Looking Back At 2019 And Ahead To 2020 - #WriterWednesday Edition; #AmWriting

With the new year comes a refueled motivation to improve on the past one.
~Gretchen Bleiler

I told you in yesterday's post about how 2019 was for me in general, and what my goals are for 2020 in most areas of my life. Today I'm going to do something similar, only this time I'll be focussing on how things were for me as an author in 2019, and what my writing and publishing goals for the coming year are.

The beginning is always today.
~Mary Wollstonecraft

2019 was a pretty good year for me as an author. It wasn't as productive as I'd have liked it to be in some areas, as you'll see in a moment, but it was a pretty good year anyhow, like I said, so I'm not complaining about it. But let's take a look at it, so you can see that for yourself, shall we?

You can read last year's version of this post here. But here's what my list of authorly goals for 2019 looked like:

Finish writing, and then publish, the adventure story.Finish getting the last of my backlist available as audio books.Write and publish at least one other story.Write more poems towards my next poetry collection.

The road to success is always under construction.
~Lily Tomlin

So, how did I do?

The adventure story:I finished writing the rat themed pirate adventure story at last! YAY! So, "Voyage Of The Crimson Sail" was published in both eBook and paperback in September 2019. I even managed to get the audio version sorted, and that became available at the very end of November. So I definitely managed to check this one off my list. YAY! This was the goal I was most anxious to achieve, so being able to say I did it makes me very happy indeed.
Audiobook production:Despite some changes of narrator earlier in the year, and some technical issues a couple of my narrators had, I now have all my books in audio. I literally only just made it by the end of the year, and haven't even had a chance to post the official announcement that "Puppy Poems And Rodent Rhymes" is now available in audio yet. But it is, which means all my backlist is FINALLY available as audio books, along with the versions that are available in paperback, and a variety of eBook formats. It's taken me about two and a half years of constantly having books in various stages of audio production. But I did it! Now it's only new titles to have produced in audio as they're released, so YAY! I can't tell you how pleased I am to be able to say this.
Writing and publishing another book:Yeah... This didn't happen, or even come close to happening. I won't bother making excuses, though I could list several reasons/excuses for it not happening. I've started writing a couple of things, but none of them are finished yet, let alone published. So... Moving on.
Writing more poems:I did write more poems. Perhaps not as many as planned, but I wrote a few, and they all count towards my next poetry collection (or collections). Since I didn't put a number on this, I can honestly say I achieved it, despite only having written 19 poems all year. Hey, I only said, "More poems," after all, and I definitely did write a few more. I'm calling it a success, even though I had hoped to have written more new poems than I did. I'd hoped to have enough by now that I could guarantee a new poetry collection early in 2020. But I don't feel like I do yet. Poetry writing was definitely one of those areas where I wasn't as productive as I'd have liked to have been, even though I technically did complete this goal, and 19 is a reasonable number.
So, like I said, it was a pretty good year, even if I didn't manage to finish and publish a second title, and wasn't as productive as I'd hoped to be with poetry writing. But never mind. I FINALLY have "Voyage Of The Crimson Sail" finished and published, and all my backlist available in audio, so I'm happy with how the year went, because I feel like those are great achievements in themselves, so I'm proud of me for achieving them. Go me!

Now I get to focus on a whole new set of fresh ideas and goals in the coming year, which I'm excited about.

If you're bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals.
~Lou Holtz

OK. Now it's time to think about the coming year. So, what are my goals for 2020? Well... I have just three writing/publishing/authorly goals - whatever you want to call them - for the coming year. Those goals are as follows:

Finish writing two of the books I've started writing, and publish both of them in all formats I now offer. I'm hoping to have the first ready to publish in May, and the second ready to publish in August or September.Write at least 30 new poems. The plan is to be able to call my next poetry collection done by the end of 2020, so I can publish it in early 2021.Write a story that challenges me as an author somehow, and pulls me out of my writing comfort zone. Such as one in a genre I haven't explored much - or at all - before. It would still be aimed at children, but something other than my usual go to of fantasy themes or Fairy Tales. Not that I won't write more of those in the future. I definitely will. But, I enjoyed the challenge of writing my pirate themed adventure story, so would like to do something like that again, but with another genre.
For those who didn't read yesterday's post: I do also have the goal of practicing better self care, which is something I know I need to improve on both in general, and as an author. But It's not listed among these goals due to being included yesterday, though I thought I'd give it a mention here, so anyone who didn't read yesterday's post will know about it.

Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
~Jonathan Kozol

How about you? Did you have any writing goals for 2019? If yes, how did you do with them? Also, do you have any for 2020? If you do, what are they? Whatever the case may be, I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment on this post on my blog, via social media, or whatever.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Before I end this, here are some things for writers to remember if this year didn't go the way you planned, and a reminder that - both in life and in fiction - every story's ending is just a new beginning.