Celebrating a Year of Writing & Monthly Goal Checkin

(I'm on a blogging hiatus until September 10th. Enjoy the end of August and the start of September!)

Today marks the 365th day since I officially started keeping a Daily Writing Chain. In any year but a leap year (which this happens to be), that would mark one full year. In celebration of keeping to my routine on a daily basis for all of that time, I've put all three of my Kindle-published items on sale for today, Friday, and Saturday.

"Write Every Day" is only 99 cents (regularly $3.99) for that time period and the two short stories I've e-published are both free. I hope that you'll download one or all of these and that you enjoy them if you do so.

Write Every Day ($0.99)
Levels of Trust (Free) (Crime/Thriller short story)	Gravity's Pull (Free) (Science Fiction short story)

Overall, the last 12 months of writing have been very productive. If my numbers are correct, I've written first drafts of 63 short stories, 1 novelette, and 1 novel in that time. Focusing specifically on the 63 short stories:

• 17 have sold.
• 20 are currently out on submission
• 17 need to be revised and submitted
• 4 were posted as freebies on my blog
• 1 was self-published
• 4 have been retired/"trunked"

I'm comfortable with many of those numbers, but the 17 which need to be revised and submitted is irritatingly large to me. Fully 11 of those come from the last few months. Until I get that number whittled down dramatically, it needs to be my primary writing focus.

This leads nicely into a discussion of my writing goals for August and September. How'd I do in August?

1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - Essentially on target. (One "Write Every Day" blog post got up slightly into the next day in my time zone. While I try to post on the calendar day the post is intended for, I don't really consider this a serious "miss.")

2) Write at least one new story.  - Done. I've written four new stories this month, none of them flash.

3) Submit at least three stories for the first time. - My goal for today and tomorrow is to make this happen, even though I'm still at zero. I'm going to say that I'm going to get it done and if I don't meet up to that, I'll acknowledge that when I'm back from my blog hiatus.

4) Write 10,000 words of new fiction. - I'm just under 10,000 words at this point. Like with #3, I intend for this to get done before September rolls around.

5) On 8/31, have two non-time-sensitive blog posts written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - I'm at zero here. This is a low-priority goal for me at this point. If I get done with #3 and #4 before the end of the month, I might try to get this done.

6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - I made more progress on edits but it's unlikely I'll send this out before the end of the month. Still, it might happen.

7) Launch at least one new eBook. - This isn't going to happen this month.

So, a big incomplete right this moment, but with the potential to still hit a majority of my targets with some effort today and tomorrow.

And now, my goals for September. These are very much focused around trying to fix the things that feel broken in my writing process right now. Also, note that September is a #writemotivation month, so I'll be putting up goal status reports every Monday starting on the 10th.

1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - This should be very revision-heavy this month. (A while back, I added the option to do 45 minutes of focused revisions for my Daily Writing Chain goal. It's a good idea, but I've done a poor job of using that option to get things done and out the door.)
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - This is kind of a specific goal, but it's time-based and something I want to accomplish, so I'm including it.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - Again, specific but time-based.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - If I get feedback from them early enough in the month that I think I can launch the eBook of this novelette, I'll do that in September as well.

That should be enough to keep me busy. Good luck with all of your goals, big and small!