Writing Goals for 2018 – Why Bother?

 January 4, 2018

As the queen of goal setting, imagine my surprise when I went to look for my 2017 writing goals and didn’t find any! Yes, I had gone a whole year without having any goals written down. How had that happened? I really don’t know. I guess I was busy with other things and forgot.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything writing related last year. On the contrary, I did a lot. I completed a year-long series on my website on the church liturgical year, Seasons of Grace, and used that as the basis for two pamphlets in December. I published the fourth book in my Dancing through Life series and wrote books five and six. I published a non-fiction book, Walking with Families through  Grief, published this book along with Walking with Families through the Dying Process and Still Dancing in audio format.

I attended one writer’s conference and got new covers for the first three books of my Dancing through Life Series and three of my non-fiction books, something I know wasn’t on my radar this time last year. I also took an on-line marketing class.

You might say, since I accomplished all of this without written goals, why bother this year? Because, without a list of goals from last year to check-off, my sense of accomplishment is less. I like having goals as benchmarks to let me know what I have done and what I have yet to do.

So this year, I’m not letting January go by without writing down some concrete goals that I can review at the end of the year.

1. Get 2,000 names on my email list. This has been a challenge for me. I routinely give away free books and articles to capture people’s interest and email, but have yet to find the right “magnet” to draw people to my website and get them to sign-on. I’m planning to change this in 2018
2. Publish books five and six in my Dancing through Life Series. I already have drafts done for both of these. Book five is currently at my copy editor. Book six I wrote during NaNoWriMo last November. I plan to start working on revisions this month.
3. Continue to blog. Blogging is challenging, but I like it. This year I’m back to writing about one Psalm a week. I’ve also started a series on the stained glass windows in my church. I’ll also continue writing about life in general and about writing.
4. Begin research for book seven of Dancing through Life series and write first draft.
5. Publish the rest of my current Dancing through Life series in audio format. I have A Slow Waltz in process and plan to start looking for a narrator for Dancing on a High Wire soon.
6. Attend the Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids this year, as well as the Breathe Conference. This will be my first time attending the Festival of Faith and Writing. I missed it the last two times. It is only offered every other year so I don’t want to miss it again.
7. Publish my ebooks through Draft2Digital. I already put three books on this publishing platform this week. It’s extremely easy to use. More on this in another blog post.
8. Make time for fun reading. I’ve been so busy researching my books and reading about all of the ins and outs of the writing business, that I’ve hardly had time to read anything fun. I’m making this a goal this year to correct this.

These are all manageable goals. If I complete them, I can check them off at the end of the year and give myself a congratulatory pat on the back. If I don’t complete them, there’s always 2019!

Happy New Year! What are your goals for the New Year?

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