Looking Behind to Look Ahead

by M. L. Buchman

 If you want to see my attempt to look waaaaay ahead this year on a very macro, publishing-level scale, check out my earlier post: The Wild Year! (peering into the crystal ball)

But to look a little way ahead, on a little scale like my own goals, I like to look behind. What this lets me do is be very realistic about what I can and can't achieve.

Failing to Success

This used to be my philosophy. Set gonzo goals, strive for them like made, and even if I never hit them, I get a lot done. Right? Of course right! I did that for several years before I realized that I was badly sabotaging myself. I was absolutely setting myself up to fail. Looking back over my statistics across multiple years: the bigger the goal, the less I achieved.

Why? Because while I could pat myself on the back for how much I did achieve, I was never setting myself up for success. There's a real power in success, far beyond telling myself that I "done good" that year anyway, is actually feeling and knowing that you "done good."

Now? I set realistic goals, based on careful assessment of the prior year, and then I will estimate whether or not I think I can expand that. Much more satisfying to blow past a goal than it is to reach something good, but it wasn't to the goal.

Why Set Goals at All?

Just a brief sidetrack on this. Without setting a goal, there's no challenge to rise to. Humans are competitive by nature. Excessively so? I won't argue that point. But even the most mild-mannered of us is, even if it's only to meet our own challenges rather than challenging others.

Without goals, we are far less likely to push ourselves.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Goals

I think we forget the former far too often in the favor of the latter. Why? Because it's far easier to measure quantity. I also think that it's far less important to set quantitative goals than qualitative ones.

So, I'll start the right way round.

Qualitative Goals for 2021

• Quality - Yes, that's a qualitative goal. I always strive to make my next effort better than my former one. Go for richer setting, more depth, better breath control or characterization in an audiobook, more focused marketing...whatever. I make it a conscious goal to do something a little better every time.
• Focus of Effort - I love the shiny object! The cool idea that drags me so totally sideways that it takes a huge effort to recover. 2021 has a BIG goal of a tighter focus. One example is that for the last 3 years I've been writing 4 science fiction stories for a lovely little anthology called Boundary Shock Quarterly. A little secret that I'm finally catching onto: as much as I love SF, that's not my present audience. They barely sell. Four stories takes 30-40,000 words and perhaps 10-12 days. That's 5-7% of my writing time and 2-3% of my total days. That could be a short novel or a new short story series. 5% of my writing should equal 5% of my income, it's about a fiftieth of that (0.1%). I love SF, but then I love almost everything about writing, so perhaps that isn't the best use of my time.
• Focus of Story - Three years ago, between novels and short stories, I had 15 or so open series. Fans were lucky to get a book per year or 2 stories a year in the same series. That's a long wait. So, I've been focusing down. I now have 5ish open series between novels and stories. This lets me as a writer plunge deeper into story and character and all those good juicy things that we so love.
• Consistency - I write, I market, I publish, I record audio, I run my business, I...you get the idea. However, I do it in just that sort of haphazard way. If I wrote consistently, every day, for just 2-3 hours, my yearly writing goal would breeze by, instead of being a struggle to hit each December. I aim to be more consistency in 2021.

Quantitative Goals for 2021

Looking back to look ahead. In 2020, I published 4 novels, 10 collections, and 17 short stories. 

This year I want to shift that to a few more novels, far fewer collections, and 4 less (SF) short stories. It will be about the same number of words! (Note that. No additional actual effort and I get 2-3 more novels, which are my real money makers.) Each collection gets not only time and effort to build it, but each also gets 5-8,000 new words of introductions. That's 50-80,000 words of introductions to produce my 2020 collections. Hello, that's 1-2 more novels. Add those to taking away the extra 4 stories to add another novel and, behold, I could put out a short trilogy with no extra effort.

What does that look like?

The 2019-2021 Miranda Chase action-adventure series

All available for pre-order now (hint, hint)

The first two titles in this series were in 2019, the next two in 2020. By focusing, all four of the second quartet will be in the first half of 2021. For both me the writer, and my fans, that's very exciting to be able to do.

And the potential trilogy in the second half of the year. Let's just say I've got some ideas.

2021 Bonus #1

And because I've already been implementing my Qualitative goals better in the second half of 2021, along with White Top I will be releasing an exciting card game based on the series: The Great Chase. Players will get to dive into Miranda Chase's world along with fans and non-fans to win the game themselves. That's the sort of thing I could never have pulled off under my old flail method.

2021 Goals

• Quality, Focus, Consistency
• Write 7 novels and 13 short stories (100% in audio as well)
• A super cool card game
• And I have another one up my sleeve if this keeps working. Watch for announcements in late 2021.

What are your goals, especially the Qualitative ones?

More importantly, how are you thinking about your goals? 

I'd love to hear.

USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 70+ action-adventure thriller and military romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.” Booklist declared: “3X Top 10 of the Year.” A project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.

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