Setting Goals and Sticking to Them

Confession time: I'm a bit disappointed in myself. For the past three months, I've failed to meet my target writing goal. Part of it is because we've actually managed to keep rather busy in the time of COVID-19 around the house; dealing with a flood, building a deck, homeschooling the kids...there has been no lack of things to do despite not being allowed to do anything.

Still, that's no excuse. There's no reason why I can't still meet my writing goals, since I only need a couple of hours a day to easily meet them. But I haven't done it in three months. Totally unacceptable.

Now, that's not to say I haven't done anything; I've published three books in that time: A Universe of Possibilities, Best Served Cold, and most recently, The Devil's Playground. But there's still a lot more to do, especially if I'm to meet my goal of twenty books this year.

I know, I know...twenty books in a single year is an insane target. Especially since that means I have seven months left to publish fourteen books. But it's eminently doable; it just requires me to publish a new book every couple of weeks for the rest of the year. Can I do that? Sure, if I can get them written. So, the question is, how do I keep myself accountable?

There are a few things I can do; one of which is keep a running total of my daily output here on the blog. But I don't have the readership to make that viable, at least not yet. Besides, I can basically put any numbers I want in to make myself feel better, which is something I don't want to do. I want to be honest with myself, and I want to achieve my goals honestly and fairly.

So, I'm just going to have to commit to doing it, and stick to that commitment every day. And the key, I think, is that I need to let my readers, however many there are, know what to expect each month from me. So, my goal for this month is to publish two books. One of them will be a Cameron Vail mystery, the title of which I still haven't figured out. The book's half-written already, so I know I can get it done in time. It's going to be set in Cameron and Bill's college days, so it's actually going to be chronologically between Final Exam and The Missing Magnate.

The second book will be a science-fiction book, an anthology of linked short stories starring Bard Conley, ex-Space Marine, who made his debut in A Universe of Possibilities in the story "Star of Cassiopeia". That story will be in the book I'm going to release later on this month as well. Again, I don't have a title picked out yet, but it's going to be a whirlwind of a book. Ten short stories, loosely linked, detailing Bard Conley's adventures around the Solar System. I've got most of the stories written, but there are still a couple to go, and I'll definitely need some cover art to go along with this. If you like pulp adventure, you'll enjoy this. It's going to be different from The Devil's Playground, which is my fantasy anthology, with more straight-forward blowing things up.

Alright, so there we have it: I've committed to these two books this month. I know, it's crazy. But I can do it, and I hope you'll come along for the ride.