2020 Writing Goals

Happy New Year, everyone! This space is going to be a resolution-free zone. I'm not making any resolutions. They never stick; when I get sick and have to stop exercising for a couple weeks, or if I don't finish that manuscript I said that I would within the year, I'm inevitably frustrated with myself, and that frustration serves nothing. So, no resolutions. And to that end, these aren't necessarily goals for 2020, but for my writing in general. 

It's been an unexpected and exciting journey since first publishing in 2012. The important thing, for me, is to never stop learning; never stop being curious, never stop growing and tweaking and perfecting my craft. In 2020 and beyond, the goals are:

•  Journal: I'm so bad about writing budding ideas down. I let them live in my head, stewing on them until I've figured out how to tackle them on paper, so to speak. No outlines, and very little pre-writing, usually. But I worry that I lose great tidbits along the way. How many little seeds, I wonder, slip through the mental cracks? WRITE IT ALL DOWN EARLY is a motto I want to commit to going forward! I received this gorgeous leather-bound journal for Christmas that I'm dedicating to Sons of Rome journaling - how could I not? Romulus and Remus and their wolf mama are on the cover! I want this to be the year that I stop collecting pretty notebooks and journals and start filling them up with words.
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• Standalone: I'd really like to work on writing more standalone stories in between the installments of my series. I started three new WIPs this year, and all of them ended up on hold - but all of them are stories I'd really like to finish. One stands out especially; I'd love to complete that in 2020.
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• Lionheart: book five of my Sons of Rome series is my next big, involved project. It officially introduces King Richard I to our existing cast, and, based all that needs to happen plot- and character-wise, it's going to be another ambitious project on the scale of Dragon Slayer. I'm not going to dare make so much as a private release date goal for this; my Lionheart goal for this year is to hit all the right emotional notes with the novel; to move the characters to the right points in their emotional journeys. I'd love to have the book out by the end of the year, but we shall see...
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• Write Bravely: this sounds vague. It is. Also arbitrary. But working on Sons of Rome the last two years has helped me realized that there's so much I want to write. There are themes I want to explore, and even re-explore. There are characters I've carried with me a long time who've never found their way to the page - but who would like to. Doing new things, writing across genres, feels like a business risk. Easier to carve out a niche and stay there. But I like to think that my niche is character-development, and characters can go anywhere; can do anything. I'd like to take some of the scary chances I haven't in the past. Just say "yes" to the stories that tickle my fancy, even if I can't see an immediate, ready readership for them. Those stories will eventually find their footing, and the wait will be worth it.