A Year in 300,000 Words

New Years resolutions are tricky things. Some years, I’m all excited about making them and some years I don’t make them at all. Despite how I feel about them, there is something very attractive about making resolutions. I think it’s the lure of a clean slate. An opportunity to start fresh and leave some things in the past.

This year, I’ve decided to make resolutions concerning my writing career. I started off making them like I always had, but then I read a very interesting article from Randy Ingermanson that changed my perspective. In the article Organizing: Goals vs. Targets, Ingermanson gives a better way of approaching resolutions. He suggests that resolutions should be labeled as targets and goals. Goals are something we have control over and targets are things we have no control over, but would like to happen in 2013 (read the full article here).

Using his example, completing three novels this year is my goal. Getting a publishing contract is a target. This way of labeling resolutions makes so much more sense to me. It also keeps me from stressing about the things I can’t control and focus on the things I can.

I have made several goals for other areas of my life (come back Friday and read about my knitting goals). For my writing life, I’ve decided that I’m going to write 300,000 words this year. That’s a little over 950 words a day. This includes novels, short stories, articles and blogs. You can follow my progress with the word counter to the right.

I like this approach better because I know I won’t write 950 words some days, but I also know that I will write way more than 950 on other days. I also think this will work better with my bio-rhythms.

So let the adventure begin. And thanks for reading my first 315 words of the year.