A Look Back At My 2018 Resolutions

2018 is finally over and now 2019 stretches out in front of us where everything is still possible.

In 2018, I wrote 290 997 words which is darn impressive, especially since I actually took a month off.  Aside from that deliberate month, I only had 2 weeks where I didn't write, and that was because I was concentrating on editing.  So I'm feeling pretty proud about that.

But as I was scrolling through my posts to get all of my word counts, I found this post from January 4th, 2018 detailing my resolutions for the year.

I had my professional goals: pitching at RWA, increasing my readership, and increasing my weekly word count.

I did my pitches and I got my book deal with Soul Mate Publishing, so that is a definite checkmark.

Increasing my readership gets half a checkmark.  I've tried a number of things last year to get my work in front of new readers.  Some of them worked, and some of them didn't.  My monthly royalties are up, but not my number of reviews, so I've convinced people to buy my books but I'm not sure if they're being read.  But I'm encouraged and so I'll keep going.  The most successful efforts have been dropping the price of my first book to 99 cents USA and my monthly features: Heroine Fix and Hidden Diamonds.

Increasing my weekly word count gets another half a checkmark.  I really pushed myself but with mixed results.  Writing every day is not a sustainable process for me, especially not if I'm pushing myself to do at least a thousand words a day.  My best word counts (when taking into account having a healthy work-life balance) came through NaNoWriMo.  I gave myself two and a half hours of writing time every weekdays but left my weekends for other projects.  I was able to easily do between 1500-2000 words a day without feeling rushed.

But I also had personal goals:

Do something that scares me: I have a lot of social anxiety.  I have a hard time reading social cues and so I tend to play it safe rather than risk alienating people.  And I hate the idea of looking like an idiot.  But this year I did something that scared me: I ran a Basics of Burlesque workshop at Romancing the Capital.  And you know what, it was a lot of fun and people had a great time.

Treat myself the way I treat others, celebrating talent and understanding mistakes: I'm doing better with this, recognizing that I actually do have a number of talents and while I haven't quite learned to shake off my mistakes, I am getting better at not obsessing about them.

Spend time being comfortable in my own skin and home: Some days yes, some days no.  But another one I'm getting better at.

Feeling the thrill of discovery rather than getting caught up in logistics: I'm a planner.  I have a plan for alien invasion, the zombie apocalypse and any number of other improbable scenarios.  But the downside of this is that sometimes I can get trapped in my own head, trying to figure out multiple plans for any eventuality.  So I've tried to just enjoy things rather than planning.  And there haven't been too many catastrophes.

2018 was a year where I did more of reaching out for what I wanted.  Sometimes I got it and sometimes I didn't.  But I tried, and I'm proud of that.

It was also a year where I spent more time standing up for what I believe instead of being polite and letting things slide.  And I'm proud of that, too.

I don't have a bunch of resolutions for 2019.  I'd like to keep on the same path.  I want to be proud of who I am and be comfortable with myself.  I want to write my stories and be able to produce both quantity and quality.

Maybe I will, maybe I won't.  But I'll try and that's all anyone can ask for.

Previous post: Hidden Diamond: A.M. Griffin and a world of magic, monsters and gods.

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2018 Resolutions

It's a new year and as we wash up the champagne glasses, vacuum up the confetti, and resign ourselves to a return to the regular routine, it's time to think about where we want to be when the calendar flips over to 2019.

Even a few years ago, a year felt like a really long time.  But now it seems to vanish faster than I can keep track of.  

It would be easy to post my professional goals for 2018: my plan to pitch at RWA, continuing to build my readership, increase my weekly word count, etc.  Those are all real and valid goals and they will be getting a great deal of my attention over the next 361 days.

But that's not all I want to do.

I want to do something which scares me.  Or rather, something that I've wanted to do for awhile and which I keep talking myself out of because I'm afraid of what other people will think.

I want to treat myself the way I treat other people, celebrating talent and understanding mistakes.

I want to try something without being afraid of getting it wrong.

I want to spend time being comfortable in my own skin and home rather than listing off a bunch of "improvements" that I could make.

And last, but not least, I want to feel the thrill of discovery and possibilities without getting caught up in practicalities and logistics.

(Astute readers will notice that I'm not being specific and that is a deliberate choice.  Because the specific goals are not as important as the attitude change.  But I do have specific ideas for each of these desires, which I think is necessary to separate wishful thinking from achievable results.)

There is a real push for self-improvement right now.  All kinds of ads and promotions about how we can become better people.  But in the end, all of those goals boil down to the same ideas: be kind to yourself, conquer your fear, and find a way to bring a little more happiness into day to day life.

