On Setting Ambitious Goals and Getting Busy

Beginning in March, I set forth the following three goals for my writing career:

1. Edit my novel
2. Publish one new short story every week
3. Blog regularly

Each of these goals had a specific purpose.  The first is obvious: my whole goal here is to get the novel published.  To do that, I have to get the novel into publishable shape.  If I do nothing else, I at least have to do that.

The second goal had multiple purposes: publishing a new story every week based on characters from the novel would help generate interest in the novel; writing every week would get me back in the habit of writing and exercise the literary muscles that have been sadly atrophying over the past decade (see, I can’t tell if that metaphor was decent or terrible or just a cliché, that’s how out of practice I am); the stories would provide regular content for the website, which would hopefully help build a readership; and in theory, demonstrating to future publishers that I’m working on extending the world of my book would make the novel itself more enticing.

The last goal is really about building readership for this website.  The theory goes that if I can show future agents and publishers that there is interest in the novel, they’ll be more likely to publishing it.  Even if I don’t build a huge readership, just the fact that I’m trying will demonstrate my commitment to marketing my novel, which is something they look for (or so I'm told).

The trouble is, each of these tasks, individually, could take up all of my time.  And I have a full time job.  And I do other stuff, too.  Interesting stuff.  Brain-intensive stuff.  So something’s got to give.

Tomorrow: What gives?