5 steps to a New Year New Writing Plan

Writing plans can be difficult. Use these 5 Steps and tips and tricks. It can be a breeze. Why should you plan your writing year? Would you start a trip without a map to your destination? No, so why start your writing year without a plan of attack. It’s not the destination, but the journey that makes life worth living. Let’s start the journey together this year and make it awesome. Get out a calendar, a list of your important dates, and your writing dreams.

Step 1

Calendar and important dates

It’s time to get out your calendars and mark important dates. What do I mean by important dates? I personally don’t write on holidays or Sundays, so I mark those in my writing calendar. Make note of any events you know of ahead of time. I know that I’ll be taking part in all three yearly NaNoWriMo events.

National Novel Writing Month is a non-profit event that encourages people all over the world to write a novel in 30 days. The organization has three events every year; I know April and July are known as Camp NaNoWriMo and the largest and most well-known event is November NaNoWriMo. These three events occupy a large part of my writing year. I use them to focus on large writing projects. I’m not saying you have to take part in NaNoWriMo.

Mark down any vacations, family birthdays, and more this way. You have a better idea of how many days you can dedicate to writing this year.

If you are looking for a calendar dedicated to helping you plan your writing vision for 2022, check out this planner.

Step 2

What do you want to write this year?

We all have that story we’ve had niggling the back of our minds, waiting for the perfect time to write it. You want to take a few moments and check out what you want to write and what needs to be worked on.

For example, last year I wrote 6 pieces and had 1 novel handled by my editor. So this year I’ll be

writing 3 novels
month of flash fiction
Revising 2 novels
Proofing and publishing 1 novel and short

If you would like to know what my writing plan for Q1 check out last week’s blog post.

What are you going to write this year?

Step 3

How much time do you want to dedicate to each project?

Think long and hard on how long you take to outline, draft, revise, and edit a piece of work. Be generous with yourself and your time. We have all learned that life is chaotic and can go sideways. Look back at how long you’ve needed in the past. If this is your first year dedicating to writing, give yourself plenty of time. Set aside as little as an hour a day dedicated to writing on a project. Set an achievable deadline and reward. I recommend finding a writing group to help with accountability and encouragement.

For Example: I know I can outline a novel in less than 30 days. I can also draft a novel in the same about of time. Because of my dyslexia, I know I take much longer to edit a novel than to revise the same project.

If you’re looking for a group, we would love to have you.

Do you have a writing group?

Step 4

Do you have any projects stuck in stages?

While you’re looking, think about those projects you have sitting around in various stages of completion. Those lonely manuscripts could use some love and this should be their year too. If you are new to dedicating a year to writing, you might be unfamiliar with the stages of completing a novel.

Idea/plotting
Outling
Drafting
Revision
Edits
Formatting
Proofs
Publishing

Don’t leave them hanging. Pick a few dust off them and take them out for a whirl.

Do you have projects sitting around waiting for you to show them some love?

Step 5

Let’s plan it out

Now that you’ve marked off important dates, learned how long you will dedicate to each project, it’s time to plan out your writing year. Pick your favorite way to plan.

Writing notebook

Here is a workshop on how to create your most valuable tool, the writer’s notebook

Planners

Here is a writer’s vision planner for 2022. Created by an author for authors.

Notion

Notion for authors workshop will come to On the Wings for Writers 2nd weekend in June.

Trello

Trello for authors workshop will come to On the Wings for Writers 2nd weekend in March.

NaNoWriMo

You can use NaNoWriMo to track your projects all year, even outside of the events.

NaNoWriMo

StoryOrigin