Without dwelling on the failures of 2017, I’m trying to make my 2018 goals reflective of what I learned from last year, not just what I ideally want to accomplish.
You’ll probably notice that there is some overlap between these goals or that one tends to lead to another. I suppose that’s inevitable. And I’ll continue to do month to month goals but these are designed to be the over-arching things I’ll be working on throughout the year.
- Find a better balance/schedule.
One of the main issues I had last year was feeling like there wasn’t enough time in the day to do everything I wanted to do which often led to some important things being neglected. So, the early months of 2018 (hopefully it won’t take longer than that) will involve a degree of experimentation regarding my daily schedule and making sure I’ve giving decent time to all my obligations.
- Write every day.
So after having this as more or less a permanent feature on my monthly goals in 2017, I decided to make it a constant for this year. What I’ll hopefully do is gradually build up my daily totals. Whether that means I’ve working on House in Exile or something else to keep my brain ticking over remains to be seen.
- Maintain consistent output.
Not just in terms of my daily writing (as above) but in terms of my blog page here. As mentioned in my December 2017 goals, I like to have between 8 & 12 blog posts per month. I think the best way of doing that is by making sure I stick to a schedule. It might also benefit me to expand the contents if I can.
- Keep doing reviews.
Not only do the reviews give me a chance to pay back some kindnesses, they also give me additional posts for the month. I’ve set my Goodreads reading challenge to a book a week so that should give me plenty to work with. I’ve already got one planned since I was actually given an ARC of Art of War.
- Do more interviews.
I liked doing those interviews last year (and again, it gives me another potential post) so I’d like to continue doing them. I do think I’d like do more, if possible, but I would like to do at least one every three months.
- Really sit down and work out House in Exile.
Since I failed to get the first draft done last year, I’ve found myself wondering if it was my lack of planning or not have as clear an idea of where I’m supposed to be going. Several times last year, I talked about mapping the novel out but I never really got very far with doing that. I’m hoping that if I can finally get this done, then that will help me with the next one.
- Complete the first draft of House in Exile.
As I said in the post about my goals for 2017, I don’t want the first draft of House in Exile dragging on and taking years like its predecessors did. That’s still true and I hope, one way or another, I’ll get it done this year.
I’ve ended up with one more than I had last year, which might be ambitious but you have to push yourself, don’t you?
The Scribblings 