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goals

Happy 2013 – A Year for Writing

It’s day one. Yes, it’s an arbitrary distinction, but it’s one I am wholeheartedly embracing.

After taking a look at my writing goals for this year, here’s what I’m doing. I’m erasing the Google Docs tracker that you see in the sidebar, and re-assessing my goals. As for a bare word count goal for the year, I’m setting that at 750,000 (which including my NaNo books I’ve done in years past, will put me at 1,000,000 words). And if I allow for Sundays off and a two week vacation, that means that starting today, I should be writing 2,500 words per work day. (There’s a very slight buffer there, but 2500 becomes the new baseline. Which after reading Michael Moorcock’s “Death is No Obstacle” is pretty small potatoes. Moorcock’s normal writing day is 15,000 words. (I’m hoping by the end of the year to be able to put up 5k on a regular basis.)

This is a preview of Happy 2013 – A Year for Writing. Read the full post (476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Goals and Deadlines

So, tonight I was talking with Maurice Broaddus, Ryan Stevenson, and Dave Robison on the Round Table Podcast. The episode will be out some time in October, and you’ll get to hear me pitch and hear us talk about Norris Tilney’s next adventure, which will be a full length novel. (If you haven’t discovered Norris yet, may I refer you to “The Battle of Wildspitze”, available at Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords…)

And now I have a dilemma. Because in 50 days, it’s once again time for NaNoWriMo.

This is a preview of Goals and Deadlines. Read the full post (484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Back in the Saddle…

Back in the writing saddle, that is.

Hearing Matt Forbeck’s goal of writing 12 books in 12 months is both scary and inspiring. Basically, Matt is shooting to do a NaNoWriMo-length novel of 50,000 words every month in 2012. It’s made me sit down and start calculating what it would take to hit a million words in 2012. The number is surprisingly small – 1000000 – four NaNoWriMo projects (200,000), minus the shorts I’ve already written for MPF (just north of another 52,000) = about 750,000. Divide by the number of writing days I’ll have in 2012 (313) and I come up with 2,400 words a day. Wolfram Alpha puts it at 2396.16. But what’s 3.84 words among friends?

This is a preview of Back in the Saddle…. Read the full post (701 words, estimated 2:48 mins reading time)

Trust30 – #16 – Your Dreams

Here’s the Emerson quote: Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
And here’s the prompt: Write down your top three dreams. Now write down what’s holding you back from them.

You know, there’s an old quote that’s attributed to Joseph Campbell. Campbell, if I remember correctly, wound up regretting that he said that. According to wikipedia, because people used that quote as a justification for hedonism, he’s later reported to have grumbled “I should have said ‘follow your blisters.’” So, to realize success – which I will hereby define as being able to provide food, clothing, shelter, + a little extra for some fun, your dreams – your bliss or whatever – needs to coincide with the needs of the marketplace.

Yes, I’m a capitalist. But as Danny Elfman said, “There’s nothing wrong with capitalism.” (YouTube link)

This is a preview of Trust30 – #16 – Your Dreams. Read the full post (499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)