BRUH! It’s 2017, SON!! OMGGGG! 

YAAAAAYYY!!!

But wait, before we get into the new year, if you haven’t checked out my round up and assessments for 2016, now’s the time to do it:

Weekly Hustle for Weeks #45-52 (10/31/2016 – 12/26/2016)
Creative Achievements for 2016

So now that you’ve gotten one last look at 2016, let’s move forward, shall we?


2017:
The Year of the Novel.
Year of the Film.
Year of the Badass.
Year of the Dollhouse.

So I’ve been an author entrepreneur for 3 years now, and though I’ve achieved a lot, I feel myself stagnating in the indie author game. Arguably, I had to take some time off to get my life in order: growing and then having a baby in 2014, raising that baby and jumping back into my creative dojo in 2015, and then raising a toddler as a single mom, re-establishing my independence, and upping my creative hustle game in 2016.

The past three years have been some years of massive growth pains, fraught with despairs, tears, triumphs, and celebrations, and LOTS of conflicting emotions. Today, as of Jan 2 2017, my life has become a lot more stable, more vibrant, more positive, and way more hopeful. So now, it’s really time to drill down and focus on my personal goals AND my creative goals, not just as a novelist, but as a screenwriter and filmmaker as well.

So, I’m going to aim for 8 MAJOR goals this year. Yes, eight. I’m back to my big goals, but now that I’ve shaken off many of life’s monkeys (for now), I’m ready to unleash my creative energy for 2017! So check them out below:

My 8 Major Creative Goals for 2017

1. Develop a daily writing habit of 500 words a day.

I’ve already been practicing this for December, and I’ve been netting about 850 words per day! More important than quantity, though, is consistency so that writing fiction every day is a habit, like brushing my teeth and showering.

2. Update daily writing habit to 2,000 words a day by October 1 2017, the latest.

Once my 500-words-per-day habit is anchored down for at least three months straight, I want to start increasing my daily output by 500-word increments each quarter. By the time October 2017 rolls around, I want to habitually be putting out 2,000 words per day, literally for the rest of my life, lol!

So this is what I hope my writing upgrade schedule will look like for 2017:

Q1: January 1 – 500 words per day
Q2: April 1 – 1,000 words per day
Q3: July 1 – 1,500 words per day
Q4: October 1 – 2,000 words per day

We’ll see how this all works out. I’m committed to creating the habit and improving on it as much as I can!


3. Publish more books! (At least 5 books.)

 

tfpbundlecoverOK. So I said this LAST year, but:

Finishing out the next arc of the BOE series and churning out at least ONE trilogy (+ a free-quel) in a separate series are THE major pushes for 2016.

Except this time, I’m ADDING books to that load, because I’d like to start my new series, Hitmen of Happily Ever After, as well.

Aside from The Books of Ezekiel and HOHEA, I honestly can’t promise what I’ll be publishing this year, but here’s a list of the possible contenders. Even then, though, I can’t promise which books from which series are coming when. (Don’cha just love surprises?) In any case, here’s the list of possibles:

The Books of Ezekiel Series (urban fantasy / dystopian sci-fi) – DEFINITELY

  1. The Iron Maiden (BOE #3)
  2. Blood & Ink (BOE #4)
  3. The House of Death (BOE #5)
  4. Chase the Devil (BOE #6)
  5. The Last Descent (BOE #7)
  6. The Final Page (BOE Omnibus #3 – #7)

The Hitmen of Happily Ever After (urban fantasy / crime / noir ) – DEFINITELY

  1. Rose n’ John Does (Book 1)
  2. Loosey, Goosey (Book 0)
  3. Red n’ Dead (Book 2)
  4. Snow n’ Blow (Book 3)
  5. Glass n’ Ass (Book 4)
  6. Mer n’ Cur (Book 5)

The ASYLUM Trilogy (survival horror / sci-fi thriller) – HIGHLY POSSIBLE

  1. Asylum (Book 1)
  2. Bedlam (Book 2)
  3. Hoodlum (Book 3)
  4. Peplum (Book 0)

The AFTER ASYLUM Series (survival horror / sci-fi thriller) – HIGHLY POSSIBLE

This is the series of events that happens between ASYLUM and BEDLAM in the ASYLUM Trilogy.

  1. Relic (Book 0)
  2. Mama’s Little Baby (Book 1)
  3. Snake Eyes (Book 2)
  4. Trojan (Book 3)
  5. Gemini (Book 4)
  6. The Winter Wood (Book 5)
  7. The Ventriloquist (Book 6)
  8. Sacrilege (Book 7)

So yes, these are all the potential projects that I’ll be dipping into this year. We’ll see how they all shake out!


