So last year, my approach was to make a list of all the stuff I wished I could accomplish within a year and then throw it up for everyone to see, believing that potential public shame would keep me to my task.  Apparently, potential public shame is not a huge motivator for me.  Ah, well.

Last year wasn’t a loss by any stretch.  I still ended up with nine or ten new short stories, a detailed outline of a new novel, and some progress on the edit of an older novel.  Also wrote 62 blog posts, for what it’s worth.

This year my approach will be different.  I don’t have a list of stuff I want completed by the end of the year.  I have a plan, a scheme, a design, if you will, on how to build for myself a Career of Significant Worth, and it has to do with how I prioritize the work.

~~~

First things first, no matter what is going on in my work day, the most important work to be done is the first draft.  Yes, editing is crucial, submitting necessary…but there’s none of that without the first draft.

So here’s Part 1 of my plan…and it’s simple.  Just write as much as I possibly can each day.  My goal is to work up to a consistent word count each day, which means learning how to write fast, to write past all the lame, meaningless mental blocks, and to just get the first draft done.  I want to develop 3,000-words-a-day writing muscles. This seems to be a sweet spot for many professional writers, and so it seems as good a goal as any to shoot for.

Should be easy, huh?