I’m not wild about making resolutions. And promising myself that I’ll go to the gym more often or eat more salads or work harder or be friendlier seems to have the opposite effect. Setting writing goals seems to work, though.
To prove a point, I’ve just glanced at the first page of my pocket diary and notice that I’ve done NONE of the things I intended for 2019. I never got my Will done. I never sorted out my mother’s ashes. (Though I did make a concerted effort). I did do my tax return, though. Or I paid an accountant a small fortune to do it for me.
I began the year by decided to help a friend with their book business and set about turning myself into That Person That Reminds You to Write Reviews for Books. That was a huge bust. Everyone thought it was a great idea but no one wrote a single thing. See me slink away with my tail between my legs…
I also planned to go on holiday last year. But though I looked and looked and tried to plan things and added up my pennies again and again, I only ever got to Margate for four hours.
However, when it came to writing goals, I achieved everything I set out to do. And then some. You only have to read my last blog to realise that I’ve been QUITE busy. I guess I’ll just stick to writing goals instead of resolutions; it seems I can handle these far better than Real Life.
2020 is going to be the Year of Editing. My new short story needs to be edited and improved and fixed up and, basically, finished off. Then I’m going to tackle That Difficult Novel, which I’ve mentioned several times in the last few years. I began editing it last year (wait, was it the year before??) and couldn’t face it. So this is the year. When I’ve done that, I’ll edit the first draft of my new fantasy novel which I wrote in the last year (the second in the series.) Then I can think about writing the third in the series (though I'm willing to wait to 2021 to begin that one).
In professional-looking bullet point form, these are my goals for 2020:
Naturally I’d be quite happy to drop all of this if an agent decides they like the latter book and asks me to work on it a bit so that they can get it published! And yes, please, send me anywhere in the world to promote it - I could do with a bloody holiday.
To prove a point, I’ve just glanced at the first page of my pocket diary and notice that I’ve done NONE of the things I intended for 2019. I never got my Will done. I never sorted out my mother’s ashes. (Though I did make a concerted effort). I did do my tax return, though. Or I paid an accountant a small fortune to do it for me.
I began the year by decided to help a friend with their book business and set about turning myself into That Person That Reminds You to Write Reviews for Books. That was a huge bust. Everyone thought it was a great idea but no one wrote a single thing. See me slink away with my tail between my legs…
I also planned to go on holiday last year. But though I looked and looked and tried to plan things and added up my pennies again and again, I only ever got to Margate for four hours.
However, when it came to writing goals, I achieved everything I set out to do. And then some. You only have to read my last blog to realise that I’ve been QUITE busy. I guess I’ll just stick to writing goals instead of resolutions; it seems I can handle these far better than Real Life.
2020 is going to be the Year of Editing. My new short story needs to be edited and improved and fixed up and, basically, finished off. Then I’m going to tackle That Difficult Novel, which I’ve mentioned several times in the last few years. I began editing it last year (wait, was it the year before??) and couldn’t face it. So this is the year. When I’ve done that, I’ll edit the first draft of my new fantasy novel which I wrote in the last year (the second in the series.) Then I can think about writing the third in the series (though I'm willing to wait to 2021 to begin that one).
In professional-looking bullet point form, these are my goals for 2020:
- Edit and finish The Crystal Vision
- Edit, shorten and finish Season of the Falling Sun
- Edit Honeysuckle Rage and the Sacrifice Stone
- Keeping looking for an agent for Honeysuckle Rage and the Everlasting Tree.
Naturally I’d be quite happy to drop all of this if an agent decides they like the latter book and asks me to work on it a bit so that they can get it published! And yes, please, send me anywhere in the world to promote it - I could do with a bloody holiday.
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