The Writing Year in Review Back to Blog

When each year winds to a close, I like to look back and evaluate my writing productivity. See how many books I finished writing. Compare that number to the previous year. Set my goals for the coming year. (I might not meet those goals, but I sure do like to set them!)

So, this is how much writing I accomplished in 2006:

1. Wrote a three-story anthology titled Loved by Gods. Here’s a brief description: In this anthology, modern women catch the attention of famous Greek gods. Ares, Apollo, and Poseidon–three of the most notorious gods–become prey…to love.

2. I completed the final story in my “Wolf’s Call” trilogy for Red Sage. I’m happy to report that I sold Caged Wolf and it will be appearing in an upcoming Secrets novella.

3. I completed my paranormal romance, tentatively titled Touching the Darkness. My agent is actually shopping this manuscript around for me now. Here’s a bit about the heroine in Touching the Darkness: Emily Drake is known as the Monster Doctor. Emily’s a psychologist with a very special talent–thanks to her empathic power, she can touch the thoughts and emotions of her patients. And Emily’s patients, well, they aren’t exactly typical either; they’re Other–vampires, demons, all of the creatures that humans fear in the darkness of the night.

So, the year is nearly over and I’ve completed two full-length stories and one novella. I’m working on another novella now–with the end goal of a “done date” for December 31st. I was on the Magical Musings blog the other day, and there was an interesting post about loglines. I made up a brief logline for my novella-in-progress. For anyone dying of curiousity (or even feeling vaguely curious), here’s my logline: A vampiress with a taste for bad boys is tracked by a bounty hunter willing to do anything to bring down his prey.

So how does this year’s output compare to last year’s? Well, in 2005, I finished two full-length novels and two novellas (both novellas sold to Red Sage–yay!).

If I can finish the novella I’m working on, I’ll have beaten my 2005 writing productivity level. Oh, I so have to do that…

Now, for next year’s goals…

In an ideal world, I would produce one novel every two months. But, well, I definitely do not live in an ideal world (and I’m guessing this is the case for all of the other writers out there). So, I’m going to err on the cautious side. Next year, I’d like to produce three novels and two novellas. Not too big of a change, so it certainly seems doable.

Anyone else out there want to share your writing goals for 2007? Or wanna tell me whether or not you met your goals for 2006?

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8 responses to “The Writing Year in Review”

  1. fuzz says:

    Showoff!
    Stop making the rest of us look bad!

    Congratulations on all your accomplishments! You continue to inspire me.

  2. Cynthia Eden says:

    Ah, Fuzz, I could never make you look bad! Aren’t you the one who just aced yet another grad course? Hmmm???

    And, as always, you inspire me, too.

  3. Edie says:

    I agree with Fuzz. I feel like a slacker. This year is the slowest I’ve written. I hope it will pay off, and all the books will eventually sell.

    The logline works. It brings up the question whether the bounty hunter is bad and he and the vampiress will get together. But more than the logline, I like the book your agent is shopping around. A nice twist on the paranormal. 🙂

  4. Cynthia Eden says:

    Ah, Edie, no way are you a slacker. Honestly, I think we all know that it’s quality that really matters. What’s the use in producing a lot if the quality isn’t good? Much better to produce high quality. So I really must amend my goals for the coming year—I want to produce high quality books, not just up my quantity.

    Thanks for your comment about Touching the Darkness–I really liked writing that story!

  5. Michelle says:

    Good going, Cynthia, it all sounds really great.

    And while I agree with you about quality work, I would like to up my game. I’ll have written two STs by the end of this year, and I’d like to make that 2 and a half for next year.

  6. Cynthia Eden says:

    Thanks, Michelle! Two single titles? Congratulations!

  7. Anonymous says:

    Nice logline! That’s a lot of writing. How many hours would you say you spend on most days on writing. (not business related stuff or research, but writing) I’m curious to know what professional writers are doing especially if they are producing this much!

  8. Cynthia Eden says:

    Hi, Zoe! Typically, I aim for 10 pages a day–which will roughly equal out to 2 hours for me. If I get more time, or I type faster (which actually sometimes happen when the words are flowing well!), I’ll do more.