What? I Set Goals Last Year?

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a pleasant kickoff to 2016, whether that meant staying in or going out. I stayed in, like last year. We were watching Walking Dead when the fireworks began on Pikes Peak. The kids were zonked out, but we woke them up so they could watch. My son just rolled over and went back to sleep, but my daughter watched them.

I inadvertently took a break for Christmas and New Year's. Despite the fact it was unplanned, it was nice to give myself time off, which not only included not blogging, but also included setting aside volunteer work for two weeks (for the most part.) There's been a lot going on, and I was reaching the point of being overwhelmed. A two week break was magical.

But I'm glad to be back!

I couldn't remember if I set goals for 2015, so I went back to January 2015 and checked it out. Lo and behold, I did! Not only that, but I did a fairly solid job of fulfilling the goals, even though I didn't remember having set them.

My goals for 2015 were:

• Finish revising my YA novel and get it ready for submission. I touched on it by post-outlining, but have done nothing more with this novel this year.
• Finish my Urban Fantasy novel. Did it!
• Revise my UF novel. Halfway through revising it.
• Continue writing, editing, and submitting short stories. I kicked this one's ass!
• Place several short stories for pay. Did it!
• Start working on articles again. Mmmm...not really.
• Journal. Nope.
• Continue to experiment and enjoy collaborations and projects to expand my horizons. I've done plenty of experimenting with my writing this year, and look forward to trying more.
• Continue with the horror reading/review challenge. Still on it.

I feel pretty good about this! Not half bad. So I'm going to set this year's goals, which I will promptly forget, but hopefully magically manage to fulfill anyway. (Really, the goals I set last year were in line with what I wanted to do through the year, so I may have forgotten that I wrote them down, but I didn't forget I wanted to do these things.)

Last year, I mentioned that I set goals knowing things change, sometimes drastically, over the course of the year. Any goals I set are to steer me in the right direction, not to give myself another reason to stress out or beat myself up when I don't accomplish them. With that understanding, here are my goals for 2016:

• Finish first revision of novel #2 (UF above).
• Do a second pass through on novel #1 (YA above).
• Start novel #3.
• Continue writing short stories, revising them, and submitting them. One per month would be fantastic, and give me time to focus on my novels, but we'll see.
• Finish all short story revisions pending.
• Submit those short stories once revised.
• Have one of the novels (#1 or #2) ready by April, so I can query an agent at PPWC.
• Continue experimenting with my writing and finding the joy in it.
• Get back to my photography (what? I just slipped in a non-writing goal...)
• Continue with the horror reading/review challenge

That's more than enough, BUT they're things I want to do this year, whether I write them down or not. My photography has fallen by the wayside. I haven't taken a photo just for fun (scenery vs. my kiddos) in months. So I'm throwing that in there, too. I figure exploring other creative ventures I enjoy is a good way to inspire my writing, as well.

What about you? Did you set 2015 goals? How did you do with them? Are you setting 2016 goals? Do you set them so they're hard to attain, or do you set them minimally to steer your year? Or do you skip them entirely? Most of all, what are you proudest of this year?

May you find your Muse.

Image by OCAL, clker.com

It's ShaNo Time Again & A Thank You to Yolanda!

Happy Day After National Author's Day!

What's that? November? Month of my birth? That must mean it's time for ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo again!

Don't tell me you've never heard of it. Surely you jest.

See, I don't want to write an entire novel this month, but I love the infectious energy of NaNoWriMo. So I set my own goals and use those to get back into the routines that faltered when the kids were home for the summer.

Feel free to join me in your own version of NaNo if you're not participating in the real one! It's the  energy and support that drive the month.

ShaNoShoStoWriEdSubMo stands for Shannon's Novel & Short Story Writing, Editing, and Submitting Month.

The Sub part of it all was a bigger deal before I reached the point I'm currently at with stories, so I'll be redefining it mildly this year.

My goals for the month will be:

1. Write 2 new short stories
2. Revise the 4 short stories/flash fiction currently in need of revisions
3. Submit 6 new short stories/flash this month
4. Complete the current round of revisions on Wendigo Nights
5. Post-outline and mark needed revisions on Lonely Hollow: Synthesis
6. Decide which novel writing project I will begin writing next

I'll update weekly on my progress.

I'd also like to thank Yolanda for the fun Halloween series of posts she put together, and for allowing me to participate. I won the 2015 Halloween Flash Fiction Contest! You can GO HERE to find links to all the entries. Poor Jerry. He never saw it coming.

Alex J. Cavanaugh was the winner of a copy of The Deep, Dark Woods, with my short story The Blue Mist. Now if we can just reach publication date, I can send him a copy!

What goals do you have for this month? Are you participating in NaNo or creating your own? Did you follow along with Yolanda's great Halloween posts this year?

May you find your Muse.