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I have the worst case of monkey mind you can imagine.  I am distracted by shiny things.  I see something that is working well, and instead of focusing on it and doubling down, my brain instantly starts to wonder about the one hundred other ideas it had that day, ready to chase down the story, the line, the new and fun thing.

It’s difficult to zero in on work and get it done.

I can literally open a desk drawer and pull out eight uncompleted novels with 10k – 20k words each.  I can open a file on my desktop and find twenty more, all begging to be finished and up on Amazon.

I have a little black notebook I journal in each morning, practicing my ten ideas a day, which usually generates one story that I can plot out, add some dialogue, and wonder when I’m going to have time to work on it.

This weekend was particularly bad for the monkey.

As we close out the year, the competitive goal setting side of me felt like we were coming up short on the income side.  We could be doing better.

So I examined page reads, and noticed that the series I’ve been working on as an area of focus is doing great.  But some other series aren’t getting noticed as much.  They were being neglected while I built the series up, and other commitments are going to command my time and attention once we roll into 2017.

Monkey mind off to the races.  Why bother focusing on the thing that works when you have 20 stories just crying to be told and oh so close to finishing!

Nevermind that the audience you’ve built for Battlefield Z is hungry to find out what happens, why not work on the brand new series you created this weekend during coffee time, or the Grail project that popped up again, or oh I know, the spy thriller series tied in to the Russian ambassador being shot in Turkey!

Don’t stick with what’s working, race off to something new.

Except who do I have to prove anything to?

I’ve got the stories.

I’ve got 57 more years or so to tell them.

Do I want them all out today?  It would be nice, but instead of rushing along, I’m going to clear my head with a run and get back to what’s important.

Battlefield Z Zombie Blues Highway, book 4 in the series.

Then I’m going to finish BZ Big Easy Zombie, book 5.

After that, it’s BZ Blue Grass Zombie, BZ Ship’s Graveyard Zombies, and then BZ Key West Zombies.

That means I’m committed until March.

Even though I want to finish the two television series I need to pitch.

Even though I want to bang out three novelizations of scripts I’ve written for the House Rules series (Jack’s Wild).

It’s about controlling the monkey mind.

And I know why it’s rebelling.  It’s Christmas, the weather outside turned frightful and I haven’t been on a hike or run in over a week.  I shot six holes in my freezer, I think I’ve got cabin fever.

I’m not sure which list Santa has me on, and oh yeah, there’s a great idea from two weekends ago about Kris Kringle meeting Odin to hunt the Krampus on Yule.

Alright monkey, stop the madness.

If you are working, you can write 2,000 words a day before anyone else gets up, or after everyone goes to bed.  Make it a part time job.  2k words a day means in 20 days, you have a 40k word draft.  In 60 days, math says you’ll have 3 drafts.  Come on Monkey, can you stick with me that long?  Winter is over in April, that’s three short months and two weeks away.

How much can you get done in a Quarter?

Can you hold your focus that long?

I’ve been focused on writing this past year, enough to have published 12 novels, and 23 non-fiction pieces, plus a short story collection or two.  I’ve written a couple dozen blog posts, couple dozen facebook posts, a metric megaton of Tweets.  This year has been about the words.

In 2017, it still will be.

But the shift will be on maintaining focus and not chasing down ideas.  When I was doing some research into what I’ve done this year, I found four more novels (50k each) of words scattered into new projects I’d start and discard.

I’m not disappointed, because I pride myself on being a creation machine, and that level of output in a year is good.  But had I started on the BZ series a year ago, and pushed out 16 books in it, I’d be much further along in my career.

I would have a bigger audience, a bigger reach and be making more money.

Hindsight being what it is, no wonder the monkey is rattling the cage and calling for more work published.  It notices what is has missed, as opposed to what we have done.

I’m asking you to celebrate your accomplishments this year.  If you didn’t reach your goals, take time to evaluate why, then make a new plan, break it up into little steps and get cracking.

2017 is going to be my best year as a writer.

I’m going to get the BZ series up to the eight mark, put out eight more novels in another series, and get the television shows done.

There will be merchandising, and conferences, and best of all, getting to meet and talk to hundreds of readers who take the time to email me.

Thank you for making 2016 incredible.  I hope you stick with me for a whole lot more.  Let’s share some adventures and stories.