Tag: new goals

2023 Goals

A new year has started and I am so excited to have a whole new blank canvas of 365 days to accomplish some new goals. This year, I have decided to do something different as far as goals go, and I’ve added more than just writing goals.

Writing Goals

Write Every Day of 2023

Even though I have never been successful, I would really like to attempt to write every day. I would like to do my best to build a habit and stick with it.

Edit Three Novels

2023 will be the year of editing. I have several editing projects started, but have yet to finish them. I would like to start working through my catalogue of novels I’ve written over the last few years and hopefully get them ready for a publisher.

Edit Six short stories

Same as above, 2023 is the year of editing. I would like to do more than six short stories, but I don’t want to get too overwhelmed either. I’m keeping the bar low, especially since I know I’m not the best at editing.

Read Six Books

Reading is a big part of being a writer. I enjoy reading, and I find it refills my creative tank when I need it most. I have a feeling I’ll read more than six books, especially if this year is anything like last year, but once again, I would rather set the bar low and overshoot it rather than fail it spectacularly.

Publish Something (Either Traditional or Indie)

I’m hoping with all the editing I’m planning on doing this year that I can get something published. I’m hoping for Traditionally published, but I have been doing more research into indie and hybrid publishing, so we shall see what the next year holds.

Participate in Most (If not all) NYC Midnight Writing Contests.

I really enjoy the contests/challenges that NYC Midnight puts on. I intended to compete in all of them last year, but timing wasn’t always the best, or school got in the way. I’m hoping to get a better handle on it this year, so I can be successful in all of the challenges.

Personal Goals:

Graduate With a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing

My tentative graduation date is October of 2023, so I’m looking forward to continuing my education in this next year. I’m not entirely sure what my plan is after I graduate (whether I do an MFA or not), but I’m excited to get my Bachelor’s degree.

Exercise at least 3x a week

2023 and beyond, I want to take better care of myself. I’m not getting any younger and with the amount of sitting I do for work, and writing, and school, I want to prevent any health issues down the road. I’m hoping for at least 5 days a week, but sometimes that isn’t possible. I want to build a routine that I can stick to and exercise (most likely walking/hiking) is a step in the right direction.

Journal Daily

Over the past few years, I’ve been journaling on and off. Putting words down on the page helps get the craziness out of my head. For the last few years I’ve been slacking due to crazy work schedules. Now I’m looking forward to getting back on track and taking care of my mental health as well.

How I Plan to Reach Those Goals in January

Writing

Participate in the NYC Midnight Short Story Competition

Luckily, the first NYC Midnight competition happens to take place in January. Last year, I couldn’t make it, due to homework being due, but I have a better plan for schoolwork and work, so I hope it doesn’t interfere with the competition this year.

Edit One Short Story

I enjoy editing short pieces like short stories. I’m hoping to get at least one edited this month, but hopefully I will be able to edit one or more. I have a feeling editing the short stories will be like writing them was last year, with maybe the editing not getting done in the 30/31 days of the month, but spanning a few months at a time.

Edit Three Chapters

Three chapters doesn’t always seem like a lot, but I think that is what I can accomplish in a month with school, adjusting to a new work schedule and everything else going on in January. As stated above, I’m hoping for more than three, since I do have a lot of editing this year, but we shall see how the first month goes.

Personal

Exercise

At least three times a week to start, and then see how it goes. I might change this goal based on how the month goes.

Journal

No excuses, I want to write a journal entry every day of January and hopefully beyond that.

How about you? What are your goals for 2023?

September Results and October Goals

As we approach the changing of the seasons and turn inward, I wanted to start wrapping up projects and get ready to start new projects down the road.

Here’s how I did in September:

September Results

NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Contest Round Two

First of all, let me say that I really enjoyed this round of the flash fiction contest. The feedback I got wasn’t absolutely terrible from round one and I feel like I was able to take the feedback and apply it to round two. For round two, my genre was horror, one I have been itching to write and submit something in for quite a while. The story was one of my best so far. I am so excited for the judges to read it and give feedback. Writing for the Flash Fiction contest again this year has renewed my enjoyment in writing. I’m so glad I was able to write something I can be proud of.

Finish More Projects

Surprisingly, I finished something in September. For the longest time I didn’t expect it because the month only got crazier as it went on. I finished another fanfiction piece on the 29th (Nothing like a close deadline to inspire a procrastinator!). Thankfully, I finally finished a lingering project and I feel so much better for it.

