Writing Goals For 2021
Now that 2020 is behind us, and 2021 looms before us like a mountain in a cloudbank, it’s time to set some writing goals for the New Year!
God willing, this is what I hope to do writing-wise in 2021.
1.) Finish DRAGONTIARNA.
The DRAGONTIARNA series will be ten books long, and I’m editing #8 right now. If all goes well, I will finish all ten books sometime around the midpoint of 2021.
2.) Finish GHOST NIGHT.
I’m working on the eighth book of GHOST NIGHT right now, and like DRAGONTIARNA, GHOST NIGHT will be a total of ten books. I am hoping to finish the series in mid-2021 around the time that DRAGONTIARNA wraps up.
3.) Continue CLOAK MAGE.
The next CLOAK MAGE book will be called CLOAK OF BLADES, and once DRAGONTIARNA and GHOST NIGHT are finished, I will write more CLOAK MAGE books.
4.) Write a million words of new fiction, preferably more.
Once again, I want to write a million words (or more) of new fiction in 2020. Meeting the above goals will definitely help with that! But barring any major health issues or other problems, I should be able to do that.
5.) Update paperbacks.
I want to update my paperback books so they have nicer interiors, and the covers are consistent with the ebooks. When I started doing paperbacks seven years ago, I used the default Createspace templates, which were good enough. But Createspace doesn’t exist any more, and I can now use Vellum to make much nicer interiors for the ebooks than what the standard Createspace templates allowed. Additionally, I’ve updated the covers for many of my ebooks, some of them several times, and I would like them to match the paperbacks.
I would like to have updated the paperbacks of the FROSTBORN series by the end of 2021, with more as time permits.
6.) Two hardbacks.
I would like to have at least two of my books available in hardback. This goal was originally one, but MALISON: THE COMPLETE SERIES is now available in hardback, though just on Amazon at the moment. I’ve just started doing hardbacks, so hopefully I will have more hardcover books available by the end of 2021.
7.) Two more self-published audiobooks.
I want to have at least two more self-published audiobooks by the end of 2021, bringing me to a total for 46 audio titles.
I haven’t decided how to proceed with audio after that. Previously, I was happy to go exclusive with Audible/Amazon/Apple, but ACX has been struggling all year. Additionally, there are a lot more sales opportunities for audio outside of ACX than there were even two years ago. So I will need to give it some thought.
8.) Healthier lifestyle and fitness.
I gained too much weight in 2020, and I’m feeling it in my back and knees, especially my back. So I need some healthier lifestyle choices. I’m counting this as a writing goal because it’s a lot easier to write when I can sit comfortably.
People making ridiculous health resolutions for New Year’s and failing spectacularly is a cliché, so I will set a more modest and achievable goal. If I am one pound lighter on January 1, 2022 than I am on January 1, 2021, I will count this goal as successfully achieved.
9.) Write a book about how to write a novel.
This isn’t a stretch goal, it’s going to happen. I’m already about halfway through it. I think the book will be called STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL, and will focus on story structure in novels. This way when people ask me for writing advice, I can point them to this book.
I’ve already written about five of the ten chapters. It won’t be terribly long, about 25,000 or 30,000 to words, but that will cover the topic. That’s one of the nice things about self-publishing – you can write a book about a nonfiction topic that a publisher wouldn’t touch because it’s too short. Like, have you ever read a nonfiction book that could have covered the topic in half the pages, but the author obviously needed to pad the length? My LINUX COMMAND LINE guide is only 30,000 words, but it covers the topic and it’s a frequent bestseller in its category.
The book about writing a novel will also include CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP. Before every chapter of THIEF TRAP, I’ll have annotations explaining how I followed story structure in the specific chapter and why I made some of the storytelling choices that I did.
10.) Start a new series.
DRAGONTIARNA and GHOST NIGHT should conclude within a month of one another, and after that, I haven’t 100% decided what I’m going to do next.
I’m coming to a sort of crossroads, I think. When April comes around, I will have been self-publishing for ten years, and I will have self-published around 120 novels. So what do I want to do next? I don’t mean that in a “reevaluate my life” sort of way, but in that I want to seriously think about what I want to work on next before I commit to writing it.
I will definitely continue CLOAK MAGE. I might do a new Caina series – ever since she married Kylon, Kylon’s spent a lot of time watching her back and reacting to what Caina does, so it might be fun to flip that on its head and have Caina have to watch Kylon’s back and react to what he does. Or I might continue SILENT ORDER. Or I might decide to try something completely different – a new scifi series, or maybe even a straight up modern mystery book.
All that said, I suspect I will probably start a new epic fantasy series set in the world of Andomhaim. It’s a big complicated setting, with room for lots of stories beyond the protagonists we’ve already met.
