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The thing with plans is that you’re supposed to hold yourself to them. That’s rather a joyous thing, when everything’s going according to, but when things aren’t quite, well, a plan can turn into a measuring stick against which you come up short. About the time it was time for me to take stock again, I realised I wasn’t quite meeting my goals. You can only procrastinate for so long, so here’s my almost quarterly progress support.

  • Send out one new story per month: nope. Not done that. I’ve written one per month, but I haven’t been very good at sending them out. I’m getting better at completing stories (editing) but I need to spend much more time finding markets.
  • Send each story out at least five times before retiring: in progress. Finding markets is quite time-consuming (see above) and I need to spend more time on that task.
  • Finish plotting novel: in progress. I still need to figure out a couple of details about the end, but I’m happy doing that as I go along.
  • Write novel: started. I’m behind but not by much and might still be done with the first draft for Christmas.
  • Do four spoken performances: my fourth reading will be at the launch of The Seven Wonders of Scotland, the fifth and final this year takes place on December 2nd, at The Bongo Club, from 20:00. It’ll be fab: the theme is the ocean. My story’s about corals. Sort of.
  • Make £75 from writing: done. With change. I’m going to double this goal for next year. Who says there’s no money in fiction?
  • Get four stories published: three down, one to go. Not looking likely at this juncture. And I know why: I haven’t sent enough stories out. if you don’t send, you don’t get accepted. Send, send, send. Keep punting that writing.

The next update will be in January, with a new set of goals for the year.