Midlist Writer: New Year's Writing Resolutions: Three Months On

Saturday, 11 April 2009

New Year's Writing Resolutions: Three Months On

At the beginning of the year I posted my New Year's writing resolutions in order to pressure myself to keep on track. Let's see how I did in March. Yeah, I'm posting this late, but I just started two books so give me a break!

Write 7,000 words per week minimum, 10,000 preferred.
I've been keeping up the word count this past month. Quality is more important than quantity, but a writer needs to maintain a certain level of productivity to keep the money coming in. Much of my time has been spent working on a nonfiction book proposal and my next book for Osprey.

Get through that huge list of magazine article ideas I'm going to pitch. As I send them out, the list will be added to, so this is a perpetual goal. Same goes for several book proposals I have.
I've sent out two pitches for articles, and prepared five more that I'll give in London/Oxford when I get to meet editors face to face.

Search for another paid blogging job.
I applied for two blogging jobs. One turned out not to pay enough to be worth my time, and the other I'm still waiting to hear about.

Finish a how-to book on writing that a publisher is interested in.
I haven't done much work on that this month.

Try to get an agent for my my fiction and nonfiction.
I've been keeping my novels and nonfiction book proposals on agent's desks, but so far no luck.

Do another round of edits on all three of my novels.
I'm continuing with a major edit of my Civil War horror novel.

Write my next novel, set in London and Oxford.
I did a fair amount of outlining this month.

Finish two short stories and two novellas I've been fiddling with.
I haven't done those yet.

Write and send out "Willoughby: England's First Great Explorer", a book proposal I was supposed to write last year (whoops!).
I plan to do that now that I'm able to research at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I also have access to London's Maritime museum.

Increase my online presence.
I'm continuing with these blogs, and plan to share a blog about fiction writing starting in April (more soon!. Facebook is turning out to be a good networking tool as well.

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