Here we are again at the start of a new year not only for video games, but also for writing.
Last year at this time, I was lamenting how my numerous Oak Island horror novel rewrites, as well as other distractions, prevented me from completing any of my writing goals.
So I set more focused goals for 2023… never expecting that I would run into similar trouble with another story.
I did write a new novel draft during NaNoWriMo, but aside from that…
My goals for the cursed Oak Island novel were to first rewrite it, then later revisit it to see if it was in good enough shape to be edited for a beta reader, or if it should be shelved. I actually never touched that novel at all the entire year.
Nor did I “send out regular batches of queries” as I planned to do; in fact, I sent out only a single query letter in 2023.
I didn’t revise any of my other novel drafts, even with as open as I left that goal, and I all but ignored my side websites.
What I did do is meet my goal of writing 5 short stories. In fact, I wrote twenty-eight, short stories last year, despite ignoring all the other goals I set. You see, I was trying to finish one specific story that ended up taking me until the very end of the year, which meant I didn’t want to take on another “main” writing project like revising a novel, so whenever I didn’t have the motivation to work on the short story, I wrote other short stories instead. Lots of them.
So there we have it. 2023 was simultaneously one of my most and least productive writing years, and I’m ready to set new goals for 2024.
By 2025, I will:
- Resume sending out query letters for at least one finished novel.
- Revise at least one finished novel.
- Continue working on short stories.
Those goals are very vague. I know that.
Between all of that short story writing and the fact that I barely sent out any queries, I feel like I lost some of my drive to pursue traditional novel publishing last year. I’d like to regain that spark, of course! But if short story writing is working better for my motivation at the moment, then I’ll stick with it for now.
Who knows, by next year things might have turned around again. As long as I keep writing, no matter what form it might take, that’s the important thing.
Do you have any specific writing goals set for this year?
