Reassessing Your Goals

Summer is supposed to be a laid back time of rest, relaxation, and fun in the sun. On the other hand, with seasonal meetings and events suspended until September, it can be a good time to get in some good work hours.

The only way to accomplish anything during these lazy days is to set goals. You should be setting your annual goals every January, in terms of writing and the business aspects of writing. So here you are six months later. How many of these line items have you finished? Do you wish to change/remove the remaining ones? Add something new?

In looking back over my files, I am stunned to see that I hadn’t done this for 2012. Oh, dear. How could I be so lax? Usually I’m very goal directed. I suppose having my tenth Bad Hair Day mystery coming out in January proved too much of a distraction. So let’s set goals that will serve from now through the end of the year.

Writing Goals

1.  Write Hanging by a Hair, my next Bad Hair Day mystery. Short-term goal: Finish the first half within the next two weeks. Why? Because then I’ll have to take a break to attend some family events and to do the edits for Warrior Rogue when they come in.

2.  Polish and submit Warrior Lord, the third book in my Drift Lords series. With the manuscript running longer than 400 pages, this will take me easily a month or two.

Calculating all the time factors in, my goal to finish Hanging by a Hair is on target to December. I need a month or two for the edits to Warrior Rogue and for reading the page proofs. Then add in another couple of months to revise Warrior Lord. And I need a good six to eight weeks uninterrupted to finish the mystery. Holidays, a Caribbean cruise, and other occasions will cut into this six months period. Is it any wonder I am working harder than ever this summer?

Business Goals

1.  Prepare promotional campaign for Warrior Prince, including setting up a virtual tour and writing all the blogs ahead of time, scheduling ads, devising contests, social networking, etc. This could literally take up all of my time.

2.  Create video trailer for Warrior Rogue.

3.  Prepare and upload special bonus materials for readers of my Drift Lords series. I’ve done a lot of world building and would like to share these details with readers.

This is about all I can handle for now. There’s always more to be done, but life has to be lived, too. Just know that I am dedicated to getting more books out there for you to read.

Now take a moment and reevaluate the writing goals you’d set at the beginning of the year. Do they have to be modified? How many have you accomplished so far?