Announcement: Re-evaluating and Goal Check-In

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typewriter showing the word "goals" on the page
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

At the start of the year, I set some lofty goals for my writing and this blog. And as it always does, life has intervened. I have decided to adjust some of these goals going forward, at least temporarily. As well, the first quarter of the year is complete, and it's a good time to reevaluate. Here is my quarterly accountability post and some adjustments I am making.

1. Post Every Week

Goal: Post every week (Sundays)

Result so Far: Met until April 13 (15 weeks), adjusting to every other week

I'm temporarily shifting this to every other week. I have signed up for Crystal Lake's Author's Journey course and in order to keep up with those obligations, I need to cut back a bit on other things. I struggled a bit with this goal during Moanaria's Fright Club course that I took earlier this year, and was forced to use old reviews written years ago. I could do that again now, but I would prefer to post better content in alternating weeks instead of pushing out something every week. This means, I will post a minimum of every other Sunday, with some bonus reviews and things as the mood strikes me at least until the end of the summer.

2. Send out a Newsletter Every Month

Goal: Send out a newsletter every month 

Result so far: Met Jan-Mar, switching to every other month (May, July, September, November)

For similar reasons as above, I will be temporarily making my newsletter every other month (at a minimum) instead of every month. This will also allow me to write more interesting articles for it. I did not send one out at the end of April, so the next one will be the end of May. You can sign up and read the archive here. 

3. Novel-writing

Goal: Complete drafts of:

- Rescued: Current word count: 33,646 words - Goal: Roughly 80,000 by end of the year

- Cosgrove Manor: Current word count: 5,925 words - Goal: Postponed

I planned to complete drafts of two novels this year - my thriller, Rescued, and Cosgrove Manor, my murder mystery sequel to my yet-to-be-published Lookout Point. I am keeping the first draft of Rescued on my to-do list for the fall/winter, but I am moving Cosgrove Manor to 2026 writing. 

But this time I have an exciting reason! It's because of Author's Journey. For that course, I will be writing a novella-length retelling of the myth of Sisyphus. I've just begun this, and I'm very excited about it. I've long wanted to write more Greek myth retellings and this is one I've had on my to-do list for a long time. The focus will be him in the underworld and all the others there. 

4. Short Stories

I set the goal of writing 6 short stories and 12 flash fiction pieces, with the potential goal of also submitting all of them for publication somewhere. So far, mostly thanks to Moanaria, my count is:

Short stories:1 complete and submitted (rejected), 3 drafted (to be edited) - leaving 2 to go

Flash Fiction: 3 drafted (to be edited), leaving 9 to go

5. Goodreads Challenge

Goal: 75 books by the end of the year. Current: 21 books, 4 books "behind schedule". 

Result so far: Falling a bit behind on this, but working to catch up. I'm not adjusting this goal for now.

6. Short Story Reading

Goal: No real set goal, but to read from a variety of anthologies and magazines/newsletters, keeping track of memorable ones for an end-of-year best of style list.  

Result so far: Been doing this regularly. Could read more anthologies.

7. Secret Goal

This is still on the list, but has been pushed to the latter part of the year due to this latest course I'm taking.  



Thanks for reading! 

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