Writing Resolutions and Plans for 2021

Credit: Pixabay.com

I apologise, but I have to push down the Book-To-Movie to next weekend. The movie that I thought was on YouTube wasn’t. So, I had to look for another that’s based on a book I’ve read. I found two, one of which I will watch tonight and have the review of it for you next weekend. This weekend, I thought I’d show you what’s coming up in my writing projects for the new year. Often it takes me a couple of weeks to come up with a list of new year resolutions. So below are two lists: one of resolutions to improve my writing and another of plans for upcoming writing projects. 

New Year Writing Resolutions

Ease Off of My Demands for Success: Throughout the previous year I was getting frustrated with myself for not completing projects in the time frames I had set for myself or for not selling the number of books that I felt should have sold. But I realised that when I get too demanding of these successes I wear myself out, become moody, and sometimes don’t even enjoy producing my art. 

There’s no special formula for success in art. I’m not without a source of income, even if that source isn’t a full time one. So I thought, why should I burn myself out by getting too demanding for success in my writing? I maybe don’t make the money I want with my writing but I make some money from it and that counts for a lot since that indicates a person has gone professional with their art. People in other professions, such as teachers, get short-changed all the time but I would hardly call them non-professionals because of that. So I shouldn’t complain so much and won’t. I’m not going to expect loss of book sales, but I’m not going to flail myself over losses either. 

Schedule My Writing Time More Efficiently and Clearly: While I’m not going to over demand success from my writing, I’m going to make every attempt to write more efficiently. One of the best ways to do that is with a detailed schedule. That’s something I’ve told myself before but am telling myself again. That’s because I’ve always been crappy with keeping schedules, at least when it comes to my own work as opposed to clients’. But I’ll have to keep trying to make an efficient scheduled until I get it right. I have too many stories that I need to write and get out there and I’m not getting any younger. And avid readers want to see more books out there, so why should I hold that back from them?

Get Involved With More Collaborative Writing-Related Projects: The typical impression of a writing career is that the writer always works alone. It used to be that way and still is to an extent. But with so much online technology out there, such as blogs and social media, it’s so much easier to collaborate on writing projects. Now, I don’t plan to collaborate on a fiction work since I find it really difficult to make one consistent with more than one author’s style and vision. What I do plan to get more collaborative with are blogs and promoting fellow authors’ work. I’ll look into participating in things such as more blog hops, interviewing other authors, featuring more guest bloggers and authors’ book tours and cover reveals. These last two seem to be a trend in blogging, so I’ll focus on looking into those. 

Writing Plans for the New Year

New Short Fiction Collection: My last short fiction collection, not counting “The Boo Brothers” which only consists of two stories, was “The Fool’s Illusion”. That was published back in 2013. It’s been a long time since I published a full book, and for me, a full book of short fiction is at least five stories or more. So I’m working on another collection which will consists of stories that’s main theme is strange and evil phone apps. I don’t have a title for the book yet. I’m still working on titles of the stories I plan to include in it. Hell! I’m still working on writing some of those stories! Even so, I’m aiming for a summer release of the book. 

Physical Swag As Benefits To Be Offered At My Patreon Page: So far, the swag at my Patreon page has just been digital. It’s mostly consisted of things such as downloadable posters, parodies of my books’ characters and smart phone wallpaper. When I established my Patreon page I had planned to include physical swag as part of the benefits that I offer members but found out that I was too early in the game to plan out how I would deliver those things to members and how frequently. But everyone likes physical items that they can touch, pick up and place on their wall (physical wall, not Facebook wall), their shelf, or in their book (print book, not ebook). So, I’m going to try and offer those type of benefits before the end of 2021 but hopefully way before that. 

Read More Books for Book-To-Movie: I’m running out of books that I’ve read that have movie adaptations. So I can bring you more Book-To-Movie reviews, I’ll be reading more books and watching their movie adaptations throughout the year. 

Release My Newsletter: As I said last post, I’ve been working on a newsletter that I’ve titled “Night Creatures’ Call”. Even though this is at the literal bottom of this list, it is a first and foremost thing. It seems like newsletters and email lists have been the most effective and convenient way to keep in touch both for the audience and author. This newsletter is almost done, I’m just sketching ideas for a logo and getting together content to put in the first issue. To get updates about my newsletter and be among the first to hear of its release, visit my Facebook page. Better yet, sign up for my newsletter here! For a sneak peek at the logo, sign up for a Portal (tier) 3 membership at my Patreon page! 

That’s it for this week. Again, I’ll have the Book-To-Movie for you here next weekend for sure. What are your resolutions and/or plans for the new year in writing and reading?

Until next time . . .