New Year’s Eve Snow by Randy Cockrell

Happy New Year to you and your families. The holidays are over, we’re still digging tinsel out of the carpeting and the new eating and exercise plan is still operational. Whew. 2014 was a tough year for a lot of my friends and family. I’m hoping 2015 is much, much, better. One way I’ve found to help me make my year move along on an even keel is to have a plan. Yeah, I know, but I’ve used goals for decades to help me organize my thoughts about what I need or better yet, want, to get done during the year. Additionally, it’s great to look back in December and go, “Whoa! Look what I’ve accomplished!”

Here are the major writing things I want to accomplish in 2015.

– Publish 6 more books

– Turn my wordpress blog into a full-fledged web site

– Participate in the April and July Camp NaNo’s and the November NaNo

– Complete the Holly Lisle World Building class and the How to Write A Series Expanded class

– Submit short stories to contests on a schedule I’m developing.

– Increase speaking appearances and opportunities to sell my books

– Participate in the Payson Book Festival as an author

I know, it looks a bit overwhelming. I didn’t talk about continuing to produce a flash story every Friday for my blog, or any personal stuff like travel, gardening, projects, volunteer work, you know, life stuff. All of that has to be done as well.

Goals help me plot out a work/life balance. If I see I’ve really scheduled a lot of writing stuff, I can back out on the plan at the beginning of the year and cut myself and my hubby some slack for running off and going camping or travelling.

What do you do to plan out your year? Just take it as it comes or jot down some things you’d like to accomplish? Go ahead and share in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

The Downtrodden: a Brown Rain Story released November 22nd! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy it and my other books at: Apple, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, or Smashwords today!