You have to have a plan, here’s mine.


Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.


Do you set monthly/yearly goals for your writing? What are your goals for the coming year?


I try to set goals, every year. Usually, it’s the same two, finish all my outstanding works in progress and try to market my work more effectively.

Sad to say, I also usually fail miserably on both counts. It turns out that the two things are connected, perhaps more than you might realise.

Many of my works in progress are sequels or continuations of series. For me to get them finished, when there is little interest in the books that I have already published, seems like such a waste of time.

Nobody is screaming at me to hurry up and finish the sequel so I can’t really be bothered. Stand-alone stories are something else, I like getting on with new ideas, hoping each time that this will be THE ONE that launches my career.

That’s where the connection to marketing comes in. If I could only increase the visibility of my older books, the resultant sales might just produce more reviews, which would show an interest and pressurize me into finishing more of my outstanding stories.


There is another problem; as if one wasn’t enough. My mind keeps churning out new ideas. Meaning that I never get to the point where I have less than six or seven rough plots, all waiting for my attention.

Of course, I never know until I start whether they will be short stories or develop into novels. They might even have sequels, prequels or spin-offs of their own.

My plan at the moment, after New Year and the annual tidying of my office space, is to finish editing my latest stand-alone, I Remember Everything, ready for my beta readers. Then I can get on with Andorra Pett and the Luna Mining Conspiracy, which is the next nearest story to completion.

Although that is subject to change. I’ll be exploring the possibilities more in my next post, on Thursday.

For the definitive answer, you’d need to ask the voices in my head.


Until next time.


Happy New Year everyone.



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8 Responses

    • Richard Dee

      Thanks and happy New Year to you. I had ANOTHER idea yesterday, it sneaked up on me while I was trying to relax.

    • Richard Dee

      I have to blame the voices in my head, they seem so reluctant to finish anything.

    • Richard Dee

      I always had a plan at work, old habits die hard. Actually following it, now I don’t have to, is another thing entirely.

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