AHHH!!!!! IT’S ALMOST CHRISTMAS! This has been a hectic year, hasn’t it? I feel like I literally just blinked and it ran away? Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way! (haha, that sounds like it could be a musical lyric).
Anyway, I made some 2017 goals, which I’m here to update you on. Also, I’ll be updating you on my writing in general, and what I’m hoping to achieve in 2018.
So, let’s take a look at each of my writing goals and how I went with them over the last twelve months.
1. Write four novels
Ha…ha…ha…well, this was a bit farfetched, now that I look back on it, and I’ve decided that I must have been a very idealistic young person when I made these goals.
So hopefully, by the time you’re reading this, I will have written two novels—both first drafts—(Black and White; Stars Fill Infinity) and one novella (Rose Mask). I still think that’s very impressive and it amounts to about 230k words.
2. Read 100 Books
As of today, I have read 98 books. I’m currently reading my 99th and listening to my 100th. This was probably one of my easier goals, to be honest!
3. Write five new short stories
Haha! I blitzed this one. I wrote fourteen short stories this year. Some of them have been a bit “meh”, but other ones were, in my opinion, brilliant. I’ve had mixed success, but it’s been fun. A lot of these stories were also written because of May’s Scribbler Challenge, so shout out to her for hosting it!
4. Enter four writing competitions
I actually had a lot of trouble finding writing competitions this year. In Australia, a lot of writing competitions are only open to people over the age of 18, and most junior writing competitions are only open to under 16. Being seventeen, that makes it a bit hard to find comps to enter. So far, I’ve entered two comps and submitted to one magazine.
5. Edit two novels
Ah…well…*awkward pause*. I started to edit two novels, does that count?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. The less said about this, the better for all of us.
Okay, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, time to talk about my writing, what has happened this year and what I’m hoping will happen next year. I’m going to go about this project by project—starting with my Blade of the Dragon series.
WIP—The Blade of the Dragon
One of the aforementioned half-edited books this year was Jihi, the first book in the Blade of the Dragon trilogy. I got about 30-40k completely rewritten, but I lost my way after I finished Camp NaNo in July. I’ve finally worked out where I want to go with this novel, so I hope to finish this rewrite next year and polish it up.
Maybe even toward the end of the year, I’ll start looking into publishers, if I can get it up to scratch. I’ll be making a call for beta readers in this novel soon, so if you’re interested stick around for that.
As for Shokan, the second in the trilogy, I’m hoping to do a complete rewrite on that as well, to lengthen it (it’s currently only 49k) and, obviously, tweak the details that need to be tweaked so that it reads like the sequel to Jihi, which has been majorly changed from its first draft. I probably will only get one draft of this done, as my priority lays with Jihi.
Finally, I have vague idea of what I want the third book to be about, so I’m going to plot that out. Maybe it will turn out to be my next NaNo novel!
WIP—Black & White
Black and White is the other book I started editing, but never finished because of NaNoWriMo. I will hopefully complete the second draft of this next year and get some marvellous beta readers to give it a thorough scouring.
This one doesn’t need a whole lot of work, I don’t think, as the plot is mostly intact, apart from a few holes and the occasional thing that needs fixing it up.
WIP—Stars Fill Infinity
Well, exciting news for you all. I finished this WIP on December 14. DID YOU HEAR THAT??? I FINISHED!!! It’s over 100k long, the longest novel I’ve ever written, and most of the characters are dead. I still, however, have made a pretty aesthetic collage for you. Also, probably some time during January, I’ll do a post for Stars Fill Infinity, all by itself.
I’m not sure if I’ll get time to complete a second draft and get beta readers for this one, between the other three projects I have to edit, but that’s okay. I might get to it and I might not.
I also have a few other projects which may or may not get done, depending how quickly I get my editing done.
Unnamed Theatre Novel
I’ve had the idea for a while for a for a novel set in and around a theatre, about two friends. That’s kind of the only plot I have so far. However, I’d like to write this one very much.
Red & White
Some of you may remember the prequel to Black & White that I started in May this year. I ended up putting it aside because I had no idea where I wanted to go with it. If I get time, I’d love to return to it next year.
And now, for my 2018 writing goals!
