New Year 2018

It’s officially 2018! Which feels a bit odd, to be honest. Last year passed in a bit of a blur, for a lot of different reasons: it was busy, it was emotional, and it was filled with opportunities and challenges.

This year is likely to be the same, with a couple of it’s own unique situations thrown in. For example, did you know I turn thirty this year? That’s already bringing some interesting emotions into play.

Anyway, the first day of the year seems like a good chance to combine my annual and monthly updates. So let’s get to it, shall we?

I didn’t exactly do an annual update last year, but I did set some goals.

2017 Goals

1. Post to my blog at least three times per week.
2. Fix V&L.
3. Query BC.
4. Publish some short stories.
5. Finish a first draft of and edit CD.
6. Regularly post monthly updates.
7. Do more photography.

Do you know how happy I get when I look over that list? I’ve made so much progress when I first created it. I didn’t quite accomplish everything, but I did do really well. Looking at them in order, I:

• Increased my regular posting schedule to three to five times per week (my most popular 2018 post was my book recommendation for Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein, and my most popular post overall was, again, my review of Company’s Coming’s Pumpkin Muffins).
• Overhauled V&L, though I’ve shelved it due to it still not being where I want it.
• Started querying BC.
• Submitted short stories for publication, though nothing has been accepted yet.
• Finished the first draft of CD and am in the process of revising it.
• Kept up with all but December’s monthly updates (more on that in a moment).
• Not only did more photography, but even started selling some prints.

Though this was, in a lot of ways, a really rough year for me, I did accomplish a lot. Looking back on just these goals shows me that, and it gives me hope for 2018.

Speaking of which, here are my goals for this year.

2018 Goals

1. Double my average monthly blog readers.
2. Take part in one learning opportunity each month.
3. Finish the first draft of a new novel.
4. Get at least one short story published.
5. Sign with a literary agent.
6. Fully revise CD.

I wanted to be more specific with my goals this year, though I know the “new novel” bit is sort of vague. I just have a few ideas there that I can work with, and which one I choose will largely depend on which feels best when it comes time to work on it.

The two that I see being the most difficult for me to predict are numbers 4 and 5. Publishing is subjective, and I only have so much influence in that realm. I can’t really say how agents and publishers will react to my work. But I can polish my stories and novels as much as possible, in the hopes that one of them will pick them up. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.

Now, my monthly update. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t do a December update. November didn’t go at all as I’d planned, though it did go as a part of me expected. It was a particularly hard month, and I got very little done. I did a little better, productivity-wise, in December, but not by much. I’m still working on getting back into my regular routine and doing as much work as I used to. But, I’m getting there.

Taking my lower productivity into account, though, here are my goals for this month.

January’s Goals

1. Take a class on Master Class.
2. Edit 25,000 words of CD.
3. Finish editing one short story.

That’s it. Three things, all of which should be manageable. And the class should be interesting; I’ve heard good things about Master Class, so it seemed like a good kick-off to my learning opportunity goal.

Now, enough about me. What are your goals for this year?