It’s weird to think that we’re in a shiny new year. Two weeks into a shiny new year, actually, and I haven’t even got my goals up yet. Let’s get that sorted, then.

Goals for 2016

• Write 180,000 words. Yeah, let’s keep this up!
• Read 50 books. Seventy was a bit too much last year, and I want to be a lot more punctual at beta reading in 2016, which cuts heavily into my leisure reading time.
• Finish 2 redrafts.
• Finish 2 first drafts.
• Always have something out on submission.
• Be a better beta reader.
• Focus more on my finances. I’ve already been working hard on it this January, and our budgeting is already pretty damn good, but this year I want to learn more about advanced budgeting techniques and money-saving.
• Tidy more, tidy smarter. I improved a lot on this in 2015 but I’ve still got plenty to learn!
• Keep up the art! (Did you see last year’s work?)
• Try something new. I’m thinking rock climbing, podcast narration and choir singing, but we’ll see.

There we are. Nothing too fancy, this year, but it’s looking like it’ll be a fun one. I’m 24 this year, heading towards 25 in the tail end, and really looking forward to finding a place of proper financial stability, and those cheaper car insurance rates.  :)

Looking Back on 2015

One of my big 2014 takeaways was that if I spend another year focussing on edits, I would be miserable, so I resolved to focus more on first drafts in 2015.

And then I, uh, proceeded to do entirely the opposite of that and focus on edits all 2015. And it was miserable at times, difficult in a dozen ways and frustrating to the very end, but oh man…. I learned SO MUCH. It was entirely worth every moment for the end result.

I’ll have another post up soon about my achievements over the year, small wins and big successes, but for now I’m just going to look back on the goals I set.

Goals for 2015…

• Tidy more, and tidy smarter! Yeah, I’ll call this a success. I got a ton better at keeping tidy this year, though I still have a lot of improving to do.
• Write 150,000 words. It wasn’t as easy I thought, thanks to lots of time spent editing, but in the end I did it!
• Finish 2 first drafts. Not this year, but in 2016 I will!
• Get 3 novels out to betas [initial readers]. All redrafts , but they were SO different every time.
• Get 2 novels out on submission to literary agents. I got one novel out there! I also sent out one short story.
• Read 60 books. I actually aced this one, hitting 75+ including beta reads!
• Continue drawing, and work on refining my style further. Not as much as I liked, but there was a definite improvement this year in my use of colour and confidence with different styles.
• Keep up the fitness routine. “Hopefully I’ll continue with weight training, bodyweight fitness, and running…” Yeah, job done, plus I took up cycling.  This was a good year for self-improvement.
• Play some video games. I sort of achieved this one: I finished Hatoful Boyfriend, Starfighter Eclipse, The Legend of Korra and my favourite for the year UNDERTALE. Still not as many as I wanted, though. I never got to complete Dragon Age: Origins, Never Alone, Persona 3 and many others.
• Take the practical driving exam. I DID IT. YES. WOOHOO.
• Cook or bake some cool new things. I tried a few new things this year, especially healthy stuff like courgette spaghetti, baked oatmeal and broccoli casserole.

All in all, a good year for achieving goals. Let’s hope 2016 is more of the same!