Keeping a record

This year, I decided to take a leaf out of Suzanne Ross Jones' book (not literally, that would be plagerism!). Suzanne minx does a post on her blog most years which I always enjoy and look forward to, which is a summary of her year, and every year she posts it, I'm impressed by her output during the year, and her successes.

So here's my plan for 2013.

To record my wordcount on new words generated throughout the year. Every week, and adding it all up at the end of each month. I've never done this before. Normally, I keep an eye on sales, but whether or not people buy my books is an element mostly out of my control. Yes, I can run giveaways, do guest blogs, and do advertising, but this takes up a lot of my time and distracts me from the only thing that I can control - my output!

I love writing. I enjoy the challenge of making my writing better. I read a ton of writing related books, and read a lot of fiction for enjoyment and also because I appreciate my favorite authors' skill and mastery of language. But to become a better writer, I need to put words on the page, and if I don't keep a record of just how many new words I am producing, it is easy to fool myself that I'm being productive, when really I'm not.

Re-writing, polishing, editing and launching new works is part of my everyday, but the magic element, for me, is to create something new. I've set myself a weekly, monthly and yearly goal.
Only time will tell if I achieve it, but breaking my writing goals down like this into mini goals, means that I can be happy each and every time I achieve one. And happiness is important - if I'm unhappy or stressed, I find writing hard.

New Year. New strategy. Let go of stressing about things that I can't influence directly, and focus my attention on things that I can. Celebrate every teeny tiny milestone along the way, and grow the happy!