2016 in Review

Photo by "Nelos" of Adobe Stock

What a year! Hopefully not one I'll ever have to repeat. We moved, worked on remodels for 2 houses (one of those continues), battled illness in the spring, and a couple of serious injuries that took me out of commission and hampered brain function (thank you, pain and exhaustion!).

Each January, I've been reporting on my goals and progress for the previous year and setting my goals for the new year. Despite all that's been going on, I made most of my goals for 2016, so I'm calling the year a SUCCESS.

My goals for 2016 were:

Write 400,000 words
Publish 5 paperback books
Complete 3 old projects (stories started prior to Jan. 1, 2016)

How'd I do?

I wrote 335,011 words. Almost 65K short of my 400K goal, to be sure, but I'll take it! Considering all the things that hampered writing this year, I see it as nothing short of a miracle that I got so much done. By the time October rolled around, I had fully expected to have MAYBE 200-250K written for the year, so I'm very happy with what I accomplished.

I published 5 paperback books and 19 e-books. I started the year publishing Destiny (medieval fantasy short novel) and ended with Protective Instincts (romantic urban fantasy long novel).

I completed 3 old projects, which met that goal. On top of that, I wrote 12 entirely new ones from start to finish. Those included 6 short stories (up to 13K each), 4 novelettes (13-18K), a novella (20-40K), and a short novel (41-60K). I also started 3 stories that I haven't yet completed. In addition to completed and/or started projects, I made significant additions (5K+) to 2 novels and minor additions (less than 5K) to 2 novels.

See what I mean? Productive. I'm grateful for every milestone reached and even the goal that wasn't.

Of course, finishing up 2016 means setting goals for 2017 as well. I decided to reset my goals for 2016. So for 2017, my goals are:

Write 400K words
Publish 5 paperback books
Complete 3 old projects (stories started prior to today, Jan. 1, 2017)

Happy New Year!

2016 Update

This year has been crazy. We continued work on the new house in January, moved in February, and have continued work on the old house ever since. That's still ongoing.

On top of that, I dealt with an illness in early April that knocked me out of commission for a few days in addition to a back injury that took a serious toll through late February, March, and into April. My old chiropractor switched to using bleach products in the office - something I'm highly allergic to, both contact and fumes. That meant finding a new one. I thought I'd found one, only for him to make matters worse (and tick off my husband by treating me like I was stupid). Took a couple of weeks to find another new one. Thankfully, she's reversed the damage the other chiropractor did AND taken care of the original issue.

I'm sort of on track to meet my writing and publishing goals for this year. As a reminder, my goals for 2016:

• 400,000 new words written
• publish 5 paperbacks
• complete 3 old projects

To date, I've accomplished:

• 80,253 new words written
• 1 paperback published
• 12 short story e-books published and counting (9 are live; 3 on pre-order status for release in May & June; more coming this summer - will be compiled & published in p-back when series complete)
• 1 old project completed
• 1 new project written start-to-finish

Not where I need to be to meet my writing goal, but I'm not worried at this point. Given a couple of really good writing months, I can easily make up the difference.

I have 3 paperbacks approaching publication, with a fourth due out toward the end of the year. If those publish as expected, I'll have 5 out by the end of the year.

For old projects, I need to finish 2 more. I started working on one before Camp NaNoWriMo started on April 1st, but put it aside to do Camp. I hope to get back to it later this year.

May is shaping up to be a busy month in my personal life, but I hope to get a good chunk of writing done despite that. June should be a little less busy. July is the next Camp NaNo, and there are some big changes coming that month. I don't know what August through December will hold yet, but there are still unresolved things hanging out there, so they could be quiet or nuts. Only time will tell.

I'm still moving forward. Slower than I hoped, but it's still progress, so I'm content.

2015 Review

Image from Dollar Photo Club

Finally have a few minutes to breathe, so I can tally and report on my final numbers for 2015. I didn't even come close to meeting my word writing goal. That said, when I looked at what I DID accomplish, I don’t feel bad about it. Here’s all that got done in 2015:

Word Count Goal for 2015 – 500,000
Words Written for 2015 – 379,320 (375,772 of that in fiction, the rest in a NF book I worked on a bit) – for an average of 31,610 written per month; worst month was 3,583, best month 56,977 – I didn't get to write much in November, usually one of my highest months.

