Making Writing Plans Over the Christmas Holidays

As the famous ex-Beetle, John Lennon, once sang, “So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun.”

This is now the time of year when we reflect on what we've achieved, or not, over the last 12 months, and make plans for what we're going to achieve in the next 12 months.

But that's not true, is it? It’s not what we do. It’s only what we THINK we do.

We don't PLAN what we're going to do. We only SAY what we're going to do, with no actual “plan” to make it happen.

But what if you did have a plan? A month-by-month, week-by-week, day-by-day plan for everything you want to achieve, whether it's saving money, losing weight, or doing more writing, or all three?

The best way to plan something, especially a long-term plan, is to write it down.

Write down what you want to achieve and then create a timeline of what you need to do every month, then every week and every day, to get there.

For the plan to work, your goals need to be specific. So, for example, using the previous three goals mentioned, you'd have to say exactly how much money you want to have in savings, exactly how much weight you want to lose, and how many words you want to write and what you'll be writing.

Then you need to figure out exactly how you're going to do it all.

I've been working on my plan over the last couple of weeks, and I found it unexpectedly enlightening as to how to actually execute what I want to do.

And the most amazing (and positive) thing was that when I broke it all down into smaller monthly, weekly and daily goals, it's not as big as I thought it was when I was looking at it as a 12-month goal.

For instance, if I wanted to write half a million words in a year, that breaks down to only an hour a day of writing. And if I wanted to save $10,000, I would only have to cut back my spending by $192 a week, which is achievable through simple things like careful grocery spending, making fewer car trips, and avoiding purchases that are only wants and not needs. But these are not my goals, but just an example.

With my actual plan already in place (and I've already started working on my plan), I know that I'll achieve my goals because I’m working on them daily, but I won't tell you what they are yet, because I don't want to jinx it. But knowing what I have to do in the short-term (monthly/weekly/daily) makes the plan remarkably easy to follow. And leaves no room for excuses.

But for now, I will tell you that by following my plan, I’ll be eating better and writing a hell of a lot more.

Click the link below to see where I got my ideas from, and read more about how to create a plan for your own 12-month goals.

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

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My Muse Went on Vacation Without Me (An Update on My Writing)

I have a confession to make, but you’ve probably already noticed the problem.

My confession is that over the last few weeks/months, I’ve become really slack about keeping up with my writing. I haven’t even blogged here for over a month.

Naturally, I have plenty of excuses.

First off, you may remember that Dean and I spent weeks renovating our new house. During that time, we had issues with the tradies not doing the kitchen and bathroom correctly.  After the completion, we spent weeks arguing with them to get them to come back and fix what they did wrong, and to remove items from the final bill for the things that they charged incorrectly.

And if that wasn’t enough, when we left the rental house we were living in during the renovations, we struggled for three months to have our security bond returned to us. We finally had to issue a complaint with the Queensland Ombudsman, and guess what? We received the money a day later. 

And during this time, I also had a painful left arm that left me unable to do much. It turned out that I had several pinched nerves in my neck. I had injections to fix it, and now (so far) I’m back to normal physically, and the stress over the constant emails, form filling, phone calls, and letters has ceased now too.

So all in all, the last three months have had their challenges, including the weather, which is hot and humid, and we’ve had plenty of storms (summer here is in December, January & February).

But now I feel like my life is back to normal with no more fights over money, no stress, and no physical pain. So you should be hearing more from me from now on, and I’ll be back in my writing chair every day.

One good thing is that during this time of turbulence, I’ve sold many books. My most recent statement came a few days ago, and I’m assuming the large increase in book sales is due to the time of year.

But I wouldn’t have sold a lot of books if I hadn’t written them all. And now that it will soon be the New Year, it’s time to make plans for how much writing I’ll be doing in the next twelve months.

I’ve been reading about writing plans (and planning for other things in life too) and how to make a 12-month plan not only doable, but also how to stay on track and on target all year. 

I’ve already made my plan and got started on it, because I thought, Why wait? 

And soon I’ll tell you how it’s working, how much I’ve achieved and how you can do it too.

My Writing Failures 2025

  

 It's November, so we're heading towards the end of the year.

    Last January I had great hopes for all that I was going to achieve with my writing, but I've had a few failures as well as a few wins.

    So let's unpack it and see what happened.

    I planned to write and publish 3 novels. I only managed two. I was also going to write and publish more blog posts and articles, and a few ebooks, but I haven't managed all that either. Why?

    Well, late last year, we had to sell our home and move into a rental house until we could find a house to buy.

    Then in December, we'd booked a one-month holiday in a house in the country, thinking it was a place to relax and get plenty of writing done. Instead, we fled from there after only 9 days because the place was a filthy tip and the garden was so overgrown it wasn't usable. Plus, there was a rooster on the property that woke us up at first light every morning with its loud crowing.