2017 was difficult and personally painful in a lot of ways.  I'm ready to leave it in my rearview mirror.  But it's also left me with a lot of uncertainty and guilt over opportunities missed and mistakes made.  And I've been inside my head for long enough to know that I need to take conscious steps to overcome those negative influences or they will continue to grow and drag behind me.

I'm ready for 2018 to be better.  And I hope that it is full of hope, laughter, and opportunities for all of you as well.  Happy New Year.

Previous Post: Heroine Overdose: a look at the amazing characters featured in my monthly Heroine Fix in 2017

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Weekly Update: December 24 to 30

Weekly word count: 5000

And two thirds of the way through my edit for Judgment.  Not bad for a holiday week.

I'm back to work at my day-job next week, plus dealing with kids who are out of school, so I'm making an adjustment for my goals.  I still want to do 2-3 chapters a day for editing, but I'm setting a goal of 3000 words for the week.

I've been doing a lot of thought about my writing goals for 2018 and I think I've got a good plan.  While I'm in the editing process, which will be from now until at least mid-April, I'm setting a goal of 4000 words per week.  Once Judgment is released, then I'm going to double that goal to 8000 words per week.

I'm putting up a new chart to track my progress on Deadly Potential with the goal of having the manuscript ready for RWA 2018 which is in mid-July.

I've got nine more days to get Judgment ready for the content edit.  Once it's off, then it will be time to do the work for getting the first three books out on wide distribution.  I should have two to three weeks while the manuscript is being read.  Hopefully that will be enough.

Weekly update: March 13 to 19

Weekly word count: 3100

Technically, this is a fail since I didn't make my 4000 word count.  However, I'm counting it as a partial victory (because I need all the encouragement I can get).  Last week was March Break, which meant a little family vacation to Toronto and then kids home, so I knew writing was going to be challenging.  What I did not expect was to get knocked on my butt with a nasty cold as soon as we got home.

For three days, the only creative impulse I had was whether or not to get a drink of water before collapsing back into bed.  It was bad enough that my husband (who usually believes I have the get-it-done capabilities of Batman) actually stayed home to help me.

Come Saturday morning, I had a zero word count.  Nothing.  Not even a doodle on a piece of paper.

Now usually when this happens, I chalk it up to a bad week and promise myself to do better.  This week, with my 90 day plan in place, I decided that a bad week simply wasn't good enough.  So I dragged my little computer out, planted myself on the couch where I could supervise the child-related chaos, found some nature documentaries on Netflix to distract the kids and got working.

It took me most of the day and there were a lot of interruptions, but I wrote 3100 words.  And while it leaves me 900 words shy of my weekly target, it's still 3100 words closer to completion than I would have been if I hadn't made the effort.  And it was a valuable lesson to me, a reminder not to give up.

This week, the house is quiet and while I already know I will lose two writing days this week due to appointments and other commitments, I am more confident of being able to reach my goals. 

Weekly update: Feb 28 to March 6

Weekly word count: 4050

I managed to just squeak through on my word count for this week.  I'll have to do better next week, especially since writing is going to be very difficult during March Break with both kids home all week.

It's been lots of fun watching the reviews and feedback come in for Metamorphosis.  Thus far the consensus is good.  It's a different feel from the first book, a less frantic pace which I feel suits the long nights and more natural rhythms of life up North. 

I finished the first draft of Rose on the Grave, the second short story for Spirit Sight.  It still needs a lot of work but should be ready for another pre-Hallowe'en release. 

And we had a fantastic workshop with the Ottawa Romance Writers this month.  All about practical goal setting and not letting your fears block your dreams.  I think the information on common fears and how to overcome them will be very useful for creating powerful character growth arcs (as well as personally).  But it was the goal setting which really caught my attention.

Cynthia Boyko recommended setting 3 practical, realistic and concrete goals for the next 90 days.  By only focusing on the next three months, it doesn't get overwhelming while still keeping a sense of urgency and focus.  The goal needs to be something that can be easily determined if it was met or not.  "I'm going to get more serious about my writing" is too fluid.  "I'm going to write for half an hour a day" is either happening or not, no debate.  She cautioned against getting too ambitious.  The point is to succeed, which means leaving room for unpleasant surprises.

So here are my goals:

Write at least 4000 words per week. (This was already a goal, so  I'm keeping it in the loop)

Have at least 2 weeks where I write each day Monday-Friday. (Too often my time gets bumped for appointments, errands and other life stuff.  In three months, I should be able to manage two full weeks of writing.)

Do at least two tweets per day for my upcoming promotion.  (I am still promo-shy when it comes to letting people know what's going on.  Time to stop being embarrassed to toot my own horn.)

Next month's workshop is on editing.  Edit Like A Pro with Laura Paquette.  Another one I'm looking forward to.

Simple, direct and theoretically achievable.  We'll see what happens.