Goals 2013

About this time last year I posted my goals for 2012.


1: To finish and submit Gaslyte - the novel-in-progress I've been working on since 2008 - by the end of the year.

2: To finish and submit at least one longer length project - 15k or more - by the end of the year.

3: To polish and submit the handful of stories I wrote this year but have languished in my pile of "to edit" projects.

4: To write a minimum of 15k per month.

I can safely say I've failed at all of those. (Well, there's a sliver of hope for #1 still. Maybe.)  

Here's what I did accomplish this year.

WROTE:
Damsel
The Spider-Thief and the Sorcerer
Legacy

SOLD:
The Collections Agent
Caught
Happy After All
In the Cool of the Day
Legacy

I also made serious revisions to The Steampunk Novel that have brought me to the brink of querying it. (See? There's still hope.) And in June and August I wrote nearly 40k words (combined). It has been a productive year. It has not been productive in the way that I envisioned it. And that's okay.

But I'm back in that same spot; asking myself "What do I want to accomplish next year?" After much thought (and too much coffee) my goals for 2013 look like this.

1: Find an Agent Who Can Sell The Steampunk Novel
2: Finish the Novellas I started This Year but HAVEN'T FINISHED
3: Write another Novel or Two
4: Sell my Short Stories

Notice how open-ended those are? Last year I tried making specific goals, laying out a plan of attack, and I did very little that I set out to do. (Again. It was a productive year, but not in the way I had planned.) This year I'll try something new and different. And, most importantly, I will not do what I did this year which was to waste time on personal lamentation about how I wasn't meeting those goals. 

Here's to a fresh start! And, hopefully, a fresh attitude.