    We then spent the next few months house hunting, which was so time-consuming.

    Eventually, we found a house, but we had to spend 2 months renovating it, which meant spending 12 hours a day working on the new house, plus taking one day off a week to do  "normal" things like cooking, shopping, cleaning and laundry. As you can imagine, we were exhausted.

    But even though we moved in two months ago, the work on the new house isn't over. I've spent every weekend making curtains, and I have 2 roman blinds to make too. I’ve also been doing some cleaning on the outside of the house.

    Plus, we've had to adapt to living in a new suburb, which includes finding our way around locally, settling into a new routine in our new home and getting to know our new neighbours.

    Thankfully, our lives are becoming more normal again now, and I've even organised the cupboards so that I know where everything is. And there were all the other disruptions, like attending dozens of open homes, eating up all our chilled and frozen food to empty the fridge freezer before it was moved, all the trips to the DIY store to keep restocking the building materials we needed, choosing and organising flooring and carpets to be fitted, and organising the removalists. Then we had to go back to the rental property to do a final clean and mow the lawn.

    We also had 'fun' things to do, like dealing with lawyers and all the forms to fill out, pages and pages of legal jargon to read through, and other legalities of buying a new home.

    As you can imagine, all this was not only time-consuming but also an extreme distraction to my life and my writing routine. But I did write and publish 2 novels, and sold many books too. So despite my low achievements, I still had an income, and I have a beautiful house to live in.

    The good news is that I'm never moving again-NEVER!

    Even if the house falls down or this turns out to be the worst neighbourhood ever-

    I'm going nowhere.

    The Big Question

    The question now, though, is what am I going to change to make next year more successful?

    Right now, I don’t know, but what I do know is that it won’t be disrupted by moving or house hunting or 12-hour days doing house renovations, so I know that I’ll get so much more writing done than I did this year.

    But I am going to give it a lot of thought between now and the end of the year. I’ve already started making a few plans, but I have several more weeks to finalise exactly what I  want to be working on next year.

    I do know one thing for sure about what I’m going to be doing.

    I’m going to stay home and write most of the time.

    It's my mission, after all.

 MISSION CRITICAL FOR LIFE

https://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

Is Being Straight and White a Disadvantage for a Freelance Writer?

I never give much thought to people being of different races. Racism holds no interest to me. We are all just people. I never give much thought to gay people either. It matters not to me who someone sleeps with.

 But it seems that being straight and white may be a disadvantage when it comes to publishing and freelance writing. And I’ll explain why.

I’m always on the lookout for high-paying freelance writing opportunities. And more and more I’ve been coming across submission guidelines that say things like “We like to publish authors from diverse backgrounds.” And that got me wondering what exactly that means?

Just this week I came across an interesting freelance open submission window that said the company was, "committed to uplifting voices from all walks of life. We actively welcome submissions from writers of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion, and cultural background. This includes — but is not limited to — BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled/neurodivergent writers, immigrant authors, and those from historically marginalized or underrepresented communities.” Does this mean they have a preference for submissions from a gay person over a straight person? Or a young person over an older person? Or a black person over a white person?

A few months ago, a writer named Aaron Barry, experimented with his submissions. He first tried submitting his work in his own identity, a straight white man, and only had modest success. He then began submitting his work under several different “marginal” identities and had great success. His work was even published in acclaimed literary journals.

And, most importantly, he admits that the work he submitted (and was successful with) was just nonsensical gibberish.

For instance, one of his poems included gibberish like “voodoo prak tik casta oyal drip drip.” Another poem, that he titled Shakespeare’s Cmslt, opens with: “To ?️ or not to ?️ William Shakespeare’s ??? little cmslt ???: that is the question.”

The website that published the article about Aaron’s experiment said that it was interesting that “few questioned the authenticity of the work, until the author’s race and gender were revealed.”

Many other publications have commented on Aaron’s experiment as to whether publishers who claim to be “inclusive” by wanting to promote so-called marginal writers, do value a writer’s identity much more than their work. And do writers from “underrepresented” categories get preferential treatment over straight, white writers? They conclude that they don’t think so. But they don’t know.

Personally, I don’t submit to publications that say they are “committed to” or  “actively welcome” submissions from certain groups of writers. I believe that my work should be judged on merit and not on who I sleep with or the colour of my skin or whether or not I’m physically or mentally disabled, or my religion. I prefer to keep politics out of the art of writing.

But you can be the judge of your own work.

And if you think this is all controversial, well, you’re probably right.

But I have never understood why a publisher needs to know the colour of my skin, or my partner preferences, or my religion. None of that has anything to do with my writing and whether or not it’s suitable for their publication.

Unless, of course, the publication is aimed at a certain group of people. 

But the publications I'm talking about, are not.

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