Original Photo 137492761 © Sven Hansche | Dreamstime.com
Words added by Erin Penn
Tax season is winding up for the last whirlwind, and then back to (only) the post office, editing, and reviewing taking big chunks of time away from the writing. They also give me focus to keep writing, and the physical labor to keep me healthy.
The 2022 Strategy Plan ended up with better results than I have had in the past, so I’m going to try them again. No change to the mission statement.
Mission Statement:
Create entertaining and marketable stories which show healthy relationship choices, present educational items, and challenge people to do better.
And I think the Goals are still good. Though I need to update the blog one since I am nearly caught up! (happy dance) The big thing is writing sellable material, which means getting better at writing long-form. But the task to develop the long-form writing skill is an action, not a goal. I need the skill for the goal of sellable word volume.
Setting Goals:
1. Increase sellable words volume. (Work on writing long-form.)
2. Maintain the blog going forward.
3. Produce novels regularly, setting up a successful production line by December 2023.
4. Stay healthy
Now onward to implementation:
Specifying Actions:
1. Increase sellable word volume
- Write daily through one flip of the hourglass.
- Caveats – missing one day a week is allowed.
- Evaluation – Record word volume in calendar. Total the data monthly.
- Maintain the blog going forward.
- During Blog Season (December (package season) – March (tax season)) – Write at least two blogs a day until all non-fiction possible is prepped for 2024 and have all fiction postings up-to-date.
- During Novel Season (see below) – Maintain fictional postings and fill in any non-fictional holes.
- Evaluation – Make sure blog posts drop on schedule.
- Produce novels regularly – Create two genre novels a year while working for post office and doing taxes. Bonus would be writing a Vella.
- “Novel Writing Season” – From April 1 to July 30 (novel 1); From August 1 to Nov 30 (novel 2) – four months each.
- Novel Focus Day – One day a week, focus on the novel and only the novel. Flip the hourglass at least three times. (Morning, afternoon, evening)
- Word goal per week for novel – 5,000 words for the first three months (65,000), fourth month is editing and cleanup. Aim on novel writing day is half the volume (2,500) and five other days of (500) each.
- Evaluation – Daily counts, but more importantly weekly evaluation on Saturday. (Week counts will be from Sunday to Saturday).
- Stay Healthy
- Doctor appointments – Make and keep the four recommended doctor appointments: Eye Glasses; Dentist; General Doctor; Woman Doctor. Evaluation: Make one a quarter. Are they complete at the end of the year?
- Daily exercise – On days not working for the post office, do yardwork or collect litter in the neighborhood.
- Caveat forgive during tax season.
- Evaluation: Reassess monthly and see if need to be redirected.
- Healthy food – Plan weekly meals on Monday.
- Overall Evaluation: Keep weight below 200. Happy goal would be 185 by the end of 2023.