19Dec 2016 by Dianna L. Gunn

Accomplishments of 2016 + Creative Goals 2017

Goal setting
The world in 2016 has been a bit of a shit show(yes, I know I'm being generous here), but I've made massive leaps and strides in my writing career, and as much as I am concerned about where the world is headed from here(into fire and brimstone?) on a personal level, I'm extremely excited for the new year to begin. But first I'd like to take a moment to honour all the things I've accomplished this year, because acknowledging our past accomplishments is as important as creating goals for the future. So here goes, my 2017 creative accomplishments: 1. Edited Good Bye & Submitted It Spoiler Alert: I got the contract! Good Bye, a YA fantasy novella I've put many years of love into, is set to release in April 2017. 2. Edited Moonshadow's Guardian & started working…
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06Sep 2016 by Dianna L. Gunn

What are you going to accomplish in the last four months of the year?

Goal setting
Somehow the first eight months of 2016 have already passed us by, and if you're anything like me you've created a list of everything you've accomplished this year and you can't decide if it's an incredible amount of work or not quite enough(the real answer, I suspect, is a little bit of both). But one thing's for sure: there are only a precious few months left to reach as many of our goals for the year as possible. Now is the time to start working towards these goals with ferocious determination. And one of the best ways to motivate yourself is to announce your goals to the world, so please share your goals for the rest of the year in the comments section -- but first let me tell you about a…
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03May 2016 by Dianna L. Gunn

April Accomplishments

Goal setting
May is here and the A to Z challenge is over at last! April wasn't exactly the best month for me but I still did make significant progress on each of my goals: Submit Moonshadow's Guardian to publishers -- This goal is actually changing. As the second book is developing in bigger and bolder ways than I imagined when I set out to write it I've reached a point where I want full control over every aspect of this series. Which, by the way, has now become a trilogy. I've already gotten a quote from a professional editor and will be moving forward with this very soon. My plan is to pay for the developmental editing myself and do it over the next six months, then run a crowdfunding campaign next…
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05Jan 2016 by dlgunn

Writerly Goals 2016

Goal setting, Increasing productivity, Writing
Last week I shared my accomplishments of 2015 and--in the interest of both accountability and education--today I'm going to share my goals for the year of 2016. This year I've actually also divided the goals into quarters and even figured out how far to progress on each goal during the first four months of the year. Of course, this is always subject to change, but I'm pretty proud of the way I've broken things down: 1. Submit Good Bye to 30 publishers(or until I get a contract) -- Good Bye is actually a novella so this is a somewhat ambitious number, but it's totally doable. January: Finish editing Good Bye and edit the synopsis/query(queries will be customized but the blurb will be the same for each one) 3-5 times. Submit the initial batch…
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17Feb 2015 by Dianna L. Gunn

How committed are you to building a successful writing career?

Book Reviews, Goal setting, Reading Related, Writing
Everyone says they're committed to their goals, but how many actually take regular, massive action to achieve them? How many people are actually committed enough to come home from their day jobs and work for hours on an art project, a novel, a side business? We hear about these people all the time--people who work full time and still spend 20 hours a week building their business until they're able to quit that full time job comfortably. People who put themselves through college or university by working full time and still get excellent marks. People who put their entire lives on hold and spend 80 hours a week working to release a new project or create a new business. We hear about them all the time, but the people who actually…
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09Dec 2014 by Dianna L. Gunn

Are you thinking about next year?

Goal setting, Writing
Nanowrimo's been over for a while now, which hopefully means that you now have something that can loosely be defined as a novel and have even done some celebrating. Having finished your novel, done your celebrating, and fully recovered from both, you're likely now remembering that Christmas or whatever holiday it is that your family happens to celebrate--because religious or not, everybody seems to celebrate something at this time of year--and realizing that you're drastically behind on your holiday shopping. With all these things on your mind, have you stopped to think about what you're going to accomplish next year? Have you started making plans? "New Year's Resolutions" might not be effective, but having a loose plan for what you'll accomplish next year well before it begins can help you…
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28Apr 2014 by Dianna L. Gunn

Your Daily Marketing Schedule

Goal setting, Writing
Now that you've decided which social media networks to focus on and where you hope to make guest appearances, it's time to create a daily marketing plan for the next month. Some activities, like scheduling promotional social media posts, should be done once or twice a month for best results, but you should incorporate time for marketing in your schedule every day. Why it's important to market daily Even if your blog already has several hundred followers, even if you're selling books well or making a decent living from freelance writing, you need to market yourself every day. Word of mouth is great, but marketing your books and blog yourself is the only way you can guarantee an increase in followers. This is especially true early on--eventually you will experience…
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14Apr 2014 by Dianna L. Gunn

Creating a guest article strategy

Blog Stuff, Goal setting, Marketing, Writing
If you read any marketing blog long enough you'll eventually hear about the benefits of guest posting on other blogs or writing articles for different websites and online magazines. Many popular bloggers attribute their success to these guest appearances. I've personally made several guest appearances over the years on different websites, and I find each one is marked by a spike in readership both for the day and in the long run. Better still, the right guest article strategy will earn money while you build your author platform. There are several blogs that pay for guest posts, and if you're interested in freelancing, guest articles are also a good way to build publishing credits. Of course, you can't guarantee that every guest post you pitch will be accepted, but if…
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17Mar 2014 by Dianna L. Gunn

Tactics for when you’re stuck on rewrites

Editing, Goal setting, Writing
I've spent a long time in rewrites--first working on Moonshadow's Guardian, then the second draft of my 2011 Nanovel--and the last two weeks have been the most unpleasant of all. Each day I wrote a page, maybe less, of the actual novel and spent hours entranced in other writing. Avoiding the novel itself. Late last week I hunkered down, figured out the issue causing my avoidance and worked through it. Now I'm back to work on my novel, confident I won't stall again. When you've been working on the same project for a long time it can be difficult to continue. You start to lose your enthusiasm and writing becomes like walking on hot coals. Every scene seems an insurmountable challenge. The book itself becomes a monster you avoid like…
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