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!

Sunday Links: August 19, 2012 Edition

It's almost back-to-school time here in Ohio. Our kids have one more week of break but my wife starts up her classes this coming week. A busy time and a reminder that I've been writing seriously for over a year now. In fact, in less than two weeks I'll hit the one year mark of writing every day. I've got something special planned to mark that occasion, so watch for an announcement in the next couple of weeks along those lines.

Also, around the end of August and beginning of September I'm going to take a short blogging hiatus for a week to ten days. I haven't worked out the timing exactly, but I'll publish dates for the hiatus both here and on my Write Every Day blog. I'll still be writing, but I'll be spending that time focused on my fiction. I also expect that I'll be doing a fair amount of work relating to the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology at that point in time since it will be the end of our submission period which presumably will mean a flood of submissions and also the need to have final discussions within the editorial team on which of the stories that have been held over for possible inclusion will make the cut.

Look for official hiatus dates to show up in my Sunday post a week from today.

Below are the links I've found relating to writing which I want to share with my readers. If you have come across any interesting links recently, I'd certainly be interested in knowing about those as well!

"Write Every Day" is Live on Amazon.com

(Cross-posted at my "Write Every Day" blog.)

My eBook "Write Every Day: Hints & Tips Towards a Daily Writing Routine" is live now on Amazon.com and other Amazon sites.

From Chapter 1:

"How much writing do you think you could get accomplished if you had an entire year to spend on just that and nothing else?
And when you think of that year, don't think of several hours a day. Think of every single minute. That you've got the special ability to not require time to sleep or do anything else at all. You wouldn't get fatigued or burned out.
Think you could write a lot in that year? Then consider this: Anything you spend twenty minutes a day on every day is something that you'll spend more than a year of your life doing.
Increase that to an hour a day and you'll spend a year on that activity over the course of only 24 years. That's the amazing power of doing something every day. The time, bit by bit, adds up to a tremendous opportunity to accomplish things that excite us."

Announcing "Write Every Day" by Michael Haynes

(Cross-posted from the "Write Every Day" blog.)

Late last summer I started a daily writing routine, based on motivational techniques described by Jerry Seinfeld. One of my first blog posts was about starting this routine, or chain, and it's still one of my most popular posts. The central concept is quite simple:

You get a big wall calendar (or some other visible equivalent) and a bold marker. Commit to some goal which you will achieve every day. Then, when you've met each day's goal, put an "X" in the calendar for the day. Quickly, you'll have a chain of "X"s and then all you have to do, in Seinfeld's words, is "Don't Break the Chain."

I've been writing every day since I started my daily writing chain and I'm quickly coming up on a year since I started my daily writing chain. Along the way, I've learned quite a few things about how I write and ways to help keep myself into this daily routine.

Earlier this year, Australian author Valerie Parv asked me when I was going to develop my thoughts around this way of establishing a daily writing routine into a something larger than several blog entries. I hadn't thought about that seriously before her suggestion, but soon afterwards I started working on the outline of a short book around the idea of writing every day and the tools I've used to help make it possible.

And now, that book is (almost) here. Next Monday, June 25th, I'll be launching "Write Every Day" on Amazon for the Kindle. You don't have to wait for the 25th, though!  I'll select five people who sign up for my Write Every Day mailing list between now and 11:59 PM (EDT) on Thursday June 21st and send them a free pre-release review PDF.

Along with the release of "Write Every Day" I'll be publishing daily blog posts relating to helping keep your daily writing routine going. Most of these will be very short, such as a writing prompt or two for writers who are feeling stuck, but there will be at least one longer post each week.

Thanks for stopping by to read my announcement!