1. Read 100 Books
2. Start an author’s platform (maybe Facebook, Twitter and a mailing list, we’ll see what it entails)
3. Query five publishers (by that I mean collect five rejection slips which I shall frame and put on my wall in an effort to console myself)
4. Edit Black & White, Jihi and Shokan
5. Write two new novels
And some personal goals, not related to writing:
1. Learn a musical instrument
2. Get a job
3. Have at least four flying lessons
4. Learn French and German
5. Focus more on dance and choreography
6. Finish Silver Duke of Ed and start Gold Duke of Ed
And finally! I’m getting a guest post published on Jane Maree’s blog tomorrow, so go check it out and have an explore of her blog, it’s pretty cool!
How did you go with your goals this year? What are your 2018 goals?
an ordinary pen 
First and foremost, I really admire your ability to see your goals through to the finish! My focus when it comes to projects is horrible and well… as a result, I get starts to a lot of projects that probably will never get finished! But I did make a goal to rewrite 15,000 words of NaNo novel and it looks like I’m well on my way to getting it done by the end of December which was my goal! As of yesterday I did meet my Goodreads reading challenge goal of 150 but it really looked like that wasn’t going to happen for a little while. I did manage to strengthen my knowledge of the German language this year which has helped me a lot in learning about my heritage and also getting to have fun listening and understanding my favorite musicals a little better! Oh, and I guess that getting Confirmed this year was a goal too–probably the most important of this year–and I’m glad that I met that one at least! Whew! This comment got really long! Merry Christmas!
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Thanks! I wrote a guest post on Jane Maree’s blog which will be published today, about goal making and sticking to those goals. I guess I am just a really competitive person and that helps me get it done.
150 books is pretty cool! Its a lot of reading!
Do you come from a German family? If you don’t mind me asking.
Yes that was a very cool commitment.
Don’t worry, I love long comments. Thanks for commenting!
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I’ll make sure that I check out that post! It sounds interesting! And yeah, my dad’s family is German so I was raised with a lot of that culture and language surrounding me but I kind of just forgot a lot of the language so I basically started from scratch with it this year!
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Wow, you have a lot of really neat stories in the works! Stars Fill Infinity looks really interesting in particular, and I like the title.
Personally I have a phobia of goals. But in 2017 I made a tentative goal to finish the first draft of a novel that I started four years ago, which I did accomplish. I work at a turtle’s pace, but that’s okay. Maybe my 2018 goal will be to edit the first draft.
Best of luck with your 2018 goals!
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Wow, congrats! You were much more productive than I was, lol.
Also your Stars Fill Infinitely aesthetic is absolutely gorgeous and I really want to read it now.
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I had fun writing it!
Cool, :D. I really like the German language and the way it sounds and looks. I’ve always wanted to properly learn it, but currently all the words I know would not actually be at all helpful in a conversation 😀
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Thank you! It took an awfully long time to make that collage. Well, if you’re interested, I’ll hopefully be needing beta readers some time next year. 😀 the title’s very pretty, isn’t it? It came from Les Miserables. I unashamedly stole it. my defence is that it is a Les Mis retelling after all.
Well done! I happen to work really fast, but I’m not very good at getting around to editing after that. I’m very slow at editing.
Thanks again!
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I’m sure you got lots done too! You’ve written some very cool blog posts for one.
Thank you. I’m kind of in love with it too and had a lot of fun making it. I’m hoping to need beta readers next year *subtly nudges and winks*
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Those WIP’s look so intrigueing…. I also always fall in love with every WIP pinterest board I ever see haha
I actually worked on my story for Nano, and won it with 50k words. The only problem is that the story is not…finished….at….all?? Which is why I took a break for Decemberm I guess I’ll have a hard time coming back to the story in January. 😦 But your goals look very promising! I want to read 100 books… but my wallet tells me I don’t want to. xD
~Sam
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It’s a beautiful language but it can be a tough one! With the right practice, though, I’m sure you’d be able to get it down! Personally I used free online tools to help me out and I saw those as being really helpful for learning words and, to a certain extent, sentence structure!
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Ooh, that one is your Les Mis retelling? Awesome! I would be happy to be a beta reader for it, except I should warn you that I don’t know exactly what a beta reader is or how to be one. I assume it has something to do with reading the story and giving feedback, but if there are other details I am oblivious to them. I am totally interested though!
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I was just reading through some old blog posts and I stumbled across your comment, which I never ever replied to! I’m sorry about that, and thanks for your sweet comment. How has your novel been going lately?
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