In my last post I prattled on about last years ups and downs. Now it's time to talk about projects for 2013, and some short and long term goals.

Consulting

As I mentioned before, the main change for my consultancy this year is taking on an office. It's been an interesting step to take; I could find only a small amount of current advice online, so hopefully I can record some of my experiences for others.

In 2013 I want to diversify my consultancy by taking on local clients with ongoing retainers. A key problem with freelancing is that income can be irregular. If I can bring in a known amount each month it should give me more flexibility and security.

Writing

The big aim this year is to start writing and publishing a lot more, both blogs and ebooks. I recently launched Freelance Frontier, a separate site where I can talk more narrowly about consulting.

A lot of people seem to be "pledging" to write a certain number of words per day. It seems a fun hack so I am going to start by promising to write 1100 words per day, and see if I can get it up to 2000 words over the course of the year.

So where do I want to write...

  • Here, for a start. I've been lax in publishing posts over the last year - quite a lot of articles were started, then left to rot. Hopefully with more time during the week I can focus and build content.
  • Freelance Frontier; I launched this site because I've noticed a lot of people talking about becoming freelancers and consultants. But there is only a small amount of information online to help them. I want to document stuff I have found that works, and my ongoing mishaps, to build a resource for prospective consultants.
  • EBooks; currenty I have two books in the pipeline, with the first launching sometime in the middle of January. I've always wanted to write some books and now I finally have the time to do so.
  • Guest posts. This weeks "work" for me is to identify blogs within my area of experience, and to submit a post to the most likely options.
Fiction

One longer term goal is to launch a set of fiction short stories. I am interested in the idea of serialised fiction. My aim is to launch a sci-fi series with one short story per month, with an overarching story arc. I'd encourage a community around the universe and let the readers drive the storyline.

Stay tuned.

Side Projects

I have some side project ideas that could be revisited:

  • Go Update It; a website that tracks software updates (aimed at server software and desktop apps without auto-update features) and prompts you when your software has an update waiting.
  • How Novel: A website for writers to plan and write novels. I've struggled to find an easy to use tool, and certainly none online. The site would probably be  a "semantic wiki" for tracking characters etc. and have tools for distraction free writing, and publishing
Monthly Goals

Here are some short term public goals to motivate me:

  • Write 1100 words per day
  • Write at least 7 articles per month, for this blog, Freelance Frontier and others
  • Spend one day per week building my local consultancy work
  • Launch one Ebook by the end of January, and the next by the end of February.