This month hasn’t been too bad in terms of productivity. Unfortunately, most of the things I worked on this month didn’t have writing involved. So, the word count was kind of low. But, it was one of my more productive months in terms of time.

This past week was a prime example of this, actually. Although I did get quite a bit done for my next book, that was pretty close to the majority of the writing I was able to get in.

However, everything seems to be stabilizing a bit. So, I should be able to get quite a bit done in October.

The Book Is Just About Done!

Setting Kingmaker as a priority after my client’s work was done for the day has made a huge impact on getting it done. This means I work on my book before I blog or record YouTube videos.

Essentially, I’m guaranteeing myself at least an hour block of time per day to get the book written. This doesn’t include any time I write in the evenings or on weekends. And with how well the story is unfolding, I am confident I’ll be done before October 31st.

Of course, this is simply the first draft. Then comes the fun part of the editing, designing a book cover, setting up the front and back matter, and then hitting up Amazon and Barnes & Noble to publish.

In other words, I’m just about done with the fun part of self-publishing.

The plan is still to work on my Wattpad book, VII, during NaNoWriMo in November. I’d like to polish it up, finish the last chapter, and check it off as complete. After that, I’ll start working on the second book to Kingmaker.

Yes, I’ve already planned out the vast majority of the next three books of this four-part series.

What About 90,000 Words?

The goal for 90,000 words that you see in the sidebar of this website is a tentative goal. It’s based on the best average length for fantasy and horror novels. However, I write until the story is told. This means it could be longer or shorter.

Based on how it’s unfolding now, I don’t know how far Kingmaker will be beyond 80,000 words.

After all, you don’t want to cut too much out of a good tale or put in so much filler and fluff that the reader gets bored. I’m not going to force 90,000 words if there isn’t anything left to add to keep the story flowing.

Planning Out Changes for the Blogs

So far, I’ve been able to keep up with WriterSanctuary’s publishing schedule. This week, I’ll also work on getting CrossingColorado.com and ColoradoPlays.com on their own.

However, I do have some plans to change things up a bit. For example, I’ve been toying with changing the theme to WriterSanctuary.com and CrossingColorado.com for quite some time, now.

I’m setting up a couple of blocks of time next week to dive into that, so, expect some massive visual changes soon.

Plus, I am working on restructuring some pages and layouts. For one thing, I’m thinking about using a related post plugin to show similar content within text based on tags. That way, anyone reading the post can see I have other articles centering around the same primary topic.

Right now, I just have the “Related Post” feed at the bottom that comes with almost every WordPress theme. It’s OK, but it really doesn’t have the same relatable connections. Plus, it’s at the bottom of the page, which people often don’t scroll to anyway.

This way, I can have other articles displayed anywhere I want within the post. I have a plugin in mind that is superior to that layout.

Setting Up Writing Goals for October

One of my plans is to have the best month of writing I’ve ever had since I started as a freelancer back in 2012. I know the exact numbers because I keep track of everything I do every day in a spreadsheet.

Hey, it’s a great way to keep motivated while giving me data to base freelancing rates and estimations. Not to mention tracking income from the blogs and a slew of other metrics.

Don’t laugh.

Anyway, for this next month, I plan on accomplishing a lot of awesomeness. I just hope the content comes out equally as good.

So, what goals am I setting to make October my best month yet?

Keeping Ahead of 2021 Word Count

My spreadsheet estimates how many words I’ll write by the end of the year. It’s based on current progress as well as how much I’ve written from January 1st up until today.

In order for me to break last year’s word count record, I need to write 3,700 words per day. Now, this is going off of a Monday through Friday writing schedule, which I often write more during the weekends.

Another way I could look at it is that I need 25,900 words per week.

As long as my clients don’t need something extravagant or an extra project this month, I should be able to knock this one out of the park. In fact, I’m tracking my progress to see if I can break my ultimate record of 121,388 words in a month from when I did the 90 blog posts in 30 days challenge.

Getting All Three Blogs on a Publishing Schedule

By maintaining the goal of keeping ahead of my 2021 word count, I should be able to have a lot of content published on the blogs. This means publishing 6 posts per week at the very minimum.

However, I have a lot to do on the other two blogs to get them ready. So, the goal this month is to at least start their publishing schedules before the 31st. That means the first week of November will have regular routine content on all three websites.

How quickly I can start cranking out posts on the blogs depends on how long it takes me to get the themes changed over and a few other tweaks I want to do before the end of the year.

I would love to start 2023 on solid ground in terms of content.

Of Course, Wrapping Up Kingmaker

My ultimate goal this month, though, is to finish the first draft of Kingmaker. At the rate I’m going, though, it won’t be long until we start the editing process before publishing.

This time, though, I think I’m going to look for a few beta readers. Because of how I wrote this book, I want to make sure it’s not confusing. This is the first time I’ve written a story using first and third-person points of view.

The tentative plan is to have Kingmaker published before Christmas. Though, this really depends on how long it takes to edit as well as find a good cover design. It’s not going to be like my first book, where we took a pic of me standing on Lookout Mountain.

I want something more artistic regarding the storyline.

What Kind of Awesomeness Do You Have Planned?

I’m going to push myself a bit to hit all of the above goals. And in reality, it’s nothing I can’t handle or haven’t done before. The real trick to all of this is making sure I use my time wisely throughout the day.

I am confident that I can shatter a lot of my records if I put in the effort to do so.

What kind of writing goals do you have planned for October? Are you planning on joining NaNoWriMo this November?