That's my daily goal, and blog posts don't count. I'm talking about writing in my novels and short stories. 250 words is nothing right? So I should easily be able to do this for 30 days. My hopes are that making myself hit that tiny goal will get me writing, and then I won't stop and I'll hit much bigger word counts each day. So on Thursday April 10, thirty days from now, I'll check back in and report on how it's gone and what's it's done to my word count. I'm excited.

What do you do to get the words down? What's your routine? Is it like mine where you just wait for your sparse free time to show up and then you feverishly pound out the words in a mad frenetic fury? Do you have a minimum word count you must hit every day or you can't sleep? Is it a weekly word count? What success have you had with your methods? Thanks for stopping by.



UPDATE

I wrote 600 words today. So far so good.

2 comments:

  1. I've started writing in the mornings before I get the kids up. My wife gets up at 500 and that gives me 90 minutes to eat breakfast, walk, and write. Well really more like 60 if you take out getting dressed so I don't scare the neighbors, give my eyes time to focus and get a cuppa coffee before I run. My goal is to spend 30 minutes writing in the morning and 30 at lunch time. Year long goal is 500K words.

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    1. Scott. Thanks for sharing! That is an awesome routine! I bet you get a ton of writing done! Sounds like a nice morning too. Here's my day and why I need to figure something else out: Wake up at 5AM. Get ready for work, go to work. Come home, relieve my wife from taking care of all the kids, lay the kids down around 8PM, my wife and I have our time together usually watching TV shows we both like. Go to bed waaay to late and do it all again. Sometimes when we're watching one of her shows I put headphones in and can write a bit, and I also have 2 hours of commuting. I used to record myself and transcribe it later to get writing done. I think I will try and use my commute time to write again. It might help. Anyways, sorry for the blog post within a reply comment. :) Thanks for sharing. I really like your routine.

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