To the Future
The year 2019 is days within ending, and with it the end of a decade.
This was a year of learning, growth, spreading my wings and reaching for my dreams. I went through many changes as a writer and a person. My biggest accomplishment this year was at last finishing my first book! It was a year for firsts. Sharing my manuscript with critique partners, designing cover art for my book, hiring an editor, creating my first website and simply going after something I have dreamed about since I was kid. 2019 was the stepping stone to my self-publishing journey, and 2020 will pave the way for many more exciting things to come.
I don’t really believe in resolutions because I tend not to keep them. I do, however, know where I can improve so I came up with three writing goals and three non-writing goals.
Writing Goals
WRITE EVERY DAY. Even if it’s just one sentence, even if I write paragraphs I will delete later, even if what I write has nothing to do with fiction. Writing great takes practice and I have to put the work in if I want to achieve that.
OUTLINE. I am a pantser, I prefer to type and let the story magically flow out of my fingers. It’s awesome when it happens, not so awesome when it dosen’t. I struggled with writers-block the first and last months of the year, and it took me a bit to admit the root problem came with not having a plan in my story. Writing without a rough outline often leaves me veering off in pointless plots, missing details that make for a lot of rewrites later, or simply not knowing what to write next. So lesson learned!
MAKE A WRITING SCHEDULE. Divine Blood is the first in a projected seven book fantasy series—The Guardians of the Maiden—so unless I get my above two goals in order, they won’t be published anytime soon. With that comes making a writing schedule and sticking with it. Organization is key. Writing was once my hobby, but now that I have taken it seriously and turned it into a career, it’s time that I make the time to treat it as such. For me that means writing a minimum of 3,000 words per week. By the end of the year that will amount to 156,000 words. That is a whole book and then some!
Other Goals:
READ MORE. When I get into a really good book, I can devour it within a day. But then there are times when I don’t touch a book for weeks, and often those weeks I find myself feeling mentally sluggish. Reading has many benefits like vocabulary expansion, stronger analytical thinking skills, and it improves writing structure. So in short, read more for myself and read more to my kids.
FAMILY TIME. It’s easy to get sucked in my own world and put everything else on pause. That’s not good, especially when my family should come first. So when kids and husband come home from work and school, I will put down the writing, book, phone, daily errand, whatever is taking my attention in the moment, and clock out. This will tie in with my writing schedule so that when it’s the end of the day, I “go home” too.
MY HEALTH. Pretty self explanatory. Get up from my desk, take a walk and eat more veggies.
Divine Blood will be released August 7th 2020
It will be available in book ebook, paperback and hardcover formats.
I have so many plans for 2020. Once the revisions for Divine Blood are complete, the next major event is setting up the option to pre-order and sending out ARC’s in March. Only a handful of digital downloads will be available and I’ll be holding a giveaway for one print copy on my Instagram account so stay turned for that. Above is the ARC cover but the official cover has yet to be decided.
I have also began working on Bonded, book two in the Guardians of the Maiden series, which I project to be released November 2020. Plus a novella, King’s Oath in December 2020, a prequel to the series. Three books in one year! That is an intimidating goal, but with hard work, and the support of my critique circle, I know I can do it.
So here’s to the future and everything it will bring. Thank you so much for sticking this far with me.
I’ll see you next year!
