With how insane last year was, I'm nervous to even make plans for this upcoming year. Yet I know that if I don't add an inked plan to my schedule, nothing will get accomplished.
I had a good friend of mine reach out to me last week and ask if I'd be interested in being an accountability buddy and do a month-to-month challenge. I immediately said yes.
People have told me I'm a bit odd because I love very structured challenges with a timeline. I like having clear goals and a time frame in which it needs to be done. It soothes my planner soul. So we'll see how this interesting challenge shapes up.
January isn't too hard to start out with on this challenge, I'm working on making sure I am drinking enough water every day. Beyond that I have some other ideas of what I'd like to work on this year.
I know that I want to get at least one new book written. First draft fully written by the year's end. Ugh, typing that sentence gives me hives. It has been a while since I have made it through a whole first draft of a book. My attempts in the past have left me drowning with a soggy mess about two-thirds of the way through the story.
There are a few writing friends I know that I can work with as accountability measures. I've also been toying with hiring a writing developmental writing coach. I know how to make sentences funny and thread a high-level story along, but I constantly feel like I am missing the mark in understanding how to make the story impactful as I put the story together.
*sigh* Craft is elusive and not for the faint-hearted since you learn, apply, grow, and still feel inept. Yet in retrospect, you are better than you were before and forgot or now expect more from your work.
Another thing I want to start learning is marketing and creating ads to bring awareness and sales to my book. Thankfully, the learning part is covered with a massive bundle of classes I bought in 2019 that I hadn't gotten too far into from Mark Dawson's Self Publishing Formula. Since I'm selling through Amazon right now, I'll start with the Amazon Ads for Author course and see how that works.
I already have a writer's retreat and conference penned in my calendar this year. We'll see how the world irons out with COVID mitigation and see if they happen or not.
As for non-writing life, we have a few home-improvement projects that I'd like to get done. Though they cost will cost a bit, hopefully the cars, animals, and our health stay steady so we can get them fixed up.
My day job is thankfully seemingly secure, but the work load will be unstable and massive with everything that happening in the world between COVID increases and uncertainty of this year's and next year's plans. But like with this year, we'll figure it out.
Here's hoping that I can get a few of these things accomplished when the end of December is staring at me in 12 months.
What about you? What's one thing you really want to get done? Do you have a plan to help you accomplish it?
Cheers to a new year & wishing you and yours a bright year.
Virtual Hugs,
~Melissa Borg