Picking Goals When the Trees Are Autumnal

The time always comes when I have to make new writing goals, but I never like it. Right now, since I'm not under contract, I am at looser ends than usual.

My "business" goals are pretty well laid out for right now. I'm getting my author photo done, and my website re-design is in progress, and I've already set up a dozen or so guest blogs in conjunction with the release of my next novel, The Duke and the Pirate Queen.

It's the writing goals I'm pondering. What to write next? What do I want to write? What do I feel enthusiastic about writing? What's marketable?

I can't seem to make any decisions. Not firm ones. I wrote a couple of synopses, and they felt flat; the process was like digging through mud with a teaspoon. I suspect I'm a bit burned out, after spending the last four years writing novels while holding down a full-time dayjob.

Along with drafting synopses, I've been reading research materials and looking at unfinished projects. I've been reading, because reading is one of my essential methods for filling up my brain with materials that will eventually compost into fiction. I've been reading a book on woolly mammoths (Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age) and enjoying it hugely (pun intended).

For the next few weeks, I think my goal is to read more and think about writing less.

Maybe something will shake loose.

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