4. Continue to upgrade and rebrand my author website!

cropped-coverpage3B.pngI KILLED on this goal in 2016, and I accomplished a really sexy re-brand of my author business.

For 2017, it’s time to improve upon that re-brand and to finish what I started

These are the elements I’m still considering ADDING in terms of the total rebrand:

  • MORE sci-fi, fantasy, folklore, and legends research, with an awesome “research notes blog” for each series,
  • redesigning my Welcome Page (the one you go to after visiting my kick ass homepage),
  • a complete “author’s corner” with my entire media kit at the ready,
  • a FREE starter library of all the first novels in my series (after they’ve been written, of course!),
  • a VIP room for readers of my works (on Facebook & on the website),

This is something I’m giving myself until December 2017 to finish. I’ve realized that, for me, branding is a steady, a year-long task that unfolds in bits and bursts over the months. So I’ll do another evaluation of the brand towards the end of the year!


5. Connect more with my community and grow it, too… readers and authors alike!

I’m in an eternal battle against creative isolation. In 2014, I’d decided to pull back from community in order to focus on building my brand, focusing on my work and my novels, and also, to put myself more fully into motherhood.

In the process, however, I really lost my way with regard to connecting more fully with both my peers and my readers. But I want to really turn that around for 2017. I want to not only RE-connect with my readers on my list, but I also want to grow my community of author peers and readers!

So here is a list of sub-goals that I need to complete in order to achieve this overall goal.

FOR CONNECTING WITH AUTHORS:

  • Connecting with 3 authors per month via author communities and email
  • Reviewing author peers’ books (though I’ve already been doing that too!)
  • Hyping other authors’ works via my email list
  • Participating in author cross-promotion opportunities

FOR CONNECTING MORE WITH MY CURRENT READERS:

  • More gifts, prizes, and giveaways for my reader community!
  • Building VIP reader list
  • Daily Creative Journal + Weekly Hustle Updates
  • Movie/TV/Video Game Reviews
  • Weekly Email

FOR GROWING READER COMMUNITY:

  • Viral giveaways, more free books, free prizes
  • Paid promos (ads, blog tours)
  • BookTube (reviewing books on YouTube)
  • Daily Creative Journal + Weekly Hustle Updates
  • Movie/TV/Video Game Reviews

This is definitely a long game endeavor, but I really look forward to where this journey will take me. I can’t wait to meet more people, cultivate a community, and literally smash the CRAP out of my creative isolation.


6. Shoot and release my first full feature horror film, “Sandman”!

It’s really just time to stop being scared. Honestly. I can do all I can to learn, prep, and galvanize my filmmaking skills, but the only way to truly BECOME the action, sci-fi, and horror director that I want to be is just to get out there and start making films.

So, this spring, I’ll be aiming to do a one-location horror film shoot called “Sandman”, which is based on a fictional monster I’ve often been terrified of myself, lol. That’s all I have to say about Sandman for the moment, but I have pretty much everything I need, with the exception of a couple of props, camera and lighting equipment, and a crew.

All of which are VERY MUCH forthcoming! I’m planning and writing the script now, and I simply CANNOT wait to get started.

7. Shoot and release a second full feature horror film, “Ojos”!

After I’m done shooting Sandman, it’s time to dive into the next feature horror, “Ojos”! This is going to be pretty exciting, because it’s mostly a first POV movie about a guy who inherits the eyes of the Devil. It’s such a crazy concept, but the storyboard’s already etching its way through my medulla oblongata. Can’t wait to shoot it!


8. Focus on worldbuilding for my fiction franchises

I really want to dive way deeper into creating world history, cultures, civilizations, languages, magic systems, and more. I work on these things as much as I can, but I really want to go waay deeper this year by:

  • Finishing up my “Worldbuilding Lab” Scrivener template, which is essentially a set of 20+ modules designed to help SFF authors build their own authentic, comprehensive story worlds!
  • Have another in-depth go at worldbuilding for The Books of Ezekiel. I already built a lot of the world for BOE, but so much more of it remains, and I need to get back in the game!
  • Building a complete world for the Hitmen of Happily Ever After
  • Building a complete world for the ASYLUM trilogy
  • Building a complete world for the FORGOTTEN trilogy

Not only do I need worlds in which to set my stories, but worldbuilding is also just plain ole FUN! It’s one of the few times we get to frolic as writers. I can be totally carefree, liberated from word counts and deadlines, and just BREATHE. Very much looking forward to it!

So that’s me and my insane goals for 2017! And you? What are YOUR major goals for 2017? Leave comments below, good luck with all your creative endeavors, and, obvs…

Keep it indie,
<3 Colby