…is an unaccomplished goal.

At Partners in Crime, my IRL critique group, we were talking about goals. With a start, I realized I haven’t done any for this year. Oh, I had half an idea of what I thought I wanted to accomplish, but honestly, I hadn’t written anything down.

Bad, bad Ericka.

Not long ago, a friend of mine sent me a quote from one of her friends that reminded her
Dreams are goals without plans.

Well, I don’t want to just dream a career in writing. I want to achieve it. So, here are my goals, in black and white.

January — Finish Atlantis time-travel novella — I am one measly scene away from the end and have until Monday to write it. Woot!

February — Edit Atlantis and begin submitting to publishers
Continue writing Storm at Sea (even if it’s just 100 words a day) concurrent with editing Atlantis
Scan 2-5 previously published short stories each week – as I’ve embarked on a project to convert all of my previously published short stories into digital format and compile them into a book to self-pub

March – Continue writing Storm at Sea (goal is 5,000 words/week), 20,000 words/month
Continue scanning 2-5 stories/wk
Do some plotting for future tales

April – Continue writing Storm at Sea (goal is 5K/week), 20K/month
Continue scanning 2-5 stories/wk
Begin cleaning up shorts and formatting for self-publishing

May – Continue writing Storm at Sea (goal is 5K/week), 20K/month
Continue scanning 2-5 stories/wk
Begin cleaning up shorts and formatting for self-publishing

June – Finish writing Storm at Sea (goal 5K/wk), 20K/month
Continue Scanning, cleaning up, formatting short stories
Attend RWA conference in NY — note to self, it’s not necessary to sing the NY song while standing in the middle of Times Square, although if I want to, I will.

July – Begin editing Storm at Sea
Finish up short story scans, editing/cleanup/formatting

August – Begin shopping Storm at Sea to agents (have hopefully “successfully” pitched it at RWA)
Self-pub short story anthology
Begin writing new novella

September – Continue writing novella

October – Finish writing novella
Begin editing novella
Begin plotting new novella

November – Shop second novella to publishers
Begin writing third novella

December – Finish third novella
Edit third novella

This accounting…will hopefully keep me on track!

What about your goals?

Remember —

Write it down. Written goals have a way of transforming wishes into wants; cant’s into cans; dreams into plans; and plans into reality. Don’t just think it – ink it! – Author Unknown