New Year resolutions: who makes them? Who’s given up on them already? I never bother with the get fit and healthy variety. Dry January? No thank you. We’re three weeks into the year and I’ve yet to do a proper work-out or start a diet. They can wait till I’ve got a holiday or big event coming up, then I’ll crash diet and hit the gym like a maniac. However, I did set myself some writing resolutions for this year.
#1: Self publish an eBook. This is one I wanted to deal with head on. I outlined a story and developed the characters just before Christmas and got straight on with this at the start of Jan. And it’s going well. Very well. I set a deadline of Feb 2nd to complete the first draft and am well on my way – aiming for a 15-20K word short novella. All being well I’ll publish this late April or early May. I want to allow plenty of time for the second draft, editing, proof-read etc, so that date could change as I’ll also need to schedule some promotion. It’ll be interesting to see how well this book performs compared to those released through a traditional publisher. I’ve purchased a brilliant cover for the book, so if nothing else I know it’s going to look amazing. I’ll do a cover reveal once the first draft is complete and I have a better idea of when the book will launch.
#2: Try a different genre. A new genre and new pen name. I’ve got a big ambition to try something new this year. Less formulaic. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing romance and will continue to do so, but I want to branch out in a different direction – where there are no rules. Right now, I have two very different ideas and I’m not sure which way I’m going to jump. I’ll let them percolate in the background while I finish and revise my current love story, then when my schedule opens up in March, I hope one of them will be more dominant than the other. That will be by focus for the rest of the year, besides a little time out for promotion.
#3: Blog more!!!! This is a resolute I’ve made for the last two years. Maybe this time I’ll succeed. The problem I have is that my writing time is limited and need to focus on the writing itself. But other authors seemed to manage, so I need to try harder with this one.
#4: A second MM eBook. This will be another short – no more than 20K words max. I may even write it between drafts of the story I’m working on now, to have something new to release in the second half of the year. I have some character ideas and a plot in mind, so it would be wise to write that sooner rather than later.
#5: Complete the Anthem Trilogy. This one is out of my hands as the trilogy is already finished and with my publisher. More news on that as I get it. Hopefully very soon.
So there are my resolutions for 2018. 1, 2 and 5 are
definite, 3 and 4 a little less certain. The main thing is to keep writing and
enjoy it. A year seems like a long time in January but it’s not. It’s amazing
how quickly December comes around again. Without a plan, something to focus on,
it’s easy to waste time and not get the work done.
So, with
that said, I’m off to complete the tax return I’ve been putting off for months.
Have a fab
weekend. Thom x
No comments:
Post a Comment