Writing Goals for 2016

As indicated in my previous post, I don’t make resolutions, I only have goals, but that list is extensive and changes frequently. Since I do fiction for major writing and non-fiction for blog writing, I always have projects aplenty.

This year in fiction, I have plans for a second and third historical novel based on one just completed. The finished one, and these two planned stories plus perhaps two more volumes for a total of five stories, I consider one project following one family through time. This has been a long-term project that started in 2000. Hopefully, the follow-up volumes won’t take such a lengthy development.

You might ask, what took so long in the first place? The answer, in a word, is: research. Much information for the 8th century in Europe and about the Franks in particular was mostly in a foreign language, but increasingly translations have become available. Yet still, how did the Franks greet each other? Sounds simple, but certainly not hello, yet the actual wording is unknown. So when I say much, the information lacks that quality. Not only are the Frankish languages (yes two) dead, most documentation has disappeared. In the first volume details about setting, such as social interactions and how things were done, constantly interrupted me. Now that I’ve investigated and determined those things (making some up along the way), writing the next stories, I hope, will be faster. I think, however, the historical record and how my characters play between events might still hinder the stories’ development.

I have about fifteen stories with settings, characters, and beginning plots ready to go, but parts of my imagination on these stories haven’t kicked-in. Until it does, I usually can't force progress. Still, I usually operate better when I have two projects under production. Perhaps because if one stalls out, I can switch to the other. Three are too many, unless the non-fiction writing counts.

Short essays and other factual writings topics interest me and I like to post them on my two blogs, one devoted to gardening and crafts, and this one on my writing and my world. So hopefully, 2016 won’t move as fast as 2015, and I will actually accomplish my goals. If not, they’ll still be in the works.

Please visit the following authors and investigate their writing plans for 2016:

Victoria Chatham
Margaret Fieland
Skye Taylor
Diane Bator
Beverley Bateman
Connie Vines
Bob Rich
Rachael Kosinski
Judith Copek
Kay Sisk
Anne Stenhouse
Hollie Glover
Helena Fairfax
Fiona McGier

Another Year Passed — Too Fast

Here it is 2016. I don't make resolutions, the word just sounds too, well, resolute, to unyielding, and I have a bad habit of breaking them. Instead, I have a list of projects and goals to start and some to finish. Things work out better and I can put a date on those things that get done and know in the future I accomplished something that year.

Do you remember sitting in an elementary classroom waiting for the dragging minutes to pass? Time moved so slowly. For every year you live, time seems to move faster. Once you get a job and start raising a family, time flies by. While I know I was conscious every day in 2015, many of the details have already become obscured, the same for past years, too. Memory isn't often a lucid thing. I have spent some time over the past few months transferring my falling-apart erratic paper journals to digital format. I didn’t write in these diaries every day, sometimes not every month or even year, but it has been interesting reading about things I had forgotten happened. This is why I encourage everyone to keep a journal of personal thoughts on the important events in their life, the trips, vacations, important family happenings and gatherings, and achievements. Do so as you think about it and forget an everyday regiment, it's too great a hassle. That way you can go back and visit the moment. As long as we have electricity, that is. Digital materials also melt way. If you truly want to keep a copy for posterity, print digital materials off on good cotton content paper. Now I need to go follow my own advice.