I’m one of those grumpy individuals who shuns the idea of the New Year’s Resolution. In reality, this is mostly because I got tired of letting myself down for never keeping my resolutions, so I flipped the bird at the whole idea and have refused to participate for nearly a decade.
Now goals? Goals are something else entirely! I mean, it’s a whole different word! Goals I can do, especially when it has to do with writing/publishing and not that personal growth stuff that makes my head hurt.
This time last year, I was poised to have three works published in 2016. I spent a large part of the year mourning the two orphaned works that were dumped from the publisher when it shut down it’s horror line. Then, one day, I was on this very site killing time and I clicked on the Published Works tab and what do you know? There’s three works that I wrote or contributed to in 2016.
Vicki Beautiful, Mischief, and After the Happily Ever After are mine! It worked out despite all my pissing and moaning! Refreshing! Maybe they aren’t the works that I had expected, but I had stuff come out! Seeing that was a good way for me to get in the correct head space to work out what I wanted for myself and my writing for 2017.
My goals are a little vague, pretty loose, and easy to recover from if missed.
Kinda like me.
So, without further idiocy, here are my writing goals for 2017:
-Get at least one work contracted with a publisher.
-Put out Halloween short story (this is be an annual thing from me).
-Talk more about what I’m writing and have written. I’m so bad about this.
-Start submitting to anthologies again. My boo-hooing put a stop to that and it needs to be reversed!
-Put out the first novella in a trilogy of cheeky, funny mystery books called The Bikini Murder Mysteries. This is a small and short-lived deviation from horror, but I think it will be great to write and hopefully it will be fun to read.
And that’s all. There are some smaller ones concerning how many words that I want to write this year (200,000 at least) and forcing myself to leave the comforting solace of my home and get out and meet some other writers (Scares that Care!), but the above list is what I’ve got.
Here’s to working towards goals and being easy on ourselves when we hit bumps, potholes, and sinkholes to hell. Here’s to getting stuff done!
Great list, Somer! And congrats on your 2016 accomplishments, which are enviable.
I completely understand and sympathize with the boohooing. It *was* quite a devastating blow, but everyone seems to be recovering nicely. Or most everyone, and I hope the rest will soon follow.
Where do you find good anthologies to submit to? Any reliable links?
I subscribe to a place called Dark Markets, Holli. I get a monthly email about what calls for submissions are open, and when I’m in sub mode, I go there weekly to stay abreast. I’ve found some really cool calls on there.
You can do it! And come to Scares That Care!
I’m going, Glenn! I’l be there as a dopey fan, but I’ll be there!