4-Part WIP Special – Part 3: Yearly Goals

This week’s WIP Special theme is yearly writing goals… of which I have a lot.

Name your yearly (writing) goals!

At the beginning of the year, this was my list:

Write 2k per day
Write a short story per month
Publish Slander & Steel
Publish The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles
Complete a short novel
Finish The Shadow Raven
Outline Unstoppable
Finish Short Story Collection Vol. 2
Finish Memories & Photographs
Win all three NaNoWriMo events
Publish Caithan

I updated that at the beginning of this month (the beginning of this quarter) and it now looks like this:

Write 2k per day
Write The Masked Captain
Finish The Shadow Raven
Publish Slander & Steel
Publish The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles
Win all three NaNoWriMo events
Write a short story each month
Publish Caithan

So… it’s still a lot. But I got more specific about my “short novel” and trimmed off a couple of goals that I wasn’t as excited about.

Which goal are you most looking forward to starting/completing? Why?

Currently, publishing The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles. It’s the first thing I’m really excited about publishing that I’ve gotten into the actual process of publishing, and I want to share it with people so they can enjoy it.

Is there any goal that you aren’t that enthusiastic about completing? Why?

Writing a short story each month. I don’t know why that didn’t get cut when I updated my goals. I’m still kind of tired of short stories, so I’m still not super excited to write more of them.

Did you maybe set too many goals for this year?

Almost certainly.

How do you keep on track/accountable with your goals?

I have my goals divvied up into months (e.g. write The Masked Captain in April, edit it in August, etc.), and I have a goals checklist each month in my bullet journal. Then each quarter I’m going to go in and update my year-long goals to be more realistic (hopefully) and cut out those that I’m not motivated about for this year.

Have you told your family about any of your goals? What do they think about your goals?

I told my sister and my mom. I don’t remember what my mom’s reaction was, but my sister thinks I’m crazy and overambitious. Which is probably correct.

Are you planning to do NaNoWriMo in November?  If so, do you know what you will be writing?

I know I’m planning to do it. I don’t know at the moment what I’ll be writing. The two most likely contenders are The Shadow Raven and a couple of Kersir novellas, but we’ll find out when we get there. :)

Are you nervous about any of your goals?  Are some out of your comfort zone?

I wouldn’t say nervous, exactly. I’m not sure about getting some of them done, but none of them are especially outside of my comfort zone.

How are you doing on your goals so far?

I’m not writing close to 2k most days
I’m in the midst of writing The Masked Captain
I’m not sure I’ve written anything on The Shadow Raven this year, and if I did it was in January or February and that’s it
My dad has said he’s going to pay for one of the editors for Slander & Steel so that when I launch another Kickstarter I’ll be one step closer in the process, but I’m not sure when that’s going to be (I’d love to start making money somehow and be able to pay for the editor myself, but so far there’s been no luck in that department)
I’m in the middle of a blog tour for The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles, but my mom and I need to do the formatting and we haven’t gotten a time to sit down and do that yet (it will be done before the launch, I promise)
So far I am not on track to win April’s Camp NaNo, so my goal of winning all three could be dead by the end of the month.
Like I said, I’m not sure why the short story a month is still on the list. I haven’t even been working toward this one.
Caithan has a short version completed (has since December) and a longer version half-finished that I plan to finish next month.

Other participants:
Jules
Nicole
Faith
Sarah
Catherine
Ceci