Publishing Goal for 2015 – 7 paperbacks
Published in 2015 – 9 paperbacks (3 long novels, 3 short novels, 2 short story collections, & a novelette), plus 3 short stories published in e-book that aren't yet in p-back – BEST PUBLISHING YEAR YET!

COMPLETION GOAL – FINISH 3 OLD PROJECTS
Completed in 2015 – 3 old projects finished – 2 short novels, 1 long novel

Other Details for 2015

Written start to finish – 1 long novel, 1 short story collection, 4 short stories, and 7 stories of a short story serial that isn't yet complete.

Plus, I created 38 memes, 9 paperback book covers, and 18 e-book covers, as well as making significant additions (over 5K words) to 2 old projects and minor additions (5K or less) to 4 others.

Needless to say, despite failing to meet my word count goal for the year, it was a good year all the way around in so many other ways. Given how the last 3 months of the year went, I don’t feel bad at all about the word count goal flop. I may not have gotten 500K, but I still got 379K more written than if I hadn't tried at all. Add in the number of projects published and all the other stuff, and WOOHOO!

Moving On…

This morning, I received feedback from my first reader for a completed short novel – so I need to find time to get to that, make any needed fixes, and get it published. That's the final book in a 4-book medieval fantasy series (the other 3 were pubbed in 2015). When I have time and adequate brain function, I'll package those 4 in a set as well. The cover for the set is already done and waiting.

Also, I've got a short story serial ready to start releasing once I can find the time to do the e-book formatting. Hoping I can get started on that this week.

I’m still making 3 trips a week an hour away to do work on the house we're trying to move to, while using my off days to keep up with the current home (laundry, dishes, sweeping/mopping floors, and all those other mundane tasks), plus resting so I don't cause another health flare up like I did on Christmas day that makes me utterly useless for anything but holding down furniture.

I've tried to write on many of my off days, but I can’t focus enough to get more than a handful of words down before I lose my train of thought and forget where I was going. Trying to be patient about that, which isn't easy since I've always driven myself pretty hard to meet my own expectations, no matter how unreasonable they were. I'm doing better on that score, but it still rankles from time to time that I have limitations. One of the ways I've found to deflect frustration is to use that down time to watch movies and work on visually creative projects instead of word-related ones. Beading and jewelry-making has come in handy more than I can express for keeping me from really getting aggravated with myself over the lack of word-related creativity. I still try to write a bit each day, but at least I'm not berating myself for not being able to do so when it flops. I just shift my focus from writing to visual creativity. At least I'm accomplishing SOMETHING constructive that way.

Anyway, in figuring out my goals for 2016, I kept all of the nutsiness in my life at present in mind. I’m not sure when we’ll finish the transition to the new house, but once that’s done, it’ll mean making trips to the old one to finish the work it needs so we can get it on the market. That won't be as draining as my current schedule, hopefully.

2016 is shaping up to be a year of upheaval from start to nearly finish, and I was tempted not to set any goals for the year and just do whatever I could whenever I could. If I do that, though, I may not get much of anything done, so…

Goals for 2016

400K new words
5 paperbacks published
3 old projects completed

That 400K may be pie-in-the-sky, all things considered, but I'll aim for it anyway.

Looking Back at 2014

What a year it was, too. I not only published my first fantasy novel, I wrote and published my first short story series, in a new genre no less (urban fantasy). That in addition to continuing work on my contemporary novels. It was a year of growth, learning, and stretching, some of which shoved me right out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, I've adapted and work goes on.

Early in 2014, I posted my goals for the year. So, how did I do on meeting them?

Writing goal for 2014 - 300,000 words - met and surpassed.

435,107 words of fiction

  47,662 words of non-fiction

482,769 total words written in 2014

Incomplete Projects completion goal - finish 3 long novels that had been started before January 1, 2014 but not completed in 2013 - BUST!

