2015 Goals and Resolutions

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2014 was a great year for me in many ways. I felt like I learned and grew a lot, had lots of fun times, made lots of new friends, and even learned a lot about myself.

If I had one complaint about this past year, it would concern my writing. Last year at this time, I made a bunch of lofty goals and was super-excited to get started on them. But then life hit me and I ended up working a job for most of the year that made it really hard to make much progress on my writing. It was all I could do to keep up with my reading and blogging. I got very little done on the writing front.

Luckily, I'm in a better position to do more with my writing this year *fingers crossed* and I hope to accomplish more. 

Last year I wanted to:

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4 Tips for Creating a Business Plan for 2013

If you're like lots of writers I know, it's difficult to find time to write, much less do all our social networking and promotion. Not many people are yet blessed to be able to write full-time. We have to juggle our writing around jobs, spouses, families, social activities, and other commitments. Right? Sometimes it can be so over-whelming that you just want to pull your hair out. But, if you want to treat your writing seriously, like a business and/or move toward that goal of writing full time, then you have to start dealing with your writing accordingly.

Here are some steps I think every writer should take at the beginning of a new year to help them move forward with their writing goals.

1. Goals. What, specifically, are your goals for this year and what activities do they revolve around. Is your only goal to write? If so, what do you want to write this year. BE VERY SPECIFIC. A novel? More than one? A screeplay? A short story? How many? Sit down and figure out EXACTLY what you want to accomplish this year.

Do you have other goals that don't specifically involve your writing but are an important part of the industry/business? Personally, I divide my goals into four categories: a) writing b) reading (massive TBR list) c) Marketing/Social Networking d) Other revenue concerns.

My a and b categories are pretty self-explanatory. C is for things like growing my online platform, upping my following, promotional things, signings, events, etc. D is kind of a catch-all, miscellaneous category. It's for other things I do within the industry to help bring in money, such as public speaking, guides I sell on clickbank.com, short stories for amazon that are outside my major writing goals, etc.

Those are just the categories I consider. What are yours?

source: forbes.com

2. Time--As we already talked about, most of us don't have twelve hours a day to work on our writing. Figure out how much time you want to spend on writing this year. Again, BE SPECIFIC. This will vary from person to person greatly. It doesn't matter when you do it or even how much, but you must plan and know or it won't happen.

If you can work for a few hours each day, figure out exactly what your daily time frame will be and plan for it. If you can only work a few days a week, figure out what days you will work on it and when. If only once a week, the same thing goes. Remember, you can't stick to a schedule if you don't have one!

3. Outline Specific Goals--Start with general and then get specific. Now, I'm someone who loves to be organized and make lists. You can be as general or as specific as you want with these goals. Don't overwhelm yourself. But I guarantee you'll get more done and be more organized, the more specific you are.

a. Yearly Goals--this is very similar to #1. Just figure out what you want to accomplish in each category this year. 

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b. Monthly Goals--Take the amount of work you need to do to accomplish your yearly goals and divide it roughly by 12. This is a great thing to do because it can keep you on track. Each month you can check yourself and know if you're ahead, behind, or right on track.  

Of course, some things, like writing a novel, may not be easily divided like this. If you have to plan, outline, and write an entire novel this year, try something like this: 2 months to plan (so you should be half way through planning by the end of the first month), 1 month to write a detailed outline (so you'll know roughly how many chapters you want to write) and then take the number of chapters and divide it by the months left in the year (9) and try to write that many chapters in each month. It just breaks things down into manageable steps. Of course, each person and project can and should be tailored to your life and abilities. 

c. Weekly Goals--I would go farther and take what you need to accomplish each month and divide it by the number of weeks in the month. This is advantageous for two reasons: 1) it breaks things down further into manageable chunks 2) In any given week each of us will have special occasions, holidays, vacations, etc. to deal with. This way, you can figure out which weeks you won't get as much done and where you can make it up. It helps you so you don't get taken by surprise when that vacation looms and you discover you won't get your month's goals done this month after all.

d. Daily Goals--Are we seeing a pattern yet? Again, if this is too specific, just do what works for you. I don't necessarily plan out the details of what I'm doing each day. I just do them. But I have an idea of what I need to accomplish day in and day out. For example, each day I do my social networking by uploading my blogs and hitting each of my major social platforms at least once. I check and answer emails, and visit my favorite blogger buddies. I also know that whatever book I'm currently reading, I need to get through 20-25% of it. And, I try to get a few hours of writing in as well. As long as I'm doing these things daily, I'm constantly moving forward. 

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4. Give yourself a break! Plan for breaks when times get hard. Don't be afraid to step back and give yourself a breather. Also, don't be afraid to modify your goals. One of my goals right now is to read at least one book per week. If in a few weeks or months I find that is too difficult and I just can't read that fast because there's too much going on in my life, that's fine. I can modify the goal to reaching just 1-2 books per month. I'm not giving up, just lightening my load. I'm still moving forward, chiseling away at my TBR list, and being exposed to great authors, which in turn will help me to become a better author! Yea!



If you want to see my New Year's Resolutions in detail, click here.

Do you have a business plan for 2013? What are your goals?

Random Movie Quotes (RMQ)

Don't know what this is? Click the tab at the top of the page.

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Yesterday's RMQ was:

Woman: "...You're like my own son."
Man: "I am your own son, Mother."
Woman: "Exactly! I endured eighteen hours of hard labor to bring you into the world. The doctors kept telling me to take drugs, but I told them I wouldn't do anything to hurt my child. Well, I've changed my mind. If you screw up with Elizabeth I swear I'll kill you."

This hilarious exchange was between David Larrabee (Greg Kinnear) and his mother, Maude Larrabee (Nancy Marchand) in the 1995 version of Sabrina.

