Now that the new year has arrived, what are your writing plans for 2016? What projects do you hope to accomplish this year?

I hope to publish my novel.

My goals are to publish at least two novels and three novellas this year. The novellas and one novel are written and are all in various stages of editing. Lord willing, I'll get it all done.

I want to outline and write the first draft for Daughter of a Thousand Suns.

Going into 2016, I have three projects that I want to write and complete during the year - a short story, a novella, and a novel, in that order.

The novel will take the most work, as it still needs a lot of development, but hopefully I'll be able to at least get a first draft for it finished by the end of the year.

Great goals, everyone!

My goals for 2016 are still tentative, but I presently have four:

1. To sell more technical articles to businesses per month than in 2015.

2. To submit more short stories and articles to magazines per month than in 2015.

3. To start an educational website about animals.

4. To write and fully edit a novel and submit it to agents.

I'd follow it.

Is that the book which your signature quote is from?

Thanks.

It is!

Ah, cool!

1. Edit and publish my novel The Last Storming (because, even though it's a NaNo Project, I think it requires the least amount of hardcore work, also it's not a precious baby child to me like so many of my other stories. I adore it, but I'm okay with it being a small, slightly rough novel. I can always publish a new edition when I'm old and famous, right? XD)

2. Receive critiques on, edit, and complete the second draft of The Talents Guild. This one falls under the category of "precious baby child"

3. Get my blog back up and running.

4. *deep breath* This is the big one, actually: Learn the art of scriptwriting. o.o

Great goals, Caeli!

I enjoy reading your book reviews.

Yeah, it is. Thank.

Looks like everyone has some great goals!

I have a few major ones, it'll be a busy year.

I'd like to finish my feature film script (and shoot over summer but that's not writing. ), I'd like to edit and publish my poetry book, and draft out my novel.

Now let's make them happen!

My goal is... well, just writing again would be nice!

I do want to work on Peter's Angel. I feel that finishing that project will not only be good for my career (because it will be a project that I can package beautifully and market well), but it will also be good because it will clear something unfinished and uncertain from my desk and mind. So not only will it look good on my "resume" as I pursue other projects, but by finishing it I will prove something to myself, for lack of a better phrase. My writing dead-ended with Peter's Angel; I need to clear that roadblock to keep going.

Beyond that, I also want to look into writing some nonfiction. I've considered a book, but I might start with blog posts or speaking panels. I want to build my public speaking skills with the intent of serving the church through counseling, teaching, or preaching (probably a combination thereof). While I'm a long way from being "qualified" to preach, I know the first step to becoming qualified is to train up those areas that are lacking. So I want to practice writing nonfiction and also public speaking. My husband and I did a few anime convention panels last year, and I hope to do more of those this year. They're excellent practice and a lot of fun.

They say a good goal (that is to say, a goal you have half a chance of completing ) is both specific and timed. That is, perhaps, why a lot of "New Year's Resolutions" fail--they are vague ideas with no plan behind them. So to make these goals achievable, I need to break them down into smaller, concrete "projects" with realistic deadlines.

I've started doing that with Peter's Angel. I haven't laid out a full writing schedule yet, but that would be a good goal for the end of January. In the meantime, I've been setting small goals. When I think about the project, I decide what needs done next and set myself a small goal to get XYZ done within the week, just so that the project stays fresh while I get my other work (retail ) out of the holidays and settled. This is the last week of relative chaos. I'm getting some of my dog training and formatting work cleaned up, and starting a new blog. By the end of next week that will be running, and I'll have no excuse not to budget for writing time in my regular schedule.

As for the nonfiction, my first focus is dedicating time to personal study. Once I am a good student and am consistently learning and training myself, then I can think about teaching.

Indeed.


Your fans agree.

Hear, hear!

Just about the time this thread began, I was posting goal review and goal-setting posts to my blog. But I'll list my writing-related goals here. I marked some, mostly more ambitious versions of already-stated goals, as "stretch goals," ones I don't really expect to reach but would like to.

• Write and post at least twelve minimally-substantive posts to my blog, not including retrospectives (such as at the end of the year) or related to Strategic Primer (the strategy game I'm developing and running) or the Shine Cycle (my fantasy series-in-preparation). In other words, at least twelve "miscellaneous essays" or poems.
• Write and post at least six (stretch goal: twelve) new poems in 2016.
• Be prompt in keeping up with correspondence. (I know, that's not measurable ...)
• In my process of "iterative outlining" of the Shine Cycle, get at least "super-sequence" or "pre-sequence" outlines, and decide on point-of-view characters, for at least six stories in the "Alternate Universes" sub-series (which is planned to be primarily alternate histories of our world). (Stretch goal: at least sequence-level outlines for at least two of them.)
• Get at least two (stretch goal: five) of the stories in the planned "Game of Life" sub-series (set in our own world in the future) outlined to at least the sequence level, and at least five to at least the super-sequence level. (Additional stretch goal: at least one outlined by scene.)
• Get at least eight other planned stories outside of the "main line" of the series outlined to at least the super-sequence level. (Stretch goal: at least one by sequence.)
• Decide on point-of-view characters for Anarchy and at least the first third (stretch goal: all) of the Reignalmia sub-series.
• Get at least one (stretch goal: three) logline polished in the logline critique thread here on HW (if it's still going)
• Get at least fifteen (stretch goal: twenty) planned stories to at least the first post-logline step of the "snowflake method." (Additional stretch goal: at least one to the next step beyond that.)
• Create précis for at least five planned novels I don't have them for yet.
• Carefully check at least ten previously-posted précis against subsequent development of those stories.
• Write at least ten (stretch goal: twenty) character biographies or histories.
• Create "character loglines" or "motivation summaries" for at least five (stretch goal: ten) characters.
• Answer at least seven of the remaining questions from the "worldbuilding questions" by Patricia Wrede. (Stretch goal: Finish my current pass through the questions, leaving no question without at least some answer.)
• Get at least halfway (probably 50K words) into a draft of one of the (intended-to-be-novel-length stories I have at least somewhat outlined.
• Post at least twelve (stretch goals: eighteen, and at least one every month) Shine-Cycle-related posts, not including writing status updates, to my blog.

As I said at the time, "we'll see."