2021 Goals

 

So, it turns out that after the hellish year that was 2020, we were kidding ourselves when we expected 2021 to be any better. 😒

We're still in the middle of an awful pandemic. Actually, I would dare to say that even though so many of us are now vaccinated (and even boosted), we're in a much worse position than we were this time last year. Several Covid variants have already spread all over the world and new ones keep popping up. And our hopeless governments have pretty much given up keeping us safe.

In NSW, our cases are higher than ever and our cruel government DGAF. This is what happens when the economy is put above health and responsibility. Seems to me like politicians have forgotten their roles/place in society. Ugh.

Anyway, now that I got the shit stuff out of the way, let's move on. I'm here to chat about my personal goals. Staying focused on my writing helped keep me busy. Especially since hubby went back to full-time work this year.

Here's how my goals turned out: 

• Continue our daily walks and eventually (depending on pandemic status) introduce a second walk again: THIS IS SOMETHING WE WERE ABLE TO CONTINUE DOING THIS YEAR. SINCE HUBBY WENT BACK TO WORK, WE GOT BACK INTO THE ROUTINE OF TWO DAILY WALKS DURING WEEKDAYS (SOMETIMES THREE) AND LONG SUBURBAN WALKS ON WEEKENDS. I LOVE WALKING. IT HAS A LOT OF PHYSICAL, MENTAL, DIGESTIVE AND INSPIRATIONAL BENEFITS.

• Keep doing yoga workouts and mix them up with the morning walking schedule: YEP. WE GOT BACK INTO OUR YOGA WORKOUTS. ALTHOUGH WE SKIPPED A FEW THROUGHOUT THE YEAR DUE TO VACCINES AND/OR BEING TOO BUSY/TIRED, WE'RE MOSTLY BACK ON TRACK.

• Write between 100-200k words: ENDED UP WRITING 159,431 words & EDITED 6,109 pages. 

• Read 50 books: READ 110 BOOKS. (11 DNFs.)

• Finalise some (of the many) horror novel first drafts sitting on my hard drive: MANAGED TO GET 5 OF THESE PROJECTS COMPLETED. ONE OF THEM WAS ACTUALLY EDITED FOR PUBLISHING. THIS YEAR MY FOCUS WAS MOSTLY ON REVISING/FINALISING SOME OF THE (MANY) FIRST DRAFT NOVELS THAT HAVE BEEN SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

• Write two new novels: SINCE I SPENT MOST OF THE YEAR WORKING ON REVISION PROJECTS, I ONLY WROTE 1 NEW (63,580w) NOVEL (during NaNoWriMo).

• Write a novella or two: THIS WAS MOSTLY A FAIL, THOUGH I DID WRITE AND REVISED A NOVELETTE.

• Keep writing short stories & subbing: I ONLY WROTE ONE SHORT STORY AND HAD THAT STORY ACCEPTED INTO AN ANTHOLOGY THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT YEAR. 

• Take part in NaNoWriMo: I  TOOK PART (of course!) & GOT MY 15th WIN! (This time I wrote a horror haunted house ghost story. 😁)

• Keep up with the clutter/book/stationery sorting: TOTALLY DID! THIS YEAR I WENT THROUGH MY BOOK STACKS SEVERAL TIMES AND DONATED 454 BOOKS TO LOCAL STREET LIBRARIES! 👀

• Actually play a game or two on my 2DS & Switch Lite (especially interested in Mr. DRILLER & Goetia): THIS IS A FUNNY ONE BECAUSE, WHILE I DIDN'T ACTUALLY PLAY ANY OF THESE, I DID START PLAYING ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS (ON MY SWITCH LITE) IN OCTOBER AND HAVE CONTINUED TO DO SO DAILY SINCE THEN. I ADORE THIS GAME! ❤

Well, that's it for my list of completed goals for this year! But I'm not quite done because several stories were published during 2021.

 

My first YA horror novel, Wall of Dolls, was published in October by Otranto House:

My cyberpunk novella was published in January by Demain Publishing! And both The Wired City + The Bone Factory were released in paperback in August:

I also had short stories published in several anthologies:

And ended the writing year by having a shortie accepted into a Creepypasta anthology that will be released next year from Cemetery Gates Media. You can actually read The Hags of Merricktown on their website right now. Yay!

Well. This year turned out to have plenty of challenges, but I achieved something I've put off for years. I got stuck into a bunch of revision projects and actually made a real dent. And because of these finished projects, I even started taking part in PitMad more often.

2021 Summary

Now it's time to come up with a 2022 Goals List...

Posted in: goals , random thoughts , reading , real life , revisions , rewriting , stuff , to-do list , word count , writing , writing numbers