On the Count of 2-0-2-3 – 2023 Writing Goals and a Reflection on 2022

Another year has come and passed us by once again. For some, it was another year of accomplishments. For others, it was another year to do your very best to just scrape by. Both are equally as valid?

Me? I didn’t do a whole lot, obviously. At least, not on the writing front. In my personal life, I moved, am planning a wedding, completely changed jobs… and so writing had to kind of take a back seat for a while. Which, while I missed it all the while, was a necessary move to maintain my sanity. And now, with most of my personal life readjusted, I think I’m able to think more on my writing and career goals as a whole again.

I outlined my goals for 2022 back in January–here for reference–so let’s see how I matched up to my ambitions! Here were my original goals, for reference:

• Achieve a second short story publication, ideally to the same place as my first publication.
• I was given the chance to participate in NYC Midnight. My goal was simple: get as far as I can.
• I had been working on outlining a high fantasy adventure novel and I wanted to finish that this year.
• I wanted to finish rewriting Lilium, my paranormal novel about the bonds of family and how they extend beyond the grave.
• I wanted to write some more short stories and see about self-pubbing a collection or something.
• I wanted to use this blog more. Post more writing advice, more reviews, and just in general more posts about writing!

I think it’s safe to say I accomplished…half of this. I got Within These Twisted Vines published this summer, for example. While the short stories were a little (ha) short sighted, I still managed to complete a couple. One was for NYC Midnight, which I’m quite proud of even if I didn’t make it to the next round with it–so I did “get as far as I can”. So while I didn’t touch Lilium much or get too much farther on the outline for that adventure novel, I still got plenty completed that I hadn’t anticipated.

So, what are my goals for 2023?

As before, I want to keep them simple and achievable. I explained in my goals post for this year why I don’t like setting resolutions, so I won’t repeat myself here. That said, I would like to:

• Finish the first draft of my Sapphic Fantasy Dark Academia novel, A Sharper, More Lasting Pain. I’m already halfway done with it, so I think I can knock the rest of it out.
• Participate once again in NYC Midnight and, as before, get as far as I can. Maybe I’ll make it past the first round this time!
• Take another stab at revising Lilium.
• Write at least 3 short stories.
• I want to attempt to make a post once a month to this blog. I have a lot of post drafts in a backlog, so it’d be cool to to go through some of them, shape them up, and get them finally posted.
• Read 60 books.
• Put together a beta reading team to go through ASMLP once it is finished.

A lot of similar goals to last year, which I’m fine with. An element of consistency is key. And if I don’t reach it all in 2023, that’s fine! There’s always 2024, and so on and so forth.