So now it’s almost the New Year.
Goodbye 2021 and hello 2022.
It’s the time of year when all writers (or at least all that I know of) make their writing plans for the next 12 months, while all the other mere mortals make New Year’s Resolutions about weight loss and quitting smoking, that they usually break before the end of January.
Many writers also never stick to their plan and I’m guilty of that too.
But next year will be different because not only do I have a really solid plan of what I want to write, but I’ve also allotted a timetable to get it all done.
I’m also not going to let life get in my way and use it as an excuse to quit. If anything unavoidable comes up, I’ll simply rearrange my schedule so that I still get my writing done, even if I have to stay up late to do it.
I also have a plan (or a non-plan) to not do much at all next year.
2021 began as a busy year because Dean and I sold our house and downsized into a small apartment and it took up so much time.
We’d wasted weeks beforehand trying to cope with “the buyer from hell” and ended up terminating the contract with her and putting the house back on the market.
Then we sold it in the New Year but there was a 2 week difference between having to move out of our house in February, and the tenant who was renting our apartment moving out at the end of their lease in early March.
So we ended up with two moving dates (out of one property then into the other) and when we got to the apartment we still had too much stuff despite selling most of it, so we still had all that to deal with.
It also took several weeks to get a few repair issues sorted out and find our way around the new city we were now living in. So it was months before I could settle into my writing routine again.
But 2022 will be different because I have no plans to do anything. Not even take a vacation. And with all the stupid restrictions being eased and then put back all the time (because our politicians don’t seem to realise that flu is seasonal) it’s better not to have plans to go anywhere or do anything.
So What Are My Writing Plans?
I’ve looked at absolutely everything in detail and this is what I plan to write next year.
15 books/ebooks
12 short reports
The short reports will be free for subscribers. And I know that 15 books/ebooks is more than one a month, but it’s still doable.
I’m also umm-ing and ahh-ing about audio books, but I still need to look into that more.
The books I’m planning to write are both fiction and non-fiction.
As well as that, I’ll be regularly writing the following:
Blog posts
Articles
Marketing articles
Emails
Freelance submissions
I also have plans for 2 more blogs. One about making cheap meals and one about quitting smoking (which I already have a book about). https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/HQS.html
How Much Time Do I Need?
By my reckoning (and I won’t bore you with the math) I need to work for a minimum of 20 hours a week. So over 5 days (I like a bit of time off) that’s 4 hours a day. Or if I want to write every day, it will be 3 hours a day.
But that’s the bare minimum. It would be better if I work longer every day/week.
How Much Do I Want To Earn From My Writing?
I don’t actually have a figure in my head of how much I want to earn because I can’t control that. What I can control is how much I write and it’s my experience that the more I write, the more I earn. It has always worked that way in the past so I know it will work in the future.
Another thing I’ve been contemplating is setting up an online course on writing. I’ve heard so many good things about doing this because it seems that people love doing online courses that include videos, work books, and transcripts, so it’s something I’m going to look into. I’ll see how it goes including how long it takes to set it up. There are plenty of sites that host online courses, so I’ll see how to do it.
But in the meantime I’ll put all my time into all the writing listed in my plan.
And I’m going to start right now. No point waiting till next year.
How about you?
What are your writing plans for the next 12 months?
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