Blog Goals
On January 14th, I wrote a blog post about goals for this blog. I promised to:
- No matter what I write about, I will focus on it being entertaining. That has to be the number one goal.
- I will do a fiction story a month, probably a flash fiction, but I’m not guaranteeing it will only be those.
- I will do something funny. Whether that be a “comedy” routine, or a character interview, etc., once a month.
- I will endeavor to post once a week, around Monday or Tuesday, not counting announcement posts, or future how-to articles, so readers will know what to expect.
My success on #1, I'll have to leave it with the readers how successful I've been at that. Based on commenting, my most entertaining post have been those on marriage leading up to announcing the publishing of my book, Healing Infidelity. Otherwise, it has mostly been crickets chirping on most posts. However, page views have slowly declined over the year. That could be due to the shift in my blog content, so a natural drop off of how-to seekers coming my way. Or it could be I've not succeed as well at being entertaining. It could be my more eclectic approach to be entertaining means I alienate more than I'm gaining.
On #2, I've been pretty successful. Though none of the stories made it into the top ten most viewed posts. That said, I think those may be my most productive aspects for several reasons:
- It forced me to write short fiction. I'd practically abandoned it in my focus on novels over the past years. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to write it.
- Writing is always productive work for a writer.
- I still feel the primary goal of the blog should be to entertain, and the best way to do that is to tell an entertaining story.
- At the end of the year, I'll have a new anthology book I can create and sell.
- The best advertising for my novels is showing I can write fun stories. People that sample my writing will be more likely to consider buying my novels.
For those reasons, I plan to continue writing one original short story/flash fiction a month in the coming year.
On #3, I didn't keep up with it as I had planned. If I'd kept people in stitches all year, maybe I'd been more successful. Who knows.
#4, I posted at least once a week all year, but fell off the wagon during November, and picked back up in early December. However, when during the week varied quite a bit. Plenty of times I posted late in the week instead of early.
So, after evaluating things, here is my goal for my blog during 2014:
- Continue to work on the entertaining factor.
- Post one original story a month on the blog.
- The rest of the time to post some combination of comedy, theology, how-to articles. No promise on a schedule. What ever floats my boat, but with the goal to be entertaining and if it fits, informative.
- To post at least once a week, probably around Thursday or Friday, but no promises.
Novel Goals
Though I don't think I wrote it down last year, I recall setting a goal to publish 4 novels in 2013. As it turned out, I've ended up with 2 new published books, Healing Infidelity and Virtual Game. I also published a couple of novelette-length books. One, the Virtual Hero ebook, and a non-fiction booklet, Celebrating the Fullness of Christmas. Didn't hit my goals, but did take some steps forward.
You'd think my lack of success would mean I should trim my expectations back. Nay, my friend. Here is my list of books I hope to publish in 2014:
- The Magic Within - New series. Written and in editing.
- Reality Game - Virtual Chronicles series. Started writing, barely. Will need to finish it and go through the process.
- Underground - Need to change the name, but is my serial experiment. Partially written.
- Healing Infidelity Through Faith - Follow up to Healing Infidelity, written more specifically to the Christian market. Just started writing.
- Poetry Book - No name yet, but plan on publishing a compilation of my poetry.
- Anthology - Not set in stone since some of my monthly stories went into the Virtual Hero novelette, so may want to wait and make it a 2013 - 2014 anthology.
- Devotional - Started writing a devotional on the parables. I want to finish that this year.
So, yeah, I plan on keeping busy writing this coming year.
In addition to that, I'll being doing weekly blog post at Speculative Faith blog and Healing Infidelity blog. So pray for me. I'm going to need it.
Also, if you want to keep up with this blog, you have the option of subscribing by RSS feed, or by email. So you don't miss a thing. Thank you for your support over this past year. Looking forward to an even better year in 2014.
