Earlier this year, I set a series of writing goals to complete by 2019.

With the new year on the horizon, it’s time to take a look back and see how things went.

I set goals to:

• Finish and revise A Prince’s Price.
• Create an outline for the revisions of The Threshing Night.
• If The Nightbringer has not been successful, turn it over to someone to critique.
• Search for an agent for Agent of the Relari, Penteract of Blood, The Nightbringer, and The Time of Adversity.
• Have at least 3 short stories either accepted or actively submitted to markets.
• Join a new (paying) video game job.
• Manage at least 2 side websites for passive income.
• Participate in at least 3 book signing events.

I finished A Prince’s Price, revised it, and sent it to someone to critique, and now I’m making further revisions based on that critique. So while it’s not quite ready to go yet, I did accomplish what I set out to do.

However, I completely neglected The Threshing Night. In its place, I wrote the rough drafts for two new novels, one epic fantasy and one YA fantasy romance.

After some… missteps, I did find a new reader for The Nightbringer and have gotten some feedback already. Now I’m just waiting for the rest of her critique so I can begin editing.

I continued to search for an agent. Although I haven’t had success so far, I did get my first full request for Starlight and Steel (formerly known as The Time of Adversity).

Moving on to short stories, 2018 saw the completion of Darkling’s Beasts and Brews: Poetry with a Drink on the Side, which I have a poem in.

For the goal itself, I’ve had two short story acceptances I hope to reveal more details about soon, with two other stories I’ve been submitting to markets.

As a game writer, I handled the scripts for several mobile visual novels and also joined a few new projects, so things are right on track!

Now let’s take a look at the next goal, “manage at least 2 side websites for passive income.” Since I don’t like to have ads on this site, I thought it would be interesting to experiment with side websites to see if I could draw in passive income from ads.

Well, I am running two additional websites: KH Theories for discussions of Kingdom Hearts theories and Lovecraft Video Games to review games inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.

The “income” part of the goal has yet to work out, however. On the other hand, the sites are still small, so it will be interesting to revisit this next year to see if anything has changed.

Finally, I wanted to participate in at least three book signing events, and I did: one at In Your Write Mind, one at my local fall festival, and one at the local BookFest.

So not everything worked out, but all in all, it was a good year. If you set any goals for yourself for 2018, how did it go?

Today’s post was delayed because I was off watching Star Wars, but don’t worry, no spoilers here! Instead, just as I did last year, I’m going to take a look back at the writing goals I set for the year.

I said that by 2018, I would:

• Complete my revisions of Hero of the Falari and turn it over to someone to critique.
• Complete my revisions of The Nightbringer.
• Revise Unto Dust and give it an actual title.
• Search for an agent, both by looking for agents in my genre and by participating in events like #PitMad, for Penteract, Agent, and The Nightbringer.
• Have at least 3 short stories which have either been accepted or I’m actively submitting to markets.
• Complete my role in at least 3 more video game projects.
• Earn 50% of my freelance income outside of Fiverr/Upwork/etc.
• Take steps to double my blog traffic.
• Participate in at least two book signing events.
• Seek opportunities to give a presentation to a class at my undergraduate school.

So how did I do this year?

As planned, I revised Hero of the Falari (and had it critiqued), The Nightbringer, and my third novel, which lost its working title in favor of The Time of Adversity. I’ve been diligently searching for an agent.

I focused more on my novels this year than short stories, but I still met my goal. It Came Back was published this year, and I have three other stories I’ve been submitting.

Next up, I made a good deal of progress on video game projects. In addition to completing my role in Ascendant Hearts, Chaos Souls (available now), and Parachronism: Order of Chaos, I also wrote scripts for several short puzzle games.

My remaining goals for 2017 focused less on writing itself, and more on the business around it. Due to the fees involved with freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork, I wanted to lower my dependence on them. This year, I shifted away from Fiverr entirely, and I now make 50% of my freelance income from outside such sites, just as I promised.

However, I did not take steps to double my blog traffic. I admit I forgot.

I participated in three book signings, one at Seton Hill University, one at a local fall festival, and one at the Wellsboro BookFest. They were worthwhile events, and I hope to continue participating in them.

Finally, I didn’t give any presentations at my undergraduate school, because the classes I’d intended to approach weren’t being offered.

Overall, it was a good year. I didn’t accomplish all of my goals, but I completed the majority of them. Now it’s time to set my goals for 2018…