Arriving late to the 2014 goal party

There’s always one! In my defence my internet connection has been all over the place for the last few months and I’ve been working on an unrelated project (Doesn’t life always get in the way) However I am back with a-vengeance posting my goals for the year today and then I have a post coming up on Wednesday and Thursday, Blogger may explode with confusion.

First off a review of my 2013 writing:

Could have been a lot better, I have had a big project going through 2013 which severely hampered my writing time as well as being in my accident at the end of 2012. However there are some positives:

1. I have my first finished poem, I have always started poems and have a stack of unfinished ones but I have got a finished poem this year (after 30 re-writes) small proof that I can finish what I start.

2. I have had 131 ideas for short stories, poems, articles, letters and books. Yes I am sad and keep a count of this each year, my mum has scheduled tests. I think it’s good though, I haven’t got up the confidence to send anything off yet so I need to find my goals and sense of achievements elsewhere.

3. Of those ideas I have had 3 fiction book ideas, one which I have made a start on and I am hoping to finish in 2014. I have also had 4 non-fiction book ideas which I am hoping to find the time to look at, at some point in my life.

4. I have wrote double what I wrote in 2012, even with the big project and accident and illness so at least my output is going up not down.

Disappointments of 2013:

1. I failed miserably at NaNoWriMo in November only getting just over 10,000 words; I’m going to give that another go this year.

2. I really wanted to get the courage up last year to send off my work for others to see, but the best I did was an extra family member and uni tutors.

Onwards to 2014:

Main, big goals:

1. My main big goal for 2014 is to finish the first draft my first novel, I made a start last year and have the general ideas laid out, I would like the novel to reach 100,000 words but I don't know if it will go over this. I have a good plan in place and I have high hopes for this goal this year.

2. My over-reaching main goal this year is to get up my output, both word count and submissions. So my second main goal for this year is to write 52 short stories, that is one short story a week. I don't suspect I will complete this goal but wanted to aim high and try and get as close as possible. Goal 1 will come first which will but this goal on the back burner some months. If that happens I will be happy as long as I tried my best.

3. Continue working hard with all my studies, I had to put off level 2 creative writing last year but hopefully I can finish it this year and I will be starting Level 3 Advanced creative writing in September/October. I will also be continuing on with my Writer’s Bureau comprehensive writing course, Poetry course and writing for competitions course. I am hoping to finish both poetry and writing for competitions courses this year. 

4. Complete National Novel Writing Month in November, I failed miserably last year but really would like to complete this just once to say I can do it, I have a lot going on at that time this year but I am going to give it my best go.

5. Publish non-fiction; Making a more concentrated effort on the non-fiction side this year, I’m hoping to start with trying to publish a reader’s letter which is the first goal and if I am able to do that I will move on to goal two; a filler.

Smaller goals, with just as much importance:

1. Go to my first writing retreat, I have never been to one but read many times from other writers about the many benefits. I am going to the winters fish guard at the end of this month and hopefully I can also get a place booked on the week long swan wick writers retreat as well.

2. Go to my first literacy festival, this year I want as many new writing experiences as i can and I have again read about the many writer benefits of these. I haven’t made an solid plans here yet but watch this space.

3. Visit the British library in London, I have been meaning to do this for a few years now and I have named a date after my University courses for this year finish so I can use this as a reward as well.

4. Join a writing group; I’m quite upset I was not able to get up the courage to do this last year. I am a very shy person and I haven’t had the chance to meet another writer in the flesh yet. I have found a writing group nearby that looks promising. I just need to get up the gumption to call and enquire.

5. Write more poetry; poetry is my first love, but I really want to make a living with my writing one day, which means very often it is on the back burner or the last thing I find time for. It will most likely be the same this year but I would like to put some time aside to write more this year. Last year I was able to finish my first poem and I would really love if I could add another say 5-10 completed poems to this total.

6. Read as much as possible; you cannot be a writer if you are not a reader, and due to time constraints I didn’t really read very much last year. I would like to read at least 5 writing books and 20 new fiction books.

Optional extra goal:

Start work on a cookbook – One of my main life goals is to publish cookbooks, I was a chef for a while and I adore everything about food, to trying new ingredients, trying new restaurants and recipes and of course eating. So this year in any spare time I am able to find I would really like to work towards this goal. I’m thinking of doing a sort of free “sample” cookbook first with a limited number of recipes just to gage reaction and iron out any wrinkles as well as seeing if I want to go down the e-publishing route instead of traditional. As this is just when I have a spare minute and due to the fact I have some big goals going on before it I expect progress here to be slow but I really would like to make a start on this goal this year.

That sounds like more than enough to be going on with for one year, I will post once a month as close to the 1^st of the month as possible, I’m away on the writer’s retreat in March so I won’t be posting until about the 4^th. 

I hope you all have a productive writing year.