Writing Goals Achieved – And Not Achieved – in 2023

I’ve gone and jumped on the bandwagon!

 

I’m going to share what writing goals I have achieved this year. But I’m also going to share the ones I didn’t achieve. You know, just to balance things out.

 

I have debated writing this post. I don’t like to brag. And I know there are a lot of people who were not able to do too much this year or achieve any goals. I didn’t want to make anyone feel bad!

 

But, I am posting this. I have had some pretty rotten years. Seriously. (I’m looking at YOU, 2020!) But I decided to post this because when those rotten years come along again (and I know they will!), I want to be able to look back on this post to remind myself that I HAVE had some good things happen. I HAVE had a good year, and I truly feel blessed for all of the good things that happened this year. I am absolutely thankful for it all. I am thankful for the bad stuff, too, because they were teachable moments.

 

So, Future Me, if you are reading this during a year that truly and epically SUCKS, just know that better days will come again. I got through the bad stuff before to get to the good stuff after. That will happen again. Just hang in there through the bad stuff! And don’t ever give up hope.

 

Now without further ado, here are the writing goals I achieved this year:

 

·I wrote an ebook every month

·Got stories accepted and/or published in anthologies

·I got some deaf parenting essays accepted for publication

·I got some short stories published

·I also got published in literary mags! Yay!

·I blogged book reviews consistently for 13 days in a row! It was a lot of reading and a lot of writing! But for this month, I posted on my book review blog for more days than I ever have since I started it.

·I FINALLY found a publisher for my collection of YA horror stories. This manuscript had been rejected many times. PsychoToxin Press not only accepted my manuscript but they also published the book in the same year! (Thanks, Christopher and Brandon!)

·I revised and submitted another collection of YA horror stories to PsychoToxin Press and they accepted it.

• I wrote ANOTHER short story collection! I plan to submit it next year.

 

Here are the writing goals I did not achieve this year, which I had HOPED to achieve:

 

·I didn’t earn income from my writing for every month this year. (April was a bad month for me.)

·I didn’t break into songwriting. (I’ll try again next year!)

·I didn’t get any articles published in a major newspaper like The New York Times or a major magazine like WIRED (these are my dream publications!). I came pretty darn close with WIRED, though, on my second attempt.

·NONE of my pitches sent through nDash were accepted. I’ve basically given up on them.

·I DIDN’T FINISH WRITING MY YA FOLK HORROR NOVEL! AAH! (takes in a deep breath) It’s fine. I’m fine. No, seriously. I have decided the whole thing is garbage. I’m tossing it out and starting over.

·I didn’t finish the contemporary YA novel revisions, either. I got sidetracked!

·I didn’t get a literary agent. At this point, though, I don’t want one anymore.

 

So, that’s it. The good and bad of my writing this year. It was a crazy year! I had to go into the hospital because of my heart condition acting up, I was rear-ended by someone when it was  close to Christmas, and of course I dealt with sickness, sleepiness brought on by my sleep disorder, and the constant bouts of severe headaches.

 

But, I made it! Yay! And I’m still sober! Yay again!

 

And I did manage to accomplish some writing goals. So, that’s good too, right?

 

Overall, I think I did good.

 

Now for a bonus round!

 

Here are some surprising accomplishments from 2023:

 

·Another year of getting my monthly newsletter out! Yay!

·I became a columnist! And for TWO publications! For First Chapter Plus Magazine, I write a column about books. For Monstrous Femme, I write about all things horror.

·I EDITED A WHOLE FREAKING NOVEL!

·I finally found a publisher for a collection of YA horror stories that had been rejected numerous times (I know I mentioned this above, but it WAS a surprise to finally get an acceptance on my manuscript).

·Ditto for a collection of Halloween and horror poems that was later revamped into a collection of holiday horror poetry. (Thanks, Kevin!)

·I took a couple of scriptwriting courses online. (I plan to try to break into scriptwriting next year!)

·I was enlisted by PsychoToxin Press as a Book Marketing and PR rep for their authors.

·A blurb I wrote for a book I reviewed was published IN the book! Yay!

·I participated in a podcast! AND IT HAD CLOSED CAPTIONING! Yes, there was a microphone debacle, but in the end, we got it moving along again (thanks, Centauri!) and I was able to join in. That was an AWESOME thing!

 

And, of course, I am grateful for ALL of the new writers, self-published authors, authors, cover designers, editors and publishers I have met this year. My network has certainly GROWN, which is fantastic! I’m so thrilled about meeting so many new awesome people and coming across so many opportunities.

 

Now to see how 2024 goes…

The Power of Persistence

 

If there is one thing you must understand about finding success, it’s that it doesn’t come easily. Some people would like to believe that it does, and many may think that for certain people, their success was handed right to them.

 

It’s easy to believe this on the surface, but if you dig deeper, you may find that the person who has achieved success had an awful hard road to travel to get there.

 

And not only did they have to deal with many setbacks and failures, but they very likely had to deal with self-doubt and the temptation to give up.

 

But if you REALLY want to make something happen or if you REALLY want to achieve success, YOU MUST NEVER GIVE UP!

 

You must persist, no matter how long it takes you to achieve your goal.

 

I was reminded of this recently, when I finally held in my hands the published copy of my poetry book, Terrors.

 

I had to take a few minutes to look at that book as I held it in my hands and savor the moment of success.

 

This is a book which had been rejected many times. Several publishers I queried and submitted the manuscript to told me no. They rejected the manuscript.

 

Time and time again, I was told that a publisher wasn’t interested in publishing my book.

 

Now, I know I could have self-published this book. I have self-published other poetry books. But not too long ago, I decided that I was done self-publishing my poetry books. I didn’t want to do that anymore.

 

I wanted to find a publisher for my poetry books.

 

That was my goal. That is something I held onto after receiving one rejection after another.

 

I didn’t give up on finding a publisher for my poetry book. It took a very long time, but I DID eventually find one.

 

In fact, I have now found two! And I am so very grateful to both of them for saying “yes” to my books and accepting my manuscripts.

 

The same could be said of my new book of short stories, The Worst Thing You Ever Did. This manuscript was also rejected many times by publishers until I finally found the publisher who said “yes” to it.

 

This would not have happened if I had given up. If I didn’t persist. I had to hang in there and keep going. Eventually, I was rewarded with success.

 

And you will, too, if you do the same. Achieving your goal and making a dream come true is hard. It can take a lot of work and a lot of time. But if it’s something you really want, then all of that money, work, time, patience and dedication will be worth it.

 

Don’t ever give up. Keep trying. Keep persisting. If you keep going after what you want no matter how long it takes, you will eventually find success.

 

So keep going!