Yes, another 2013 post.

Last week, I spoke about New Year’s Resolutions for Writers. Some great suggestions in the comments — cheers to everybody who contributed. It’s always such a boost seeing people’s ambitious but achievable targets outlined. The start of a new year is a perfect opportunity to set new plans and work towards them.

Seeing as 90% of non-writerly resolutions are broken in the first week, I’ve done well to stick to one of my main writing goals for 2013 of an ‘hour per day’. Five days per week writing 1,500 words every day is something I’m comfortable with, and will result in 350,000 words of new fiction over the year. Win-win.

But how about actual production goals? I realise I was a little vague about that, mainly because goals and resolutions are slightly different. Resolutions are smaller things that work up towards the bigger picture. When I say I want to write for an hour every day, I do that so I can work towards completing 350,000 words of new fiction in 2013. However, my production goals for 2013 are different.

As inspired by Joanna Penn’s post on writing goals, here’s what my 2013 will look like from a production perspective.

1. Killing Freedom (working title)

Killing Freedom is the working title of my second novel. It’s a straight-up thriller about a hitman who, naturally, kills people for a living. However, he forms a bond with a family he is tasked to kill, sending him on a moral and physical journey.

Oh, and a sky-high body count.

I’m currently content-reviewing it at the moment (my first stage of the rewriting process, which I’ll probably post about next week), and should have it all finished and ready to release this Spring.

2. New crime/detective series

Inspired by the Forbrydelsen craze, as well as my love for crime fiction, my first foray into serial releases will be a new crime series I’m working on at the moment. I’m 13,000-ish into the first draft and am absolutely loving writing it. I’ve approached my first draft with a very clear outline and am loving watching the chess pieces move as I write. A lot of fun.

Ideally, I’d like this one out by the end of 2013. Maybe October/November, but we’ll see. It’s very gritty, and a world I want to spend a lot of time constructing. I’ll probably get writing the sequel later this year for a 2014 release.

3. Horror novella series

No real start/finish timeframe in mind for this, just something I’m pondering at the moment. I’ve made room for three novellas in my writing plan for 2013, so maybe I’ll try and get one or two out this year. The third I imagine will launch in 2014. As for content — very creepy, very mysterious.

And that’s pretty much it as far as my writing goals for 2013 go. Feel free to share your own in the comments, and good luck!

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Something in the Cellar free; Silhouette now on Smashwords

Just a quickie to say that Something in the Cellar, my debut short-fiction release, is free today on Amazon Kindle. If you want it, grab it from Amazon.com or Amazon UK.

In other news, Silhouette, my second short fiction release, is now available on all formats via Smashwords. Other stores will follow. Why? Well, I believe KDP Select is a great tool for new authors with novels, but not so great for short stories. So yeah, if you want to read it and you own another non-Kindle eReader, here’s your chance.

What are your writing goals and production goals for 2013? Novels? Short fiction? Non-fiction?

Image courtesy of Ginna from MyPrettyPennies.com