Finish Reading a Book

As far as reading one book this month goes, I didn’t finish a novel like I wanted, but I did read a total of five Shakespeare plays for my Shakespeare class. I’m counting that as an accomplishment, even if it didn’t appear as I would have liked it to appear. Shakespeare is still reading, and it is still fiction, even if it isn’t always enjoyable for me.

Word Count: 16,215

In other news, in the month of September, I was able to read three Shakespeare plays, edit six sections of my novel, and post several chapters up of my now finished Fanfiction projects. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

October Goals

Instawrimo/Inktober

As it just so happens, this year both Instawrimo and Inktober are in the same month. While I am not sure I’ll be able to do both, I am certainly going to try. I really enjoyed Instawrimo when I did it a few years ago, and Inktober is always fun, even though I am not the best artist. Still, everything is practice. It might be fun to do something new this year.

NaNoWriMo Preparation

Finally at the end of last month, I got an idea for my NaNoWriMo 2021 Novel. I played around with a few ideas, and then in the car on the way to work, my mind went: Write a sequel. Needless to say, I have a decent amount of planning to do on a sequel I had no idea would exist last week.

Finish an Original Novel

I have goals to achieve and one of them includes finished novels. During the month of October, I really want to finish an original novel that’s been in my to do list for over a year now. I’m about two thirds of the way through and I’m hoping I can get through the last third in October.

February Results and March Goals

February Results

Finish the NaNoWrimo Novel from 2020

I finished the NaNo Novel from 2020 pretty early in the month. I put the last words down on February 4th, and for at least the next day or two, it didn’t feel like I had finished the last book of the series. Granted, there’s still work to be done, so I’ll still be writing and editing for a while!

Start Official Edits on BOOK A

Edits officially started on BOOK A the day after I finished writing the last novel. So far, I haven’t been able to get in as many edits as I would like, but progress is being made.

Continue to Work on open Projects

I made some decent progress on my open writing projects. While I didn’t get in as much writing as I would have liked (that’s typical around this time of year), I still made progress and that is quite a win for me.

In February, I also finished Piece By Piece by Tori Amos and Ann Powers. I’ve been a fan of Tori Amos’ music for quite a while, and I finished Resistance in a few days last year. For being more of a fiction reader, I have to say I’ve been enjoying a lot more non-fiction lately. There is so many interesting voices out there and I’m ready to start reading more of them!

I also watched Soul this month and it made me cry (in a good way). It was exactly what I needed during these tumultuous times in my creative and occupational life. I’ve been struggling to find balance and trying several things for personal growth, and Soul definitely helped to put a lot of things into perspective.

Not really one of my goals when February started, but I’ve also been working on personal growth in the form of mediation and exercise. I’ve started picking up exercise again after some waffling (The second dose of the corona virus vaccine knocked out a lot of my progress) and now I’m doing my best to run a mile (or most of it) on the days I’m off. I’ve been doing my best to meditate via an online meditation class/retreat. Within 3 days I saw some differences, and I’m so pleased I can finally make changes to be healthier and happier.

Word Count: 22,500

March Goals

Continue Edits on BOOK A

My dream goal is to finish edits before April, but based on the pace I’ve kept in February I’m not sure that will happen in March. Changes are happening in my occupational life (and they’re not very fun ones), so I will be happy with any kind of progress in edits during March.

Continue to work on Open Projects

Again, I had a lot of plans for making progress in (and finishing) projects during February (which didn’t quite happen) and March (which might happen and might not) but I’ll be happy if I make decent progress in everything I have open. Even small steps are steps in the right direction right now.

Attend a Writing Conference Online

I’m quite excited for this writing conference. It’s the Women in Fiction conference. By pure luck, I stumbled upon it while scrolling facebook. I looked into it and it sounded like a great idea, so I’m going to see how it goes. I’m relatively new to the writing conference scene, only going to one local conference for the past two years. I’m excited to branch out and take a leap and see what happens.

Prepare for Camp NaNoWriMo

Even though life is wild right now, and I have several projects still open, and absolutely no idea what my project will be in the April session of Camp NaNoWriMo, I am still going to make preparations and hope for the best when April arrives. Hopefully I’ll be finishing some projects and can start something new!