I only finished one incomplete novel. I was initially annoyed with myself over this one, but then I realized I had written a non-fiction project, a contemporary short novel, 2 short story collections (13 stories and 3 stories respectively), and 1 novelette from start-to-finish during 2014. That in addition to completing the previously unfinished novel and making additions to others. Not shabby at all!

Publishing goal for 2014 - 3 novels (2 contemporary, 1 fantasy) - met and surpassed.

Published: 1 non-fiction book, 2 contemporary long novels, 1 fantasy long novel, & 1 collection of urban fantasy short stories (individually AND as a collection)

I had also decided I was going to surpass my previous daily word count accomplishment of 9,081 words written on 12/22/2013. I aimed for 10K in one day. I hit it and shot right past it to reach 11,158 words written on July 28, 2014, then I beat THAT one with 11,492 reached on August 17, 2014. I’m not sure I’ll be able to top that in 2015, but I’d sure like to try.

I also created 22 book covers (front, back, & spine on each), 12 separate e-book covers, and 88 memes for my various projects.

Busy year.

LOOKING AHEAD

2014 is now behind us, and 2015 looms ahead. That means time to set goals for 2015.

Writing - 500,000 words of fiction (not to include whatever I write on a non-fiction book I need to finish)

Incomplete Projects - finish 3 long novels that are currently incomplete

Publishing - 7 books - 2 contemporary long novels, 2 fantasy novels (1 long, 1 short), & 2 collections of short stories minimum. The spare can be any genre or length (as long as it's a collection and not a single short story).

2013 in Review

Me editing - photo taken by my mom

Do you ever struggle through a year, feeling like it takes Herculean effort to accomplish even the smallest things? I'd bet we've all been there, done that. But, have you reached the end of that year and looked back only to realize you accomplished a lot more than you expected?

2013 was like that for me. The year was difficult in more ways than one. I won't get into why. That would be an entire book. But I will say that I struggled to write in the midst of it all. Editing wasn't too bad, most of the time, but writing was harder than it's ever been. I knew I wouldn't reach the bar I had set in 2012.

For the record, in 2012, I:

1. wrote over 550K words - yes, that's over a half million words;
2. edited over 5K pages of existing material;
3. wrote 3 books from start to finish - 2 novels & 1 novella;
4. completed 2 old projects;
5. made significant additions (5K+) to 1 old project;
6. made minor additions (less than 5K each) to 5 old projects;
7. began 6 new projects; and
8. published a novella.

It was a busy year.

I went into 2013 with 2012 setting the bar, but I didn't have the focus or energy to match. When I realized I wasn't meeting that standard, I got discouraged but powered on, figuring I'd do what I could with the focus, energy, and all that I had. Keep on keeping on.

Then I got a surprise at the end of the year when I tallied everything up. Did my work in 2013 measure up to 2012? No. But....

In 2013, I:

1. wrote over 290K words;
2. edited over 5K pages of existing material;
3. completed 3 old projects;
4. made significant additions (5K+ each) to 7 old projects;
5. made minor additions (less than 5K each) to 2 old projects;
6. began 1 new project; and
7. published 2 full-length novels.

As I sat and looked at that, dumbfounded, I realized something. In a year that felt like it had been nothing but difficulties and struggles, I had still managed to make significant progress in my writing. Something else occurred to me - how much of that would NOT have been accomplished if I'd given up when I realized early in 2013 that I wasn't operating at my normal level? Most of that list.

What 2013 taught me is that, even when I think I'm falling behind, I need to keep moving forward, no matter how slow progress may seem. I may not accomplish what I WANT, but I'll still accomplished more than if I'd quit.

For 2014, I've set what are, for me, very realistic yet challenging goals:

1. Write at least 300K words;
2. Finish 3 incomplete projects; and
3. Publish 3 novels - 2 contemporary, 1 fantasy.

Only time will tell if I can meet those goals.

What about you? Did you meet your expectations last year? Whether yes or no, what did you learn that you've carried into 2014? What goal(s) have you set for 2014?