With the new year upon us, I decided it was time to publish my writing goals for 2012. I decided I need to write much more this year, so my main goal is to get at least 5000 words down on page each week. That will equal 260,000 words for the year when all is said and done. The plan is to work on a few novels (YA speculative fiction still being the main thrust, though I'd like to throw an adult horror story in, as well), write short stories for publication, and publish Friday Flash stories (more on that last one later). I've also made myself a deal when it comes to editing and plotting--each hour I spend doing one or the other counts as 250 words. This way, as long as I'm working on a novel or short story, it'll count towards my goal. I think that this goal will do well to getting me closer to where I want to be as a writer.
In addition, I need to put more focus into marketing and social media. These are weak areas for me. I'm very sporadic on Twitter, only really post goofy stuff for my friends on Facebook, and largely ignore Google+. This needs to change. I will be more of a presence on Twitter, will make more use of my writing account on Facebook, and will actually use Google+ this year. Also, I will be more on top of submitting short stories and query letters, as well as other marketing areas that I'm not very good at. I hate that part of the writing game, but I know it needs to be done. I will also comment on other writers blog posts in an attempt to get my name out there more often (and to show others how much I appreciate the hard work they put into everything, since I know how much time it all takes).
This blog will also benefit from my wanting to be a better all-around writer this year. I need to post more often, and I have some ideas to make this happen. I will continue to publish Speculative Fiction Writing Prompts each Monday (or at least most Mondays). As I said in the first paragraph, I also want to publish Friday Flash stories on, you guessed it, Fridays. I won't do this every week, but my goal in this area is to aim for at least a couple times a month. So if you're a fan of my flash fiction, keep an eye on that coming soon. I also will do my best to post an article on writing every Wednesday. These may be my thoughts on certain writing topics, book reviews on writing books, occasional movie or television show reviews, or any other topic that pertains to writing. I'm not going to promise that there will be one every single Wednesday, but I will post most weeks. I'm also considering posting a review of what I've done, writing-wise, each weekend, be it Saturday or Sunday, and maybe a preview of what I plan to do in the coming week. If I do this, I doubt I'll advertise much about it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or wherever else might be appropriate. That post will be mostly for me to keep myself accountable. Of course, anyone will be free to read it and leave me comments. I always love to see comments on any blog post.
So there you have it: my writing goals for 2012. I'm hoping this will be a breakthrough year for me, as I'm in the middle of an agent search. With the output I hope to produce, there will also be further agent and publication searches down the line. All in all, I hope this is my best writing year yet!
