2014 Goals

I think that I've finally decided to pursue writing as more than a "someday" goal and make it a "now" goal. I haven't written in my blog in years, but I do want to start using this blog as a way to track my goal progress and publish short stories on my path to my main goal: self-publishing a novel.

So here are my goals for this week:

• Decide on two main writing points of view that I would like to develop
• Practice developing a believable character
• Commit to 30 minutes of a free-write in each point of view developing the same character

As I make progress, I plan on publishing more posts which include examples of my work from the week. My overall goal for this year is to finally finish one of the myriad of novel ideas I have floating around in my random brain. The random brain is that portion of the brain that operates mainly while sleep deprived. Because I have a 10 month old baby that still wakes up in the middle of the night, that portion of my brain has been running rampant for the past few months.

I need to get those ideas out of random and put them into a format that other people can understand. Why do I feel this need? One of the reasons I've never been committed to finishing a novel (other than my general lack of commitment) is that I don't really feel the need for other people to see my work. However, after reading approximately 500 free e-books, I've realized that maybe other people need to read my novels. I've read too many novels where the main voice is agnostic or atheistic because of some "Christian" theme which is incorrect (for example that God doesn't love gays, which is completely untrue). I've also read too many "Christian-themed" novels that don't develop any type of Christian theme, but just say that the characters are Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, your character should develop over time in some way (and also have some type of moral imperative such as not sleeping together before marriage). Yes, we are not perfect, but we should at least be striving for something.

I plan on focusing mainly on writing fiction books with Christian themes, not Christian books. I feel like many of the "contemporary Christian" novels are sappy and cheesy and don't really have much story. I want the story to take precedence, and use that story to convince readers of the inherent worth in the Christian point of view without browbeating anyone... I know that's an insanely high standard to hold myself to, and I will likely fail to some degree. But I have determined that the benefits outweigh the risks and can't wait to get started! Look for more to come as I make progress on my weekly goals.