2019 Writing Goals

Sorry it's a bit blurry but: Prophet of the Gods (cover done by @mosstalons on Wattpad)

Every year begins with me being inspired and motivated to do accomplish a lot. That feeling of euphoria and adrenaline probably lasts me a month, maybe with a few extra weeks if I'm lucky. I start making all these goals and resolutions and telling myself that this is the year where I make it all happen.

Guess what.

It never is.

That's not to say each year isn't successful. 2018 was pretty productive in terms of writing and I finally started this website which I've been meaning to make since the end of 2016 (yikes).

However, it's sort of tradition for me to make ambitious, ideal goals every new years so here we are: My 2019 Writing Goals

1) Finish my rewrite of RoA #1.

This is a big one. I've tried to rewrite this one already and got to 279 pages (out of a 400+ page book) and gave up because once again, I lost inspiration of the story. The first draft of RoA (108,000 words) I completed in a little less than 7 months (with a month's break somewhere in there + school) in 2017. That's the most successful I've been in drafting ever. But I really want to finish this story. I love my characters and this world so much so drafting shouldn't be too hard, right? Ha ha. HA. Wrong. We'll see if 2019 is the lucky year though.

2) Finish Prophet of the Gods

This is my Wattpad WIP which is an idea that's been plaguing me for weeks, but one text conversation with on of my best friends led to me spontaneously deciding to post a chapter a week on my Wattpad account. Why do I do this to myself. But seriously, this book is slowly dragging me out of a writing slump. I only hope I can continue on this wave of productivity relating to this story and finish it this year. I currently have 25 chapters worked out and if I post consistently (I'll probably be taking a month's hiatus for my SAT prep) I can definitely finish this year.

And if you're interested in reading the three chapters I have posted so far, you can see it here.

3) Revise RoA #1

Another ambitious goal. Not only do I want to finish writing it (I'm literally only on chapter three currently), I want to do the big developmental edits too. I'm crazy, but it's fine. It's fine.

4) Outline RoA #2

This one isn't too bad. Outlining a whole book usually takes me a day, maybe two if there's some confusion but I have a pretty good idea of what needs to happen in book two so this shouldn't take me too long. Then again, who knows.

5) Outline PotG #2

The sequel (it's going to be a duology) of this book has a lot of mystery surrounding it- mystery as in I have no idea how it's going to go. I know the ending (vaguely) and the beginning (kind of) and that's about it. I'm excited for this book though because it takes everything I love from book one and adds other great stuff: ship setting, magic, and more use of the gifts that are common in the world. I need to do more world-building and character fleshing before I fully move on to book two. The thing about Wattpad is that you post chapters usually the same day you finish them (or I do at least) so I usually just read it though once but that means I have a very unedited, not really well developed book on my hands at the end. Revising the first book will probably happen before actually writing book two as well. More work, yikes.

6) Participate in Camp Nanowrimo

I think doing the July session will be the best since I'm busy this April (really busy) and hopefully I can either finish drafting or get a huge chunk done of RoA #1. I don't think 50k will happen, but maybe 25k or even 30k if I'm motivated enough.

7) Participate in Nanowrimo in November

I started doing Nanowrimo in 2016 I believe and I've done it every year ever since (except technically in 2018, I only wrote 5k- rough time in my life), so of course I'm going to do it next year. I don't know exactly what I'll be working on: RoA #2 or even the first one if I still haven't finished. Maybe I'll pick up Foresters again, who knows. Again, 25k to 30k is usually my goal but this is also a really busy time for school (especially this last time) so maybe I'll only write 10k done. The goal is to write every day for me.

8) Flesh out a writing idea

Every year I flesh out a new idea. 2018 was Prophet of the Gods. 2017 was Foresters. 2016 was RoA #1 of course. I have no idea what this year's will be. It could be any genre, time period, idea- anything. I'm open to everything in the book world (except maybe thrillers and horrors because I'm not a scary writer, not even a little bit.) I kind of want to write a rom-com or a prequel trilogy to RoA. The possibilities are endless here.

Now for "goals" that aren't really goals for this year but things that I want to do, but probably won't get to.

- Re-outline Foresters.

This is a must for the next couple of years but this year already has a lot in store for my other two WIPs so we shall see what happens. I love this book and these characters so much and I kind of just set them aside for the last year but I want to return to this world and this story.

-Enter a writing contest

If I somehow gather enough willpower to do this it'll probably be during the summer months when there will be less planned. There's writing contests on Wattpad, Underlined, and more so finding one isn't an issue- actually buckling down and finishing a story under deadline is the issue.

-Write a short story

I outlined a middle-school Cinderella short story last year when I was in the depths of a toxic crush so that's an idea for this. I've always wanted to write short fiction, but I'm much more suited to novels where I can have complicated plots, character arcs (long ones), and more freedom to just write as much as I can. I'm an over-writer, so short doesn't really click with me. Nevertheless, I still want to try to write one.

So that seems to be it for now. I had to scrap a few other goals because I'm already in the vicinity of insanity with these ones.

I'm shooting for accomplishing two/thirds which is about 5 out of 8 goals (around). I think that's pretty doable for me. So wish me luck, this year is either going to be really good for writing or really bad. Let's hope it's the former.

No mourners, no funerals,

-Sureena