My writing and blogging goals for 2016, plus some big news!

This is the year.

That should really be your motto going into every new year. Longtime readers of some of my previous blogs will know that I take New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day very seriously as a time to reflect on previous achievements and prepare for future ones.

So this is the post where I’ll list a couple of the big things I hope to accomplish this year. And I’m not talking about trendy New Year’s resolutions (I’ll try to lose weight or be nicer to my cats), but I’m talking about specific goals to enhance my writing career and build this blog.

I’ll start with my writing. I’ve got to say that I didn’t really get a lot of fiction written in 2015. Building Write Good Books and publishing Holy Fudgesicles (not to mention the new baby) were a higher priority to me during the year.

This year, however, I plan to get back into more writing. I’ve toyed with the idea of working on cleaning up an existing unpublished novel or writing a new one, but to be honest, I’ve really been missing writing short stories, so that will be my highest writing priority.

But…I’m not ready to totally swear off the next novel, so I am going to try to finish a first draft this year, but I’m only allowed to work on that each month after I finish a new short story.

So with that said, here are my two fiction goals for the year:

1. Write and submit a new short story every month. (Highest priority)
2. Write 5000-6000 words a month toward the next novel, with the goal of finishing a first draft by the end of the year.

Now onto the blog (and the BIG NEWS!)

These goals are a little more ambitious. My plan is to bring in a little more structure to my posting schedule. I’ve been leaning toward doing this for quite some time now, so I’m finally going to implement it.

My new posting schedule will look like this:

Monday: Regular article about the craft of writing.

Tuesday: Author Spotlight / Guest Post. These will generally alternate, based on how many posts I have in reserve. We’re open to submissions for both year-round, so click on the links to apply.

Wednesday: The new project! Read on…

Thursday: A new feature called Quickie Writing Tips. These will be shorter tips or infographs that won’t usually necessitate a longer post.

Fridays: Five Links Friday is here to stay 🙂

So…

Onto the big new project.

In January, I’ll be launching the bi-weekly Write Good Books Podcast with cohost Scott Michael Childers, author of Loomis: The Phoenix of Phelps County. New episodes will be posted every other Wednesday, beginning on January 6, assuming I don’t run into any unexpected technical or hosting problems.

Each episode will fifteen minutes long and we’ll be sharing tips and discussing some of the challenges writers face on a regular basis. I’m also in the process of lining up some guest interviews with some local authors for the podcast to keep things interesting.

And, yeah, I know I’m probably taking on a lot more than I’m prepared for this year, but you know what they say: Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them. You can’t slow down or take any breaks when you’re chasing your dreams, otherwise they’ll just keep getting further and further ahead of you. And hey, if this schedule gets to be too much, we can always scale back, right?

So check back tomorrow for a special New Year’s Day edition of 5 Links Friday, and have a great day, a great weekend, and a great New Year!

And stay safe tonight.