2018 - What's next?

I would like to start by wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!

With only hours to go before we bring in the New Year, I've started to list my goals for the next 12 months. Nothing like a deadline to galvanise me into action!

So what exactly do I want to accomplish, and more importantly, how am I going to achieve those goals?

1. Complete current story ~~ I have started to write a story, which at the moment is titled 'The Legacy'. The whole story is noted down in bullet points, and I have written a lot of the background information.  In my head, I just need a few days without interruption to type the whole story currently swirling around in my brain, but in reality, interruptions are inevitable and the background is proving harder to write than I expected. I shall set a deadline of 31st March to have the first draft ready.


2. Publish ~~ Aim to publish by 30th September. This might be a difficult deadline to achieve as I am dependent on input from my pre-readers, and my proof-reader having the time to go through my work with a fine tooth-comb.


3. Read and Review ~~ During the #DecTheShelves challenge I added 25 books written by indie authors to my reading material. I aim to read and review on Amazon and Goodreads, all 25 by 31st December 2018.


4. Promote myself and my new book ~~ For this I think I need to increase my social media presence. Taking part in the challenges set by other indie authors this year has been a useful way of encouraging inspiration, and also raises my profile as an author. Perhaps I should create my own writing game to share with others as well as contributing to the writing challenges on Twitter. My Facebook page is under utilised, and I also want to improve the layout and readability of my blog. Looking at other authors' blogs and websites, I can see they make more use of images to personalise their pages than I have so far.


5. Attempt to write something in a different genre ~~ I enjoy reading a good romance, but for the life of me, I cannot write romance. I have toyed with the idea of writing a ghost story, but not a horror story. I think sci-fi is out because, even though I enjoy watching several sci-fi series on TV, I don't read sci-fi and doubt I could put together a decent plot. That said, I have often wondered about writing something around time travel - that might be achievable as a short story rather than a novel. Anyway, the goal is to write something out of my comfort zone.

I think I have set myself enough challenges for now, and as life returns to normal the day after tomorrow, I hope to be able to start attacking those goals.