Goals for 2017

3 min read

Most of us internally cringe at the thought of New Year’s Resolutions, especially after the Black Void that was 2016.

Though it’s been a good year for me productively with publishing, it admittedly has taken its toll, and I wouldn’t have even fathomed outlining some goals a month ago. However, I attended a seminar Loose Id Publishing did, led by the enigmatic and talented Lynn Lorenz about SMART Goal setting, and it inspired me to be proactive and get some goals down.

Now, a quick word about SMART goals. I worked in Corporate for over 10 years after I got honorably discharged from the Army, and I pretty much had SMART goals shoved down my throat the majority of the time during one-on-ones and business retreats.

So I admittedly moaned at the thought of going through yet another class on them; what they are is measurable and attainable goals (think baby steps) that are reasonable for you on a month to month basis which add up to one big overall goal.

Yes, that photo is of me. *shrugs. Anyhoo, something clicked when I attended Lynn’s class, and a few days later in my daughter’s ballet class, I mapped out my writing goals for 2017. I had my doubts, but it really gave me a fresh outlook for the New Year, and I’m more resolved to go into January with a fresh pair of eyes. It’s long and boring, but I’ll share a tiny bit of the overall goals and January-March’s goals with you:

2017 Goals

Overall Goals for 2017:

  1. Publish 3-5 books (Including Finding a Pulse), namely Tropical Dread, Stinkerbells (three-part children’s series for the girls), and The Constituent Heart. Publish the cleaner books in my regular name and get actual headshots this time (check! I actually had fun with that and met some awesome individuals!).
  2. Increase readership through promotions, building relationships, and more physical presence once Finding a Pulse comes out in print.
  3. Schedule precise times of day to do social media posting on FB and Twitter, so it doesn’t become a distraction.
  4. Join RWA PAN (check!).

 

January – March:

  • Get involved with my RWA Chapter and plan to attend at least one conference.
  • Completely write and prepare No Knead… erotic or clean romance?
  • Each day write up to 500 words on the ballet stories for the girls (3 x novellas in the series).
  • Each day fix 1 page on Tropical Dread (it’s done and just needs rewrites… Loose Id submission?).
  • Each day fix/write up to 500 words on The Constituent Heart. Focus on quality and continuity.

The idea of writing down New Year’s resolutions and mapping things out can be tedious, irksome, and dreadful… Buuuut here’s the thing; it’s no different than outlining a novel, and once you have that fundamental idea concretely blue printed, the sky’s the limit in what you can achieve when you know where you want to go with everything. I encourage everyone to write down anything they want to do in 2017; whether it’s a word, a sentence, a few paragraphs, or a whole laundry list. Get crazy and put it down on paper!

I sincerely wish you all a happy and successful 2017. If you’re holding out on outlining your book or goals, what are you waiting for? 😉

 

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