Quarterly Writing Goals #1 [2018]

It's a brand-new year! Can you believe it? I can't. The passage of time will never cease to amaze me. The way minutes drag on like hours and days pass by like minutes. This is not, however, a philosophical or poetic post about time, so I'm going to leave that subject before I get lost down this rabbit hole.

A new year means several things, one of which is new goals. I don't do New Year's Resolutions specifically, but I do make myself Quarterly Goals to help me stay on track and get things accomplished and this happens to be the beginning of a new quarter!

Last quarter, I had 9 goals related to writing/editing/marketing and such. My goals were to: 1) Edit Queen of Caradale...I did my portion of this, and several of my editors have done theirs, but I'm still waiting on the last one. So not fully done, but basically done. 2) Edit The Story of Gisbourne...this I did not do at all. 3) Publish Queen of Caradale...this also did not happen because I haven't gotten all the notes from my editors. 4) Finish Kaelyn...I didn't write in Kaelyn at all, but I'm okay with that. This is a side project at the moment which is waiting for the proper time to write it and that time hasn't come. Therefore, this novel is going to be put to the side until future notice. 5) Update the second editions of Dusty and Always in Shadow...this, I did not do. 6) Outline Return to Sherwood. This definitely did get done. 7) Write Return to Sherwood. Also definitely done. 8) Stay on top of author social media and post weekly vlogs....this was hit and miss, as per usual.

If you can't already tell, this was not a great quarter. On the one hand, NaNoWriMo was absolutely brilliant and in that regard I feel like I ended the year on a high note. :) But on the other hand, NaNoWriMo was basically the only thing I actually accomplished last quarter, so none of my other goals got done.

I won't bemoan the past, however. It's a new quarter and I've made new goals.

Publish Queen of Caradale  This will hopefully get done this quarter, as soon as my editors are through with it. I'm marking March as the tentative release date. Yes, the whole month, not a specific day. I just won't know until my editors are done.

Edit The Story of Gisbourne I am going to stop putting it off and actually get this done so it is ready for publication after Queen of Caradale.

Second Editions Again, I will stop being lazy or procrastinating and actually get this done this quarter.

Brainstorm/Outline the sequel to Return to Sherwood I have started a little bit of research and brainstorming already for this nameless novel, but I would like to have a solid outline to start writing the book as soon as  Queen of Caradale and The Story of Gisbourne are published...if not before.

Social Media/vlogs I would like to think that someday I will be diligent and disciplined enough to be consistent with both of these things...


So those are my goals for this first quarter of a brand-new year! Look out, 2018, I'm coming for you! :P

On a different but related note, I am also hoping to read at least 50 books during this year. I wasn't keeping an exact count last year, but I read somewhere around 40 books by the end of 2017.

Happy Writing and Reading, everyone! (and Happy New Year, too!)