As a wrap up for out month-long one year anniversary celebration, we thought we would list our personal writing goals for the upcoming year. Then we can check in next year and see how we did!
Q: What are your writing goals for the coming year?
Kerry Gans
1) Finish the manuscript I’m revising now in time to query by October 2012.
2) Work on some short stories to learn the craft of them.
3) Continue to blog regularly, both personally and here on the Author Chronicles.
J. Thomas Ross
1) Finish tweaking and query my YA novel and start the sequel.
2) Expand my adult sci-fi novella into a novel.
3) Blog more regularly.
4) Manage my time better!
Gwendolyn Huber
1) Improve upon my writing rhythm
2) Finish revising and submit a short story
3) Write a new short story
4) Finish revising my work in progress
Nancy Keim Comley
As always, I want to improve as a writer.
Specific goals include:
1) polishing my current Middle Grade WIP so I can query and
2) starting the next!
Matt Q. McGovern
1) I’d like closure over another draft of my YA novel; each draft brings another identity to the novel and another phase of understanding for me.
2) I’d like to continue writing 2 other sets of scenes that I’ve been working on, with the purpose that an identity to the greater story will unfold. I’ve given this more priority in the past, but now my YA is at the forefront of my mind, writing-wise.
3) Last one. I need to blog myself and my characters with much more discipline than I’ve done. There’s too much of the underground hermit in this writer.
Those are our goals for the coming year. We’d love to hear what goals you’ve set for yourself!
The Author Chronicles 
Sounds like you are like me–you spend a lot more time writing than promoting.
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By: William Haloupek on July 9, 2012
at 10:20 am
Well, Bill, I’ve not gotten anything published yet to promote! So I spend some time networking and building relationships for when I do get pubbed, but I don’t have to do the media push for any books yet. Kerry
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By: Kerry Gans on July 9, 2012
at 11:16 am
Maybe I’m using the word incorrectly, but by promoting I mean blogging, networking, dealing with potential publishers, and all the non-writing aspects of writing.
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By: William Haloupek on July 9, 2012
at 11:58 am
Ha! I can’t speak for the others, Bill, but I blog 2-3 times a week, read about 10 other blogs every day, make sure I catch up on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and try and squeeze in reading some real books every day. Once I have one of my manuscripts ready, I’ll also be doing the agent searches and querying.
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By: Kerry Gans on July 9, 2012
at 3:22 pm
1) Organize the volumes of notes I’ve been taking into a draft of my next novel.
2) Create an author website.
3) Return to personal blogging.
4) Use #s 1-3 to distract self from what I can’t control: my agent trying to sell my first novel. 😉
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By: Kathryn Craft (@kcraftwriter) on July 9, 2012
at 10:23 am
#1-3 will certainly be a distraction! Hopefully you won’t have to be distracted for long – and then you’ll be distracted from writing by all the promoting you’ll need to do. 🙂
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By: Kerry Gans on July 9, 2012
at 11:18 am
I’m a little leery of setting goals, but of course I have them. For the remainder of 2012 my goals would be these:
1) FInish the new draft of MURDER IN MENNEFER, well begun today. This is an MG set in ancient Egypt. We spent about 2 months outlining the bloody thing, so the draft should go quite quickly.
2) Work out the script (and panel breakdowns) for at least one part of my graphic novel SCARLET EDGE. The scene breakdoens (beat sheet) are done.
3) Work out the script (and panel breakdowns again) for the comic section of another (mainstream contemporary) novel, AN END TO HOUSEWORK. The segment as it currently stands is 80 pages long in prose form. It’s a novella comprising several “interludes” from the book, done in the style of 1970 underground comics.
4) Draft 3 short stories. Two are already done in first draft, and one is basically outlined. These are all science fiction.
I feel quite confident of getting at least the first 2 done, and of making inroads on the rest. None of this takes into account other creative ventures such as painting. I currently have two paintings to finish, but those things tend to go pretty fast. I also have a (tentative) commission to do a portrait painting of a house belonging to one of my brothers-in-law.
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By: Al Sirois on July 9, 2012
at 10:30 am
Those are great goals! Sounds like you’re planning a highly productive rest of the year. Good luck!
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By: Kerry Gans on July 9, 2012
at 11:19 am
1. Finish, polish and submit the short story I’m writing.
2. Maintain a regular schedule with my personal blog.
3. Pay more attention to the world around me in hopes of finding inspiration.
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By: Laura Campbell on July 10, 2012
at 9:51 am
That last one is probably something I could do, too. It’s so easy to get tunnel vision as I race around trying to get everything done.
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By: Kerry Gans on July 10, 2012
at 10:11 am
Thanks for sharing your goals!
Mine are:
1: Finish sequel to A Human Element by 9/5
2. Find an agent for my middle grade novel by December
3. Start submitting my middle grade novel to small presses in October
4. Blog on my new M-W-F schedule I just set myself
5. Start my new YA coming of age novel 9/6
6. Publish a collection of short stories
7. Boost A Human Element’s numbers on Amazon via marketing efforts
8. Keep reading and learning the craft of writing.
9. Keep making new writer friends like you guys!
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By: donnagalanti on July 10, 2012
at 7:25 pm
Wow! You will be busy! Good luck with all of those.
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By: Kerry Gans on July 10, 2012
at 8:22 pm