Writing Goals for 2011: The Assessment
December 27th, 2011Last year, on January 1st, I published my writing goals for 2011. At the time I knew I was being pretty easy on myself, but I thought it was better to put up a target that I had a chance of hitting, then to lock myself into misery and failure. So here’s the result:
1. Publish my indie novel, The Wild, in both print and ebook versions, and PROMOTE!
Didn’t happen! In fact, 2011 started off with massive failure. Reader feedback on this novel was so unenthusiastic that I decided early-on not to publish it. But I haven’t given up on it. Expect to see The Wild involved in my goals for 2012.
2. Complete a draft of a new novel.
Done! In fact, I drafted, revised, and published The Dread Hammer by May of 2011. Over the summer I drafted the sequel, Hepen the Watcher, and have that nearly ready to publish. I’m also 20,000 words into another novel, and have a rough outline on a fourth that I’m looking forward to working on as soon as I’ve cleared some other projects. So novel writing in 2011 was a win! I also managed to write two pieces of short fiction, which wasn’t even on my list of goals last year.
3. Release ebook versions of Limit of Vision and Memory.
Done! I also published two of my old short stories as ebooks, and late in the year, put out a collection of all my previously published short work, titled Goddesses & Other Stories. So putting out ebooks was a win.
4. Release print-on-demand versions of Tech-Heaven, The Bohr Maker, Deception Well, Vast, Limit of Vision, Memory, and my YA novel Skye Object 3270a.
This was a win because I changed my goal along the way. I decided there wasn’t enough demand at this time to justify POD versions of Limit of Vision and Memory. When they start selling in better numbers, I’ll reassess. But all the other books listed above are now available in print.
5. Finalize and market my first screenplay.
This is a technical win. I did finalize the screenplay, but it never got past the west coast agent, and by the time I had any feedback on it, my interests had moved entirely to novel writing, so I didn’t pursue it.
6. Write a second screenplay.
Nope. Didn’t happen. The idea I’d been toying with for a second screenplay is now on its way to becoming a novel.
7. Keep up with this blog
I’ll call this a win. There have been quiet periods, but I did much better at blogging in 2011 than I’ve done in past years. I see this as a very casual, random sort of blog. I hope that works for you.
8. Meet lots of great people in the reading and writing communities!
If “meet” means “meet online” than this is a win. I’ve also become part of a local writing group for some actual face time with other writers.
How did you do this year? Did you meet your goals? Or exceed them?
Posted on: Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Categories: Annual Writing Goals, Writing.
Tags: writing goals
December 27th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Great post Linda. Writing down goals is always a good way to focus on current and future projects, while reassessing past ones. I haven’t followed this advice because it seems so simple, too logical. Since you’ve shown us by example the usefulness of doing this, I think I’ll try it for 2012.
For me:
#2 was kind of close.
#7 is like you, an informal way to blog about the life of a writer. It’s always nice to share with others who are infused with the same passion.
#8 This is a big success! Being able to communicate with authors, like you, with their blogs and social media has proven to be extremely valuable. NaNoWriMo 2011 was an overwhelming victory for physically meeting fellow writers…from all genres. The writing group we had for November, I’m happy to say, is going to be doing it as a weekly writing meeting beginning 3 January 2012!
Now, maybe I should do a current post on my blog! If you don’t mind, I may use the same topic.
Best of Luck for 2012!
December 28th, 2011 at 1:10 am
Jeffrey, that’s great news about the writers group. And the draft of the NaNoWriMo novel is almost done? That’s terrific!