The Writing Goal for 2015 was to finish the first draft of Upheaval. I finished the draft on Dec 23.

Time to break out the egg nog and have a good time.

Actually it’s time to edit that book ASAP since I’ve already got a book signing engagement for April 30th. The good news for me is that it’s a short book. Middle Grade as the target audience allows for that. I’ve got the interior dimensions and font figured out. It’s really just a game of getting each chapter to start and end with a bang and tie up all the loose story threads. As well as typo-hunt until each last mistake is left dead in a pool of bloody grammar.

As great as it is meeting my writing goal for 2015, I feel like I really didn’t grow enough as a writer. I was proud that I was able to write the entire story from one character’s POV. I imagined that limited scope would be a real hindrance, but it honestly wasn’t as bad as I thought. On the negative side, many months went by with no output. But 2016 is on the horizon and I’ve got some new goals to set.

I’m upping the stakes a bit for myself and I hope I can manage.

1. Write an 80,000-word supernatural/mystery thriller
2. Write two 8,000-10,000-word short story companions for The Stitcher and Upheaval as free download giveaways

For a lot of writers, I know that this goal could be accomplished in a month. But here at Writing on Empty, I’ve got 2 small children, a career, a masters degree to finish, and just plain life to live.

Funnily enough, a lot of writers struggle with word count in the opposite direction as me. Many authors find it hard to cut their novels down in number to meet their audience/genre target. When it comes to my stories, I don’t chew the scenery and get too flowery with the language. In that sense, I’m the anti-Tolkien.

So this 80,000 word count goal is going to stretch me quite a bit.

But it’s all for the love of creation.

Do you have any writing goals for 2016?