Plans for 2014: Goals...

Something very strange, pretty much unprecedented, took place in 2013. I was absolutely shocked. I kept a New Year's Resolution. Yes, I'm as surprised as you are; I've been making the darn things since...a long time ago, and never actually managed to keep them. This time, I did; I wanted to write and publish four novels this year, and I did it, with a month to spare! This has encouraged me to set a few more goals for next year – let's see if I am able to keep these ones like I did the last ones! So, here they are!

• Write twelve novels. This year I managed to write four, and each one took about a month – the other periods were filled with other things, but those decks are cleared now. Typically when the 'spirit is with me' I write about six thousand words a day, I've always been a lot more comfortable when I write at that speed. Something about engaging the creative part of the brain. This is my job, and I should be writing. To coin a phrase. So the goal is...a novel a month, in three different series.
• Read more fiction! I've noticed of late that more and more, I've been reading non-fiction rather than fiction. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I need to keep myself fresh with the field. So – I'm going to try and read at least one novel for every non-fiction book this year, and try and review them on the blog. I'm behind on the Lost Fleet series, I have a few others I haven't read yet, and there is a lot of historical fiction I'm longing to get at, so those are all on the schedule for the year.
• Back to writing again – I'd like to do at least a couple of short stories as well. That's an area I would like to do better at; my one attempt at a 10k this year started to evolve into a novel...one that I intend to write at some point after it evolves more. (Watch this space soon...) What I do with them I don't yet know; I may post them on the blog, put them into a collection, both? At least I want to have a serious try at this.
• That brings me to another point...blog more often! I want to try and do a post at least every two or three days over the coming year – far too often I've gone more than a week without a post, and I need to get that up a bit. Not that I don't have things to talk about, but I need to make the time to write the posts.
• Don't buy anything! Seriously, this is something I am terrible at. So I am resolved – no new books or DVDs this year. I have a few pre-orders in – pretty much all of them 'next books' in series that I am already following, and there is no harm in that, but other than the pre-orders I already have in, that's enough for now. I have a massive backlog of books I haven't read, and I want to get that down a bit before I get anything new.
• Catalogue the library. Twice now I've managed to buy books I already own; this is a bit embarrassing, really, and I could do with a better idea of what I've got – so sometime in the next few months I want to take a few days and put it into some form of database. Work out what I have in different categories. That should be useful as well.
• Go to more museums! I live in London, darn it, and it's full of places I should visit. There are places I really need to go and see – so that's going to be a priority this year, to go to at least one or two every month or so. For research purposes if for no other reason; I always find the British Museum to be extremely inspiring in any case.

I think that covers everything! It's a bit of an exhaustive list, but I think it's quite attainable. Frankly I'm more concerned about going cold-turkey on Amazon than I am with writing the novels! As I said, I intend to be running three series over the course of the coming year, and I'll be wriing about each of them in the next few days. First of all – what is the fate of the Battlecruiser Alamo in 2014?