Happy New Year’s Day!
It’s a new year! New Year’s is a time for setting goals and resolutions, and that’s exactly what I’ve done for 2016, both for this blog and for my writing career. Have you done the same? Feel free to share your goals in the comments!
2016 Writing Plan
I’ve set weekly as well as monthly goals for the next year, for everything from writing, to editing, to publishing, to marketing. Here are the highlights for each month:
January: Finish the first draft of Upgrade and post it on Scribophile for critiques. Work on timeline/plotline of Demons trilogy.
February: Revise Upgrade based on crits. Complete timeline/plotline of Demons trilogy, and revise Demon’s Blade.
March: Complete final draft of Upgrade and begin preparations for publication (tentative late March/early April release date.) Post Demon’s Blade on Scribophile for crits, revising after a certain number of crits. Begin revising Demon’s Magic. Release Upgrade.
April: Continue revising Demon’s Blade and complete first revision of Demon’s Magic.
May: Complete final draft of Demon’s Blade and begin preparations for publication (tentative June release.) Post Demon’s Magic on Scribophile for crits. Begin revising Demon’s Soul.
June: Continue revising Demon’s Magic and complete first revision of Demon’s Soul. Release Demon’s Blade. (Also begin doing promotional work for both series.)
July: Complete final draft of Demon’s Magic and begin preparations for publication (tentative September release.) Post Demon’s Soul on Scribophile for crits. Begin work on Fairy Tales Retellings anthology.
August: Continue revising Demon’s Soul. Continue work on Fairy Tales Retellings anthology; posting works for crits when necessary.
September: Complete final draft of Demon’s Soul and begin preparations for publication (tentative December release.) Continue work on Fairy Tales Retellings anthology. Release Demon’s Magic.
October: Complete Fairy Tales Retellings anthology and begin preparations for publication (2017 release date.) Begin planning for NaNoWriMo??? (I don’t usually plan my NaNovels, but it might be fun to try it this year!)
November: National Novel Writing Month! Going to be working on a brand-new, shiny project this year.
December: Complete NaNovel if necessary (sometimes I don’t quite finish in November); otherwise, begin working on a new project (The Astrals?) Release Demon’s Soul.
Month Maps, Magic Mondays, and More
I didn’t quite keep up with Magic Mondays over the past couple of months, but heading into the new year I have a plan for my blog posts and my goal is to stick with it. Here’s a brief overview, including two new kinds of posts I’ll be writing in 2016!
Month Map
On the first of each month, I’ll post a Month Map that has highlights of the month’s goals outlined in a pretty graphical manner. Each Ensign’s Log will include an update on my progress. Below is January’s Month Map.
Ensign’s Log
On a roughly weekly basis, Ensign’s Logs will keep you updated on my progress, as well as keep the pressure on me to make progress so I have something to report. They’ll include an updated Month Map to track how far I’ve gotten towards my month’s goals.
Magic Monday
Once again, a monthly book review on the second Monday of every month (except for months where the Monday conflicts with something…this year, Pi Day falls on that Monday!) Often these will be fantasy novels, but they may also be science fiction, historical fiction, novellas, anthologies… Really, whatever book I happened to enjoy reading.
Saturday Shorts
Short stories, flash fiction, 100 word stories, one sentence stories, poetry… Except for April, which is National Poetry Writing Month and will involve poetry-oriented Saturday Shorts, anything could appear in these weekly posts. Although my novels tend to be science fiction and fantasy, my shorts cover a wider range of genres, and I look forward to sharing one or more of them each week.
So that’s the overview of what my plans for 2016 are… What exciting goals do you have for the new year?
My goodness you are so organised! I should map out the year like this. So far all I have is finished the latest draft of my novel by the end of January and complete some reading for my Master’s project during February. I’m not sure it’s going that great because the novel has reached a sticky point and I’m not sure how to navigate it. But I suppose getting words on the page would help.
January and February is a good start! Novelling can be slow going at times, but doing a little bit every day can really help… Eventually you get past that sticky part and can return to smooth sailing. I’m hoping that this plan works out; originally I had the editing turnarounds a lot tighter but when I wrote this post I realized I wasn’t really giving myself enough time and revised it again. Always leave some wiggle room to allow for unforeseen circumstances!
This is amazing!
I’m working on a fantasy novel with Demons as villains.
So your book excites me!
Looking forward to help critiquing it.
That’s awesome! Most (not all) of the demons in my trilogy aren’t much different than humans–more powerful, in most cases, but no more evil (or good) than humans tend to be. I look forward to your crits on it when it reaches the point of being Scribophile-worthy! 🙂