Regaining My Writing Mojo in 2018

• Plan, draft, and self-edit a complete novel/novella manuscript.
• Timed 60 minutes “writing time” each day (writing and/or story-related tasks).
• Schedule at least one time per month (Sunday afternoon?) to write away from home (e.g., coffee shop, library).
• Review all old notebooks and computer files for story ideas.
• Set timelines and a schedule for all writing goals!

The one thing that I didn’t include in that list, but which is really the overarching theme for 2018 is “Regain my Writing Mojo in 2018.”

Now, I am planning on doing a Writing Series on regaining the passion and motivation for writing later this quarter (February or March—as part of my blogging goals (which, no, I haven’t posted yet).

I’ve been working on filling out my planner (self-designed for 2018):

And as I did so, I set some specific dates for myself:

• Story Prep: 30 days of planning and pre-writing from January 10 – February 8, 2018
• First Draft of Her Independent Heart: Completed by May 31, 2018 (with this note-to-self: Do not set a word-count total. The manuscript will be as long as it needs to be.)
• Self-Edit and Second Draft: Completed by August 31, 2018
• Find and start working with critique partners and/or beta readers by September 15, 2018
• Manuscript to agent and/or self-published (to be determined): Completed by December 31, 2018

Obviously, there are still a few technical aspects (primarily the crit/beta reader/agent-or-self-pub parts) that I need to figure out. But I’m about to put all of these dates into my planner and my electronic calendars (I have three—my main Google calendar, the calendar in my work Outlook program, and my personal Outlook calendar; it sounds like a lot to keep track of, but really all I have to do is set it in the Gmail calendar and add the other two addresses as “meeting participants”).