Three Steps Towards My Goal

If you read my post from yesterday, you know that I have one goal that I've been working on for quite some time and that I've asked you all to keep me accountable to write once or twice a week. Now, these writing times are not to be dedicated to writing posts here on the blog.

As my title suggests, I want to take three steps to accomplishing my goal of getting at least one story published. These are steps that I see as being important to getting to the final goal: publication. Again, please keep me to these steps and feel free to comment on any post (including this one) to ask for updates about how I'm doing.

• The first step is to actually get one of my manuscripts finished.
• This step is going to not cost any money, but is most likely going to be the hardest hurdle for me to overcome at this point in time. As I mentioned yesterday, there are a few things that are getting in my way, keeping me from getting this step done.
• When I say finished, I mean the story is told from start to finish and I've done one or two personal edits myself.
• The second step is to get the manuscript edited and proofread.
• This step is going to cost money if I'm going to get it professionally done. I've looked briefly into ways to get this done, but I figured I need to get step one closer to being done before I start on this step. If I were to go this route, I'm not sure when I would need to start raising the money to do this.
• I might have a friend or two read it as well. This really wouldn't cost me anything monetarily, but I would most likely give them a free copy of my book in exchange.
• The third and final step is to get a book cover, reviews, and any other items that are needed to get the book published.
• This is another step that could be costly if I get it done professionally. This would be another account of money I'd need to raise or save for.
• Or, I could try to do it myself. I haven't done much research on how I can get this done, but I see that this is for further down the road when I'm not having to worry about getting the actual writing done. Why would I need a book cover if I don't have a book to put inside of it?

Once all three of the goals above have been met, it's off to be published! This is going to be a long and tiring road of potential heartache and hard work. I know it can be done, as long as I can stay focused and get work done.