N.R. WALKER ~ GUEST POST ~ NEW YEARS RESOLUTION (AKA MY WRITING SCHEDULE)

With each new year comes all the new year resolutions that go with it; to diet, get fitter, to travel more, to cross things off bucket lists, to-do lists, grocery lists, whatever lists. Some people master their lists, artfully crossing off each item like a destination visited, and some lists are forgotten by January 5^th.

Mine isn’t so much a resolution list, or even a to-do list really. It’s a writing schedule. A list of things I’d like to accomplish, write, release. And I truly do start out with the best intentions, but you see, I’m not a planner. I don’t plan or outline my books, I just start at Chapter One and wing it. So it stands to reason my writing schedule is much the same.

I do have a rough guide. And I do have some things I know will be done/released. Things like audios, translations, and re-releases. They’re contracted, so I have dates for those, but as someone who primarily self-publishes, I’m free to write and release whatever and whenever I want.

And I learned a few years ago, that while schedules are good for setting goals, it’s not necessary a bad thing when they get blown out of the water.

I have no clue which story I’ll be writing next, or how long it will be, or if it will be a stand-alone or if a new series will be born. There’s freedom in that, in not being confined by rules and standards. If my writing schedule gets smashed because I start a crazy little tale that was only supposed to be a short story but ends up a five-novel series, then that’s a good thing, right?

All I can do is aim to release a book every two months, and despite my inability to stick to plans, that’s the foundation of my writing schedule. If those books are short, long, fluffy, angsty, sci-fi or contemporary, nobody knows. Not even me. I just write them – it’s the characters who tell the story.

For 2018, so far, I know I have the following:

Re-release of Sense of Place (Jan 17th)
Release of Finders Keepers (late Jan)
Re-release of Taxes and TARDIS (Feb 21st)
Release of Red Dirt Heart 4 on audio (possibly Feb)
Re-release of Three’s Company (March 21st)
Release of current (unnamed) WIP (late March)
Spencer Cohen Series (all four books) audio releases – Book One in March
Turning Point Series (all three books) audio releases – Book One in January
Translation of The Weight of It All in German.
Translation of Sixty Five Hours in Thai.
I have NINE pre-made covers I want to write books for (I’m totally obsessed with pre-made covers LOL) though they won’t all be released this year, but possibly four of them will be.
And there is the very real possibility of a new series beginning in 2018.

So with a writing schedule aiming for a new release every two months that means, all things going well, I’ll have six per year. Plus maybe a Christmas one thrown in sometime in December, if the Christmas gods are still speaking to me by the end of the year.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a planner or a pantser, because at the end of the day, it just means more books. Who cares how they’re written, only that they are.

And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really excited to see where 2018 takes us!

But as a little treat, here’s the brand new cover for my next release. Finders Keepers will be out late January!