Today's RMQ is:

There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to out-sing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles. 

Three points possible. One for character, one for actor, one for film. (Hint: this one is also a book!) Good luck! :D

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Welcome to 2013 (One Day Early)

source: photo.elsoar.com

Hello and Welcome to 2013, Everyone! I hope everyone came through the Mayan End-of-the-World okay. If you're reading this, I'm assuming that's a yes. :D

I know 2013 doesn't officially start until tomorrow, but I have a weirdness about starting things in the middle of the week. I think it may be a rare form of OCD. (And by rare, I mean common.) So, I've been offline for over a week (SOOO weird since I've been on every day without exception for the past seven months) but now I'm back! Feeling refreshed after a break and ready to tackle the new year...

And I'm starting on Monday.

So, just a few things today. I'm going to list my Resolutions for 2013. Nothing personal on the blog like weight loss or finding a way to marry Chris Hemsworth. Just things pertaining to writing, reading, blogging, marketing, etc.

I'll also introduce some new blog features. So let's get started.

New Years Resolutions -- 2013

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Reading: 

This year, it's my goal to read at least 50 books. Now I know most of you book bloggers out there are used to reading several books a week, but I am author. I have writing, editing, and marketing to do. Not to mention I'd like to have a life at some point. So, I have very little time to read. However, I'm no longer working a day job so I'm going to try and read at least one book per week from my TBR list.

In addition, I want to be reading one classic novel and one personal improvement book at all times. I'll be reading them slowly--just a chapter or a percent per day. So, I'll probably only read 2-4 of each this year, depending on length. I figure I'll set up my months like this:

Week 1: a Dystopian or Fantasy novel
Week 2: a Historical Fiction novel
Week 3: a Mystery/Thriller/Crime Drama novel

as these are the genres I write.

Week 4: Freebee. Something of another genre or one of the above--just whatever I want. Or, if I want to take a break, I'll do it during this week.

source: 123rf.com

Writing: 

My goals in this area are many and varied. My first novel, Persistence of Vision will be released nation-wide on January 29th. I'm hoping to get the 2nd installment of the Interchron series out by the end of the year. It's nearly ready to send to the publisher as we speak.

I also already have a second novel, Citadels of Fire, Book 1 of Kremlins, slated for release from Jolly Fish Press in September of this year. It's the first of a trilogy. Kremlins is an interesting case because I wrote it as one continuous story, but it was too long to publish that way. I had to break it into three separate installments. So, while the second and third books definitely need some work, for all intents and purposes they are already written and just need some editing love. My goal as concerns this series to get both the second and third parts of this edited and ready to turn in to the publisher.

In terms of planning, I'd also like to get books 3, 4, and 5 of Interchron planned and outlined and perhaps the third book completely written.

I'm also working on an epic high-fantasy series that has to do with dragons. I'm not sure I could get an entire volume written this year, but I'd at least like to get the series planned out/outlined and, you know, if I could get book one written, that would just be a happy bonus! :D

I'd also like to foray into self-publishing a bit this year, even if it's just in small ways. I want to get to know every part of the industry. In the next couple of months I'm going to publish a small anthology of my own short stories and simply upload it to amazon, using it both to make a little extra income and to explore that aspect of the industry.

Are my goals ambitious? Obviously. A little unrealistic in their scope? Probably. But I believe in reaching for the stars. Even if I can get half of this stuff done this year, it will be a very productive year.

Marketing:

source: avtecmedia.com

I'd like to reach 500 followers on Facebook, 5000 followers on Twitter, and 1000 followers on my blog. I think these types of goals are good to set, even if you have less direct control over who follows you, because it gives you something to aim for and makes you unconsciously (if not consciously) aware of what works and what you can do to improve your social networking.

That's most of my Resolutions for 2013. What are yours?

Of course, talking about blogging is a great segue into the second part of my post: New Blog Features.

New Blog Features, 2013

You may notice that the page about my Persistence of Vision Art Competition is gone. I'm officially cancelling it. I just didn't get enough interest. I'd hoped to use it to promote my book, but hey! You win some, you lose some. Besides, I've gotten an awesome response for my book's blog tour (which will begin January 14--more on that next week) and it's going to be really long-running, so I'll still get plenty of exposure. :D

I'm going to start doing two new sections on my blog: Announcements/Entertainment News and Glorious Gadgets.

Announcements/Entertainment News will be for my own announcements, those of fellow authors and blogger buddies, and other fun stuff I just want to feature. You'll probably see a lot of movie trailers and announcements. I like to keep up with pop culture and movies/T.V. are just another story-telling avenue that I love to follow. :D Of course not every post will feature this section. It will only appear when I have something in particular to put there. :D

Glorious Gadgets will be a section where I feature cool stuff I've found. Most often it will be gadgets, software, apps, etc. that help make life easier or more fun!

Finally, I'm re-vamping my Thoughts for Thursday meme. Check out the tab above to see what it's all about. I'm really just adding prizes to get more participation. I've been a bit inconsistent about having a linky list in each post, but I'll always have one, now. Anyone can contribute a quote via linky (on their blog) or just in the comments section. I'll read every quote contributed and decide which I like the best. This will just be based on my own tastes. Whoever contributes the best quote for the week will get a small prize. (Very small. Probably just a bookmark.) But, every 3 months, I'll have a drawing. Everyone who has won the weekly prize in the last quarter will be automatically entered to win a free book or amazon gift card. This will be a 1 in 12 shot, so pretty good. I'm hoping this will encourage participation in this meme.

source: yogaspy.com

That's pretty much it. All other aspects of my blog(s) will remain the same. Happy New Year's Eve, Everyone!

How about you? Doing anything to re-vamp your blog this year? What are your New Year's Resolutions?

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