I talked about my overall goal setting for 2012, but now that ROW80 is beginning, it’s time to set my smaller, more specific writing goals. For the first quarter of 2012, I am concentrating on research for one project and outlining another project. I also want to get into a regular blogging schedule.

I know that as the round goes on, my ROW80 goals will change as my focus changes. That is one of the things I love about ROW80–you can change your goals at any time. Once I finish a goal, I can move on to the next one. Here are the high-level Round One goals I am starting off with:

• Finish research for The Recollector. I first started writing this story during NaNoWriMo 2010. I got to 50K with it, but it became clear about 25K through that I hadn’t done nearly enough historical research to do it true justice. It’s set in England during the reign of Queen Victoria and I am twisting some historical events slightly to meet my own purposes. Research is fun for me, but I need to focus and get myself ready to start from scratch on this project.
• Outline Drawn Together. I had a bit of idea lightning hit me a few weeks ago for a contemporary romance. I have never really tried my hand at that, but I think it will be a lot of fun to write. I can easily draw from life experience given the basic plot of the story, which will hopefully make it come together quickly. I would love to start writing this during Round One as well, but I am not even putting that down as a goal until the outline is complete.
• Blog at least once a week. I love blogging and I miss it. I have multiple blogs (which some people would tell you is a no-no, but as a professional marketer I think it is just fine, thanks) about different subjects, and since one of my overall themes of 2012 is to be passionate, I want to start blogging passionately again about the things I am interested in.

The problem with my Round One goals is that they aren’t as measurable as something like a daily word count, especially the research goal. So I am going to set weekly goals for myself that help me fulfill those larger goals. Here are my goals for this week:

• Write at least one blog post for each blog. I am already ahead of the game on this goal, hurrah! I may even be able to get a few in the queue.
• Decide on the main event for The Recollector. I have waffled back and forth on what historical event is going to be the focus for the climax of my story. I keep thinking I have the perfect one, and then two more will crop up that give me pause. I need to decide on this before anything else so I can pick my bad guys!
• Develop character sketches for my two main characters in Drawn Together. I have some basic ideas for my male and female leads, but I really need to flesh them out and give them all kinds of quirks and personality before I start throwing them into an outline.

So how are you setting your goals for this round of ROW80? Do you think I am crazy with my super-specific layers of goals? I can’t wait to read about what everyone else will be doing!