I want to look again at my long-term goals for this check-in and see where I am.
This year, I want to have published four things under my Catherine Lynn pen name and one under Lauralynn. I’ve accomplished two of these so far. I have one novella in a two book anthology with Ruth Ann Nordin (writing as Barbara Joan Russell) which is through Parchment & Plume Publishing, and I published Brewing Up Murder (which is doing surprisingly well right now), the first in the Hemlock Ridge Mysteries. I’m about 2/3 into a novella I’m doing for an anthology, so that will be done soon. My next projects will be writing the second Hemlock Ridge novella and writing the sequel to Soul of a Vampire. SoaV was a little complicated to write, and I think the sequel will be equally so. I’m going to give myself plenty of time to write that one. We’re only four months into the year, so I think I’ll be able to write it.
Another goal for the year is to write 150,000 words. This might not seem much to you, but with what little writing time I actually have, it’s a lot for me. So far, here’s what I’ve done. My nifty spreadsheet (you can find them HERE) divides the 150K into monthly goals based on how many days are in the month.
January – Goal: 12,740, Written: 12,890
February – Goal: 11,507, Written: 10,454
March – Goal: 12,739, Written: 1,779
April (so far) – Goal: 12,329, Written: 14,776
As you can see, I got way behind in March. But I’m at 120% of goal for April, so I’m slowly making that up. I’m still 9,416 words behind for the year. If I can just keep up my momentum, I can reach my yearly goal. Can you tell I love spreadsheets?
lauralynnelliott.com 