New Year, New Goals #writinggoals

Happy New Year, dear readers!

It's that time of year again. Time to look back at the old year to see what worked and what didn’t and re-evaluate for the new year. I'm the type of person who likes to set goals, but often things run amok and sometimes I don't complete them. Not all the time, but I'll admit to some time.

This is sort of what happened in 2015.

I had a list of goals and I did well during the first few months. Then my son was born in April and my life again turned upside down. This time with the added stress of some health issues that sprang up over the summer. My mind was not on writing. Also, I had some technical difficulty with my blog. So much so, that I was prepared to close this one and open a new one since I couldn't figure out why it wasn't posting. That, hopefully, has been resolved.

Not only that, but my social calendar quickly filled with events for my children in 2015. They are very sociable and eager to join groups and events, so as their mother I'm obliged to encourage and assist them. Plus, I have to drive them!

I'm hoping this year will turn out differently. I'm keeping a positive mindset. I'm all about juggling my family and my life and making things work, but I'm eager to jump back into my writing world. Writing is my passion. I love it! And I want to make a prosperous career out of it. As in, I'd like to be able to promise my husband that I'll contribute to paying some of the bills for the house and our family so he doesn't have to keep working overtime just to make ends meet.

Even though I had some major life events occurring this year, I did manage to get two stories written and sent to my editor and publisher. I'm working on re-writes for one and waiting to see if they'd like to contract for the other. And I have additions to the lists of possible future books. My idea file is overflowing!

Also, February marked the release of my 4th Merriweather Witches book, The Witch's Kiss. This one

is my favorite so far and I was excited to share it with my readers!

• With that said, I'm not going to give myself a list of projects to complete as I did last year. I'm just going to focus on writing every day, whether it's for a story, an article or blog post, or even an entry in my personal journal. As long as I'm writing, getting words down on paper or text, I'm using my brain and exercising those creative muscles. I'll be happy with that. My goal is a page a day. I'm going easy on myself since some of my health issues are not yet resolved and my son is still waking up multiple times during the night, so there are days when I feel like a zombie. I usually write 1,000-2,000 words a day, on those days that I'm writing. I'd like to see 100,000 words by the end of the year. I even downloaded a beautiful word tracker program to keep count.

• I want to complete the many unfinished projects I have hanging around the house. Such as scanning in the family photos into the computer and labeling them, finishing the baby records and journals I have for my kids, and working on the genealogy projects that I do in my spare time. And maybe some of those unfinished craft projects. I have a doll house that needs decorating, too.

• My husband bought an electric guitar for me as a gift this year. I used to play guitar many years ago. This year, I want to relearn those songs I've forgotten and teach myself some new songs as well. I have a very musical family with both musicians and singers. My grandmother sang on the radio back in the day and always lamented over not pursuing her music career. My great-grandfather and my uncle played the guitar in different bands. My brother plays guitar, too. I even married into music. My husband is a bass player and singer with an album to his name. And now my eldest son is learning to play the trombone. So, I feel compelled to plunge myself back into the music world. And as I'm always practicing singing, my husband and I are talking about recording a duet. That is exciting!
  

• Last, but not least, I want to become more fluent in the German language. I've become rusty over the years of disuse, so I want to practice reading and speaking it daily. I have a few novels written in German that I've been putting aside thinking it too complicated for me, but why should I not challenge myself? I'm not going to become fluent waiting to save up money to buy the Rosetta Stone (although that would be a nice addition to my language collection). Others have learned without the benefit of such programs and I have many books on the subject. I have no excuse. So, I'll practice a new word a day to ease myself back into the language. Over the next few weeks, I'd like to intensify that, but I'm starting out slow.

So there's my list of goals. What about you? Do you have any resolutions that you'd like to share?

Tricia