Looking Ahead to 2024

Is it me or did 2023 just fly past? I didn’t achieve nearly as much as I wanted to this year, but I’m not beating myself up too hard about it – it’s been a tough year in many ways and at least I tried. There’s always next year to try again!

Janus, Roman god of doorways | Adolphe Giraldon, Wikimedia Commons

Like Janus, the Roman god of doorways, staring both into the past and the future, let’s start by having a look at how my writerly goals for 2023 turned out.

2023 Primary GoalsPublish Mythical Menagerie Book 2

Yes! The second book in the series is called Myth Keeper and is available in e-book, paperback and hardcover at Amazon and most of the usual alternative online stores.

Write and edit 2 instalments for Mythical Menagerie Book 3

Nope! This goal is being bumped into 2024, because I spent the greater part of the year working on a prequel story, Becoming Keeper, which should be published early in the new year.

Create a Mythical Menagerie story bible

Yes! Sort of! As it turns out, there are soooo many things to keep track of when you’re writing a series and compiling a comprehensive story bible is hard work. I’m almost done referencing Book 1 and then I’ll have to do Book 2, plus the two prequel novellas. So technically, yes I created the story bible, but I’m not completely finished with it yet and will continue next year.

Write a monthly flash fiction piece

Yes! My newsletter subscribers received a free flash fiction story in their inbox every month this year – with the exception of June, which is my birthday month, and in which I usually do something a little different.

2023 Secondary GoalsWrite and publish 1 standalone short story / novella

Kinda. I did write a prequal novella, Becoming Keeper, but it’s not published as yet. And I got distracted by another short story which was only written halfway (twice!) before I decided to focus on my Mythical Menagerie world again. I do still want to write more standalones, so this goal will make an appearance again in the future.

Grow my email, Facebook and Instagram following

Erm, well, sort of. My email subscriber list went down from 263 to 244 subscribers, but Facebook went from 137 to 149 followers, while volatile Instagram grew from 282 to 307. I must admit that I didn’t put a lot of effort into social media or email list building this year, so although I’m not too happy about the downturn in my email list, I’m happy with the direction Facebook and Instagram are (slowly) going.

Complete the Balkan Camping 2019 posts on my travel blog

Yes! It was pretty difficult to remember the details of a trip we took 4 years ago, so I’m quite chuffed that it’s all finally written down now.

Complete the Maggie Stiefvater writing course

Not yet. I was aiming to get it done before we ring in the new year, but I think I might give it a good go in January instead.

Read John Truby’s  Anatomy of Story

Yes! And I’m sad to say I didn’t learn much from it. Maybe my expectations were too high… I can see it being very useful to beginner writers, though, so if you fall in that category, do check it out (affiliate link in the heading).

Read John Truby’s  Anatomy of Genre

No yet. Moving this over to next year’s to-do list.

Read 12 classics

Yes! And let me tell you, some of them were delightful, but many of them were a slog! Read more about it in my 2023 in Books post.

So, as usual, my 2023 goals were a bit of a mixed bag. I achieved most of my primary goals, so that makes me happy, and a few of my secondary goals. Additionally, I also managed to do the following:

Completed a Learn to Write Movies courseWent on a trip to the UK and visited Oxford for story researchCompleted an AI for Authors courseUsed Dall-E, Midjourney, ChatGPT and various other AI tools for my author businessCreated Mythical Menagerie-themed bookmarks for my subscribersCompleted an Affinity Publisher course and learned how to do book interior layout and designReleased Myth Hunter, Myth Keeper, A Spark of Reverie and A Flight of Reverie in paperback and hardcover formatsAttended various Bookfunnel webinarsMigrated my newsletter from the old MailerLite to the new MailerLite APIRedesigned my author websiteRead 46 books

2023 was also the year in which I held a physical copy of one of my books in my hands for the first time! It was a steep, but incredibly satisfying, learning curve to get to that point, but so worth it! Especially since I hadn’t planned on ever doing physical books. I might consider tackling audiobooks next, who knows!

And now, without further ado, let’s look at what 2024 has in store for me.

2024 Primary GoalsPublish Becoming Keeper (in e-book and paperback)Write and edit 3 instalments for Mythical Menagerie Book 3Complete the Mythical Menagerie story bible to dateWrite a monthly flash fiction piecePublish Book 3 in the Reverie Flash Fiction series (in e-book, paperback and hardcover)Monetary goal from writing income *

* I’m finally ready to take my writing further, in the hopes that I can make a full-time living from it in the not-too-distant future. As a result, I want to start tracking, and more importantly increasing, my monthly income from writing.

2024 Secondary GoalsGrow my email, Facebook and Instagram followingGrow my beta reader listRead John Truby’s  Anatomy of Genre Complete the Maggie Stiefvater writing courseComplete the UK 2023 blog posts on my travel blogPublish an audiobook

I can already see I’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone next year! But I’m excited and ready. Let’s do this!

How did you do with the goals you set for yourself for 2022? What is the one thing you HAVE to achieve in 2023?