2020 goal updates

I’ve found that the best way to achieve my goals is to check up with them. Reminding myself of what I want to accomplish sometimes lights the fire underneath me to continue.

So, back in December, I set some 2020 goals. Since June is halfway through the year, I’m going to go through them one by one.

• Publish poetry, flash fiction, etc. in a larger publication

So… I’m still working on that.

I have submitted a lot of poetry and a couple of flash fiction so far this year. Out of thirteen, eleven have already been rejected. The others are on the long path of waiting for a response.

I haven’t been submitting as much this past month. I’ve been thinking about trying out short stories instead of poetry for a bit. However, I am much more impressed with my poetry submissions. I can tell I’m improving. I just hope that I strike a chord with one of them soon.

• Edit through my first novel again to see if 3rd or 1st person is better and polish it up

I did that! I like first person better.

I’ve been editing my novel again according to my beta reader’s feedback. I’m adding more to the story and hopefully sorting some issues out.

I did choose a multi-POV fantasy story as my first novel, which is hard to begin with. But I love the story too much to put it down.

• Get a literary agent (or at least one positive response once)

Well, about that. I was thinking about going through another round of beta readers to see if the edits work well with the story. I imagine I’ll be submitting to literary agents again by the end of this year or beginning of next year.

Luckily, I’ve been able to work on my novel more this year. I’ve made a lot of progress, and I’ve got to see what works and what doesn’t.

• Gain a larger writer’s platform

This is something I have been doing. I get a lot more responses and views on my blog posts. I’m already on track to blow through last year’s numbers. (Thank you all for following along! Shout out to my subscribers!)

I’ve also had a lot more people follow me on Twitter, which is great. I’m slowly but surely getting my name out there more.

• Get a steady income from either writing or editing or both

Surprisingly, yes.

Right before everything got shut down from COVID, I got a proofreading job. Now, I’m not sure how everything will go for the long-term, but it seems like they want to keep me so far. I hope they do. It has only been a few months, so we’ll see.