In 2024, I set ambitious goals for myself. It was before I knew some life changes were going to be heading my way. I decided I had enough of my living situation and sincerely felt like I was getting nowhere. I was thankful to be able to move out and quite lucky to find a better job within a month.
The writing goals I set were:
- Complete the third draft of Mielea’s Lost
- Complete the second book in the series
- Make more progress on other projects
- Better time management
- Blog more often/book blog reviews
- Bonus read 12 books
None of these goals were finished, but I’m proud of what was achieved this year. Mielea’s Lost’s third draft edits are 75% done. I stopped working on the second book because it was too daunting to work on edits and drafting in the same series.
While making progress on some older WIPs, four more were made. Two were shelved after a couple of pages of notes and snippets. One is an outline with some plot hooks and characters. This is unusual because outlining is a struggle for me. One of these WIPs I’m still drafting is Project Phoenix.
Five out of six of the books I read this year were published by Indie writers/small pubs. All of them were great and fun to read. The other book was Fire and Blood. If you are familiar with George R.R. Martin’s work, you will know why it took some time to read. After that, was a reading burnout, but that didn’t stop me from buying more books.
My time management skills are getting better, and my job at the Deli has been a major contributor. Time management for writing and other hobbies is not where I want it to be. It could use some work but I remind myself that writing is not my full-time job. There is no publishing deadline looming over me.
2025 Goals
This year, I’m keeping the goals simple. As of writing this post, my department is getting our hours cut, so I’m unsure what that will amount to in the long run.
Goals:
- Complete Draft 3 edits of Mielea’s Lost
- Complete rough draft of Project Phoenix
- Make more progress on the WIP backlog (trust me, there are a lot)
- Read 12 books
Bonus goal: Get Mielea’s Lost to an editor.
Even if I get Mielea’s Lost edits done, I know I need an editor. I would love to publish it by the end of the year, but I’m not skipping steps. Self-editing only goes so far, and I want it as polished as possible before publishing.
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!
Jade McStar Fantasy/Sci-Fi Writer 