Most writers are spending this last week reviewing their 2016 goals and looking ahead to 2017. I’ve been thinking about them for a couple of weeks.
I didn’t hit all of my goals as I had wanted. But I sure gave it a better chance than last year. Every year things improve more for me.
This year I wrote more words than last year. I don’t think I hit 100k last year, but this year I’m at over 179k. I also “won” National Novel Writing Month, something I hadn’t done in the last three years.
I have learned some things this year. I’ve learned to use my Passion Planner better than in 2015, and I’ve figured more ways to use it for next year.
Goal 1
I will have at least two freelancing jobs and will contact at least three clients a week.
At the end of July, I took part in a 60-day challenge to help me get started with freelancing. The young man in charge did a great job of teaching us how to cold pitch ideas.
And I did land one job that paid what I had asked. However, it wasn’t a long lasting one.
I did continue to pitch after the challenge was over, but I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I want to pitch ideas to blogs and websites online.
One of my new goals for 2017 will be to focus on getting editing jobs. I enjoy that work much better.
Goal 2
I wrote a short story, or prequel, to my novels to give away on my author website.
Just like I said I would in July, I did write this short story during Camp NaNoWriMo. I have put it aside since then. However, I will edit and format it the first part of 2017.
Goal 3
I published my Rick Springfield memoir.
I did get more editing on this book done, but I won’t get it published by the end of the year.
I have decided to put as much as I can into it, and I would like to add some photos, too. I have the huge project of putting a box of memorabilia in order before I can continue any further.
I am pushing to get this published as soon as I can in 2017.
Goal 4
I marketed my writing and editing business every day for 20 minutes.
I haven’t done the marketing of my business on a consistent basis, but I have done it from time to time. I want to be more consistent with this in 2017.
Rachel Thompson has published a book called 30-Day Book Marketing Challenge: How to energize your book sales in a month on Amazon this past week. It’s already a hit among authors. Even though I went through her email challenge, I will purchase the book because social media changes every minute.
I look forward to seeing what the changes are in the book and working on marketing my book and business.
Looking back at 2016, I haven’t done too bad, but I could have achieved my goals if I had pushed myself a bit more. I am determined to hit more of my goals in 2017.