New Year 2019

Does anybody want to tell me where 2018 went? Because I’ve seriously been wondering what happened to the last couple of months. I feel like they just… flashed by. I mean, clearly I didn’t get as much blog writing done as I normally would. I didn’t even do November’s and December’s updates, never mind a few of the other posts I had planned. And then there were the other goals I didn’t quite succeed on… just, yeesh.

But then, I suppose that describes the whole year, doesn’t it? It went quicker than expected, and I overestimated how much I was going to be able to get done. Which is something I always seem to do. Not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily; I would rather have high hopes than none at all.

Speaking of which, why not jump right into looking back on the 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 had some fairly mixed results this year, to be honest. Let’s take a look at these one-by-one:

1. Here’s the thing about this goal: my average monthly page views was less than 20 views away from reaching this goal. LESS THAN 20. So you know what? While this goal wasn’t technically met, I’m counting it as met.
2. This, unfortunately, isn’t a goal I came as close to accomplishing. I probably made it to somewhere between about halfway and three-quarters of the way, though, which isn’t too bad.
3. This one… this one was an utter failure. I don’t think I even started on a new novel. So… yeah.
4. While I didn’t get a story published, I did send a couple of short stories to a few places. So I made a little bit of progress toward this goal, at least, and I’m going to keep working on it.
5. This one, like number three, simply didn’t happen. But I did do a little bit of querying, and I’m going to keep working on it, so I’m not counting it as an utter failure.
6. And we’re back to a success! I finished revising the second draft of CD, and I have plans for revising the third draft. So I’m actually quite happy with my progress in this area.

Of course, that’s not everything I did in 2018. There was also a lot of work in regards to my Print Shop, and I was blogging throughout the year.

My hope is that I can build on that and keep up the good work into 2019. Which brings into this year’s goals…

2019 Goals

1. Take part in at least 1 writing opportunity per month.
2. Increase total annual blog views by 50%.
3. Send out at least 75 agent queries (or sign with an agent).
4. Send out at least 50 short story submissions.
5. Get CD ready to query.
6. Finish a new novel first draft.
7. Have a table at at least 5 craft/trade shows.

As you can see, these are, essentially, very similar to last year. The only real difference is that I made my agent and short story ones a little more specific, and little more in my own control.

I also altered my blog views goal slightly. I still want to increase my number of goals, I just thought I’d try looking at how I increase them a little differently. We’ll see how this goes.

Now, let’s take a look at how I’ll do all of this in the first month.

January’s Goals

1. Take a class on MasterClass
2. Read through CD and look for potential edits
3. Send one short story out on submission
4. Edit one short story
5. Find spring craft/trade shows

I know that may look like a lot, but it should all be attainable. Some of it I’ve even already started on.

So, that’s what I have planned for this month–and for this year. How about you? What are your goals for 2019?