Back and Forth

Before I get moving on a new year of writing, I figured I should look back at what I did in 2013.

My goal was 1 million words. I made it to just over 400K. 230K of that was on my own projects, while the other 175K was for various freelance clients. December was pretty sparse due to holiday prep and a really heavy October & November where I wrote just over 130,000 words for 3 different freelance projects. Needless to say, I was pretty burned out so it was nice to spend a month baking, crafting and just enjoying some time off.

This year, my focus is going to be on finishing up some works-in-progress and polishing them up for publication. I’m going to aim for 500K this year, since I know much of my work will be rewriting and editing.

I have a number of novel series on the go right now, so I want to try to get those onto a schedule so I can edit & submit them and continue working on the next books in each series, alternating between them.

They run the gamut from

• a paranormal investigator in Victorian England
• A near-future sci-fi novella series
• A suspense/thriller series
• a collection of horror short stories

I’m always tweaking and adjusting my writing process, so I’ll keep doing that. Although I do also own Scrivener, I’m still using Liquid Story Binder to write. Although it needs some improvements and an update, I just like the flexibility of LSB. I also use SuperNotecard to outline, and some little tricks like the Pomodoro Technique (and the Focus Booster app) to keep on task.

My other goals include trying another year of Write1Sub1. I’ll be going for the monthly goal again this year (trying to write & submit 1 new short story per month). If you’re looking for a motivational community of writers, check out the website or their board over on Absolute Write. Although I only check in from time to time, everyone there is fantastic and you can even find beta readers if you need one.

So, another year with lofty goals. Even though I didn’t hit all my goals for 2013, I managed to hit some awesome milestones (including almost 500K of writing; my best month with 81K words; getting some new freelance work; experimenting with my writing voice). That’s something I can be proud of.

Other than the writing goals, I want to read more, spend less time on social media and just try some new techniques to up my writing game.

So, what are your goals for 2014, writerly or otherwise?