Your writing targets for 2014

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Happy New Year to one and all!! Hope you had fun over the festive period.

I get very excited about New Years - all of the possibilities and plans, fresh starts, new goals, lots of things to look forward to already....

Having returned to full time employment in November after almost a two year break, I quickly realised I would have to work extra, extra hard again to stay on track with my writing projects. I went from having lots of time, to having none at all - and when there was an hour or so sitting there to be snatched, the thought of revving up my brain for some novel writing didn't seem in the least bit appealing.

Over my Christmas holiday, I dug out some old notes on writing targets and motivation just to give myself a jolt in enthusiasm's direction. It's really easy to know where you want to be with your writing, but actually getting there is a different story. You need to break the big goal down into little achievable chunks. The achievable bit is very important, otherwise you'll soon become despondent and the resolution will be over before it's even begun.

What is your writing priority this year? Last year I wanted to regularly publish to my blog/s and build up a series per topic I could then tweet out daily to help my fellow writers. I'm pleased to say I've achieved this, so now it's back to my fiction writing in 2014.

This is where I get stuck though because I have about three fiction projects on the go. If I'm going to be successful, I have to pick one and run with it, and the others will have to wait. Experience has taught me you can't write three different fiction stories simultaneously - even if each one grips me in very different ways. So, the next step is to set a realistic plan (and I'm talking breaking it down into daily, weekly and monthly chunks) for the year to help you achieve the overall goal and make sure those little targets are completely in your control and don't rely on outside forces like Editors or Publishers.

The final step is to keep track of your progress and evaluate at the end of each month (or week if you think that will be more beneficial) how well you're doing. Also, keep a check on whether meeting your little goals is getting you closer to your overall goal. Don't be afraid to revise your targets if things aren't panning out the way you want or expect. It doesn't mean you've failed, it just means you've veered a little off course.

In my next post I'll have some motivational ideas for you to help you stick to your guns.