To not be a hobby writer

The frequently reader of my blog might notice the shiny new word count meter over on the sidebar. Goals don't work for me. I just don't think about them really unless someone reminds me. *coughSarahcough* However, at least during Nanowrimo I was thrilled to see my progress bar go up and up until I hit my goal. So the progress bar is back and the idea is that it will continue to go up.

The goal of 130k total words isn't definite, it might take more or less to actually finish but I think that's a fairly good guess for at least the first draft. The second bar you see is for weekly progress. I'm starting with a weekly goal of 5000 words per week, which is less than 1000 per day. I figure doing a weekly word count is going to be easier to maintain than a daily one. If I do somehow manage to maintain a 5000 words/week pace then I will finish the first draft in 12 weeks.

This should help me keep on track and stop me from going any further down the "hobby writer" path. Hobby writers never actually finish books, or if they do it takes many years. I don't want that. All forward progress! :)

Also, completely off topic to this post those of you who are fans of Robert Jordan really need to check out Brandon Sanderson's latest blog post about him. It's really moving and well done.

Goals and Tiredness

So I've been feeling pretty tired and slightly under the weather lately. I think it's my lack of days off. Luckily the 4th is right around the corner and I'll have a day off there. Not to mention the mini-vacation I'll have in mid-July and the full on vacation I'll have in August. But that's all in the future and doesn't help my lack of sleep nor does it help my lack of days of work right now.

In one of Brandon Sanderson's recent blog posts he mentions that he isn't cut out for a "real" job. Some days I'm pretty sure I'm not either even though I (generally) like my job. I certainly like my benefits and paycheck. I also found out recently that my friend Becky is planning on quitting her job in a year and a half after she is vested with her company to focus more on her own writing. This is both an uplifting and depressing thing to hear, uplifting for her and for the aspirations of writers in general and depressing because it's not me doing it.

That being said I think if I ever managed to finish anything I might allow myself the freedom to do that. After all Daren did move out to LA to pursue his dreams so why not give myself that same chance? No reason at all except for the whole bill paying thing. So okay it isn't a viable option right now but it's nice to dream about it.

So in order to get anywhere close to that I need to set some goals. My brain has turned to mush with the lack of sleep and increase of work and just everything. I should set some realistic goals for myself so that I finish my novel and can figure out what I want to do next. But there's no point in thinking about the next step until I have something to show.

So okay...set some goals...right...what exactly IS a realistic goal anyway? I'll come up with one and you guys can all chime in and come up with something as specific or as general as you want. I'll even make a sidebar, that might help me stay motivated!

Goals:

1. Finish the first draft of Blood of Renatus NO LATER THAN September 1st.
2. uhmmmmm your turn