Annual review 2019.png

My goals for this year were:

  • Publish a least six things
  • Stick to schedule
  • Finish the house renovations

I’ve published four things in 2019: the last of my individual short stories in January, my two non-fiction books in June and my collection of short stories at the end of last month. I am immeasurably proud that I have achieved this, even if I fell short of the six I had listed in my goal. I am continuing to learn about writing and publishing, and now I’m focusing more on the marketing side of the business too.

The big change this year is that we’ve moved house. The renovations are over and we are settling into the new place. There are still the odd thing here and there that need doing, but that’s always the way. We are so happy to be in and grateful to all the people who worked with us to make this the house we wanted. So far we are happy with all the decisions we made during the process!

Schedule is the big goal which I don’t feel I have achieved. This year has been a lot more disrupted than I had anticipated at the beginning of the year. And I’ve ended up doing a lot more in the house to get it ready for us, which took time away from writing. I’ve also been dealing with some health issues, which I hope are now behind me.

For 2020 I want to focus better. To stick to my plan and limit distractions. I have a good idea now of what I can achieve when I sit down and apply myself, I just have to actually do that on a more regular basis. I know things come up, but I am so far off what I’d hoped to reach, even taking the break for the house into account. In order to do this I am going to sit down and work on my routines, so I can limit the decisions I need to make on a daily basis.

I also want to work on what I’m doing when I’m working. I have logged rather a lot of time as admin this year. And while there is always admin that needs doing, I feel I need to have more of a focus on the stories and the books I’m writing. This should help me feel more productive and also mean I make more progress this year.

I’m not going to set a target for publications this year. I have a good idea of what it takes to write a novel, but I still have to edit a novel. So I don’t want to set myself up for failure by setting an unrealistic goal. My aim is to publish my dragon shifter book next year, but I’m not setting a date until I’m closer to the end of the process. Ideally I’d like to be well on the way with the next book too, but I’m not going to commit to that right now. Fingers crossed I will be able to be more definite with my goals for 2021!

With the family I want to focus on doing things as a family, on making memories rather than accumulating stuff. So, part of that is to focus on spending time with everyone and enjoying being together. Then on the other hand I want to have a bit of a clear out of all of our stuff. We didn’t manage to sort through most things before we moved, so I want to have a review of what we have now. And the garden needs work clearing too.

So here are my goals for 2020:

  • Focus on routines
  • Focus on words
  • Focus on togetherness
  • Focus on clearing

All in all I’m looking forward to the new decade and I hope you are too!

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