My Goals

I have always believed in having goals. My wife LOVES goals and, therefore, she is always trying to get me to list them. Unfortunately I have a bit of a love for being a bit challenging. So, we never really do list them.

Much to my surprise, I found myself wanting to write out my personal writing goals. I think that this might help me to stay on track with my story and have the first draft of the first book finished by my 2010 birthday. Perhaps this might also appease my wife to see me jotting goals down; that or she feel the "goal" conversation should be reactivated :). I might regret this...

Anyway! Here they are:

1. Finish my first draft by March 26, 2010; midnight (My birthday present to myself)
   
2. Write an average of 5,000 words per week (or approx. 850 words a day; six days a week)
   
3. Finish my novel with a minimum of 130,000 words
4. Finalize my world map
5. Finish all supporting documents that will accompany the books (i.e. the magic system)
6. Blog consistently throughout my writing process and post chunks of my story that I think are interesting or entertaining
7. have fun throughout the entire journey of writing my story

So, I have a lot of goals. And most of them are big ones.

These are going to be especially difficult since this is my first novel. I have been reading a lot about novel writing and the kinks that accompany the art. Once such is that, on average, most first time writers take approximately five to seven years to write, edit and sell their first book to a publisher. Following books from published "freelance" writers take an average of three. I want to have the book written and edited (twice), optimistically, by my birthday. However, I am not including that in my goals as I am not sure it is possible with my personal constraints. But, we will see.

If I can in fact live up to my second goal of 5,000 words per week, I am only looking at twenty-two weeks of writing to finish my first draft. That would mean that I would potentially be finished with my first draft by the first week of November. That would leave me with almost five months to edit my novel before my birthday. Who knows, maybe my birthday present next year will be my first refusal letter! Of course this is all based on the assumption that my book truly does end up being my estimated 130,000 words.

Here is my first check-in: As of today I have 16,225 words in my novel.
I haven't really written anything in about three weeks. So, Beginning next week (I need to finish my last bit of research. I will hit the keyboard hard. WISH ME LUCK.
Ammon