On December 30, 2020, I posted my primary writing goals for 2021:
1. Edit and publish my seventh novel, my current work-in-progress [which I later titled Safe Thus Far]. I hope to complete this book by Labor Day.
2. Decide on my next novel. (I have three ideas floating around in my head presently.) Whether I’ll participate in NaNoWriMo again is yet to be determined, but I’d like to get a good start on the next draft by the end of the year.
3. Develop a more integrated marketing plan for my website, blog, newsletter, and other social media sites. Ideally, this would address my pseudonym as well.
So, how did I do?
- Safe Thus Far was published on November 15. I didn’t meet my original deadline, but I did get it done in 2021. The delay in publication date wasn’t due to the first draft — I completed that draft during NaNoWriMo in 2020. The problem was that I didn’t deal with some major plot issues until about the fourth draft, issues I should have wrestled with much earlier. A lesson for next time.
- I have decided on my next novel—it will be the sixth historical novel in my Oregon series. This next book doesn’t follow directly from Safe Thus Far, as it involves peripheral characters in earlier books. I need to give Will McDougall a chance to grow up before I put him in another book. At this point, I have about 15,000 words written in this next novel, so it’s still in early stages.
- I haven’t done as well on marketing as I would like. And all the marketing I have done has been for my Oregon novels; nothing for the books I’ve written under a pseudonym.
And what are my writing goals for 2022?
Not much different than for 2021:
- Edit and publish my eighth novel, the one I am now writing. I can complete the first draft and do most of the editing in 2022, but whether I can get it ready for publication is less certain. I only began writing in early December, and I have never moved from blank page to published novel in less than a year.
- Update my website. I’ve made some changes to it in 2021, but I’m still using the same WordPress theme as I have since 2017. I did switch to posting in the new WordPress block format (Gutenberg), but older posts are still in the older format. Unfortunately, I know changing themes to something more Gutenberg-friendly will be a bear of a job, and I’m procrastinating. Can I continue with incremental changes, or will I need to spend significant time and energy on website development? I don’t know the answer.
- Continue this blog past its tenth anniversary. (Since this will occur in January 2022, I can be fairly certain of meeting this goal.)
- Work on group marketing with other authors, through the local Write Brain Trust group and with people I’ve met through the Historical Novel Society. I don’t know what form this goal will take, though the new Of Books and Nooks website is one component.
Whether you’re a writer or not, what are your goals for 2022? Post your primary goal in the comments below.
