2015 has been a huge year for me. It began with some pretty lofty plans–like having three books on submission by the end of the year–and included the most magnificent trip of my lifetime(so far). I haven’t accomplished everything I set out to do, but I have taken massive strides towards a successful writing career and more than doubled my income.
Today I’m going to walk you through with what I accomplished this year. I’ll start by looking at my initial goals and at the bottom I’ll include all the things I didn’t expect but managed to accomplish anyway.
1. Edit and submit Moonshadow’s Guardian — DONE
Of the three projects I wanted to submit this year, Moonshadow’s Guardian was both the most important one to submit and the most polished one. I wrote the first draft of this in 2007 and have rewritten it over a dozen times since then, with the novel dramatically changing shape two or three times. I actually edited Moonshadow’s Guardian twice this year, adding a sub plot and finessing the words as much as I possibly could. I submitted this project about 10 days ago to a small publisher and should hear back by the end of January. I also had a sequel idea that I’m working on an outline for now.
2. Rewrite and submit Some Secrets Should Never Be Known — STARTED
I did rewrite this book. In fact, I rewrote the first half twice. But about halfway through the second rewrite it decided it was going to become two books. So I put this on pause when I got Moonshadow’s Guardian back from critiquers and spent the rest of the year on projects closer to completion.
3. Edit and submit Good Bye — SORTA DONE
Technically, I did this, but when Good Bye got rejected I went back to do some tightening and ended up adding an entirely new subplot and about 10,000 words. I’m currently editing this novella again, tightening up the subplot and adding a couple more scenes to it. I should be able to submit this novella again mid-January. I have already edited the synopsis and query to include the new subplot but it does still need some work.
4. Blog regularly — FAILED
I’m sure some of you noticed, but I kind of fell out of the blogosphere in the second half of the year. I’ve been struggling with some pretty crazy insomnia and since I’ve got plenty of paid work and no active publishing contracts I decided this blog would be the thing that fell by the wayside. I hate doing this because I love my blog, but taking care of myself is the most important thing. I do have plans for 2016 including switching my posts to once a week and some more reading-focused articles.
5. Make a solid living writing — SUCCEEDED
All right, frankly, it wouldn’t really be a living if I had a child or a car or a house with things that desperately need fixing, but since I don’t have any dependents and I share bills with my fiance I am making a quite comfortable living. What’s even cooler is that I’ve made most of it in the second half of the year and have a solid stable of clients who all have promised me a specific amount of work until April. I am still looking to add one or two more small but regular jobs to the rotation but I’m confident that next year I’ll come close to doubling my income again.
I didn’t accomplish everything I set out to do this year but I still did some pretty amazing things and I’m confident I will have all three of the books I worked on this year on submission by the end of next year. The insomnia is still pretty bad but I’m optimistic that I can beat it and start the career I’ve always dreamed of–all while building an even more successful career as a freelance writer.
What did you accomplish this year? Did you meet all your goals? Let me know in the comments below!