No crossovers, though. 🙂
But I can decide what exactly the new series will be about when I get there!
Thanks again for reading! I hope my books proved enjoyable distractions in 2020. I hope they will do the same in 2021, though hopefully with less serious distractions!
ADDENDUM 1/12/2021:
Previously I talked about my 10 writing goals for 2020, but I’ve decided to add one more, an experimental one:
11.) PROJECT UPGRADE.
This was an idea suggested to me by a reader, and it will be ready to go in February. Watch this space for coming details!
-JM
Didn’t you once mention you were thinking of a “dungeon crawler” series? Where the whole thing was set as a RPG level-up/GameLIT type deal? I’m like 90% sure that was you. Underdone type of book IMO, just throwing that out there.
That is one of the things I am considering!
Thank you Jonathan for the update.
I look forward to reading the Ghost Series upon it’s completion so I can read it through it’s entirety.
Thanks again
Fred Ace
GHOST NIGHT should be done in mid-2021 if all goes well!
I was noticing that 2021 was looking like an interesting year for your series in that you will be finishing or almost finishing 4 series within a 12 month span with Cloak Mage being the laggard. Looking forward to more Cloak Mage as that has been my favorite of all your series. Side note that Nadia has had it easy lately – wonder what would happen if she lost someone close to her.
I have read a lot of Litrpg. Amazon/the internet is awash with free/cheap Litrpg of various quality. I could look forward to a series written by someone who knows how to dot their ‘i’s’ and cross their ‘t’s’.
Good luck with your fitness goal for the year. That actually looks like the most challenging one on your list.
I still say weight loss is easier than dealing with traditional publishing. 🙂
I looked back over my reading habits this past year. In terms of where I sourced my books from. I read a lot. My wife phrases it a bit more colorfully. I think I bought 3 traditionally published books last year. The books I did buy were on Amazon by Indie authors. Decent amount of KU. Some Royal Road. Follow 3 authors on RR and two of them I signed up on their Patreon because I figured if I liked their work that much I should pitch in a few dollars.. There is some self interest on my part in that. I hold myself to reading better quality books if I pay for them. That cuts down on my reading. Quite often when I read free books I get what I paid for. I have almost no use for books from traditional publishers anymore.
“I have almost no use for books from traditional publishers anymore.”
That last sentence should really make tradpub worry. On a related topic, I use our local library consortium’s ebook app a lot since the virus started, and and I wasn’t surprised to see a lot of indie stuff in there. Given how tradpub rips off libraries, it’s not surprising that more indie stuff shows up.
A modern Gate opening between andorheim and Earth, or the story of the original crossing would be cool
Cloak Mage & Silent Order, or something new altogether. Pretty please.
Also, I agree that traditional publishing is going the way of the dodo…. way too many books I read have issues. And those are traditionally published books. Indie is both better and cheaper, although I dislike Amazon.
Absolutely love the Andomhaim series, the frost born got me in to your writing, it’s a fantastic world to get away in, also love silent order series more of those would be brilliant, thank you for publishing your books happy new year to you
Thanks! Glad you have enjoyed the books – more DRAGONTIARNA books coming soon!
Whilst I read all of your series, I must admit that the Cloak Mage world is my favourite, and I do include the Caina/Nadia crossover short stories in that. Having said that, a bit more of the Silant Order series wouldnt go amiss, but then again nor would another Caina series. (I started reading your work with the Ghosts series.)
My apologies if I’ve suggested this to you before, but if you are truly stuck for inspiration for a new world to write about, I would like to suggest you have a look at the old PC game ‘Archimedean Dynasty’, available from GOG. A game set in a world where mankind ruined the surface world, (cant remember if it was due to environmental damage or nuclear war, either works,) and moved to underwater colonies in the oceans to survive. For a game of its time the underwater world seemed very well fleshed out, helped no doubt by the length of the story. It generated several sequels (the Aquanox series,) but they didnt appeal to me in quite the same way as the style of the game and associated story changed a bit. But a story set in a world like that would be quite interesting and quite different in some respects, although I guess a futuristic underwater world would probably have quite a few similarities with one set in space.
Anyway, whatever you choose to do, Im sure it will be well worth the read. Thank you for all your hard work.
Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed the books!
I have to admit I don’t have any trouble coming up with ideas, the difficulty is finding the time to turn those ideas into books. Like, in an afternoon or so I could come up with enough ideas to fill a five book series. But there’s only 24 hours in a day, and if I’m at my absolutely most productive, I’ll write 12 books this year, and I easily have ideas for many more.
Jonathon
I’d like to see a new silent order novel. I’ve enjoyed the series. If you do a modern mystery how about a clerk of the court solving mysteries. Could be a mix of cozy and hardboiled