Every year I set goals for myself and periodically evaluate them. Here are 2015’s:
1. Write and submit at least one new short story every month, with the goal being at least 10 publications this year.
Did not happen. At all. I didn’t complete a single short story all year, let alone submit one.
2. Write the rough drafts for a seven-part novella series, and maybe even publish one or two of them.
Book one is half done. The rest are in various stages of plotting – but the overall series is progressing.
3. Have at least one novel published, with another one polished enough to publish in 2016.
Didn’t happen. My next one, A Handful of Wishes, needs serious revisions.
4. Publish at least two long short stories (10k+) or short story collections.
Almost. I have one more pass of edits before I hit publish on “A Place to Die.”
5. Improve my marketing strategy in order to increase my fanbase (as measured by newsletter subscription, Facebook page likes, and social media interactions like comments, likes, and favorites), sales, and reviews.
Partly. I doubled my newsletter subscriptions. I also did a lot more promos this year (Facebook and book list ads, author events), but it didn’t have much of an effect on sales. And social media interactions didn’t really increase either. But I did get a bunch of reviews.
6. Read 100 books.
7. Get healthier: cut out my daily breakfast Pepsi (not sure how the lack of caffeine will work when I generally only get 4-5 hours of sleep) and eventually almost all soda; go out to eat once a week or less; eat more fruits and veggies and less processed, sodium-drenched foods; use the gym membership I’m paying for; ride my bike to work when it warms up; etc.
I did this for awhile, but then backslid when I started my internship this fall. However, I lost 15 lbs this year and haven’t gained it back yet, so that’s something.
Overall, I sucked when it came to writing new stuff in 2015.
Part of the problem is that I have horrible time management skills. I tend to procrastinate then cram at the last minute (studying, writing papers, reading journal articles, etc). But the thing is, it works. For the past couple years of grad school, focusing on the immediate next project, rather than planning ahead, resulted in A’s. I have very little incentive to not procrastinate.
Also, I had a lot of free time this fall. Yeah, I was taking 3 classes and doing an internship and teaching a class, but compare that to 5 classes while working full time. I’ve found that I work better under pressure; when I have free time, I tend to waste it on activities that help me unwind (for example, funny cat videos) but don’t do anything for meeting my goals.
So for 2015, knowing that, I’m going to focus on using my time more wisely. Here are my goals:
- Write at least 30 minutes a day, which I’ll track through 750words.com.
- Finish something every month, whether it’s a short story, series novella, novel, or whatever.
- Publish at least 4 of those finished things – ideally, something every 3 months.
- Continue the focus on increased marketing, same as last year: increase my fanbase (as measured by newsletter subscription, Facebook page likes, and social media interactions like comments, likes, and favorites), sales, and reviews.
- Read 100 books.
- Continue the focus on being healthy – riding my bike more, cutting back on the meals out, eating a more balanced diet, etc.
What are your goals for 2016?
