Goals 2023!

The end of the year has arrived. At the end of 2021, I outlined some goals:

• By the end of 2022, I want to have 20 short works out on submission. I don’t want to lose my short story abilities, and the best way to do that is to just make sure I’m writing some! To that end, I’ll have at least 8 new short stories ready for submission.
• By the end of 2022, write at least 6 longer works.
• And as an unofficial goal, publish at least 10 works. Again, I don’t have a lot of control over this, so it’s more of a realistic dream.

How’d I do?

• I don’t think I have any short stories out right now, and I didn’t write any unless they were directly tied to longer works, like Madelyn of the Sky. I completely shifted gears. So that goal… was not reached.
• I didn’t write 6 longer works.
  
  I wrote 12 of them.
  
  So I’d say I reached that goal and blew it out of the water.
• Did I publish at least ten works? It… kinda depends what you count. Three novels and a few short stories… so not ten works. No matter how you count them, I guess. Nope.

So… two out of three were failures. I didn’t reach the goals. But the one I hit, I hit hard. I ended up writing twelve longer pieces. So how does that even out…?

I think this shows a change of focus. I’m looking much more at longer works and shorter works to support them. For instance, each novel in the Madelyn of the Sky series has a short story attached to it. Those short stories are only available for people who backed at a certain level on the Kickstarter. (If you like the idea of bonus stories, keep watching… we’re planning a Kickstarter for our next six-book series, Cade and the Last Starship!)

So that means… it’s time for me to put together some goals for 2023. These goals really do need reflect the focus on longer works.

• By the end of 2023, write at least 12 longer works. Basically, continue the pace I’ve set for myself.
• In an effort to grow in my skills, I will spend at least an hour a week learning more about the business of writing.
• In an effort to grow as a writer, I will read on average a book a week. I kind of do this already, but I’m going to push more to make sure it really happens.

Some differences this year.

It reflects my switch in focus to longer works. But it also gives me a lot of focus for not just producing words, but growing as a writer as well. It also puts all the control in my hands. I couldn’t control how many short stories might get accepted, but I can control how many books I read!

So that’s the plan for 2023. Have you set any goals your yourself?