2018’s surprise successes & 2019’s few-but-mighty goals

Remember that long list of goals I posted last fall? And how I said I usually don’t do big goal lists because I think they’re a terrible idea?

I stand by all of it. Maybe it works for some people, but it never has for me. I get excited about the actual goal-setting, but I have a lot of trouble keeping track of my goals after Day One.

That’s not to say I don’t have accomplishments to celebrate in 2018, or plans for an even better 2019. And I want to share those with you!

I hope to continue maintaining this space as a personal blog of sorts. A place to detail the ins and outs of being a.) a writer and b.) an indie content creator building a business from scratch. I’ll get into more detail later, but here’s where I am right now:

Major accomplishments of 2018.

2018 felt like a slog, but it was actually kind of great. We writers can benefit from getting our head off the page every once in a while and taking stock of how far we’ve come. A few highlights from my 2018:

• Declared one novel, Driving Forces, completely finished. Got some recognition for it with a #RevPit runner-up award.
• Wrote my way 25,000 words into a new novel, codenamed Tilley.
• Published a book! While I don’t have exact sales figures in front of me, I was really pleased with its reception. Despite my uneven-at-best marketing efforts, sales didn’t taper off after the initial release and actually increased through the fall. I’ve also gotten some really encouraging reviews and emails from happy readers.
• Saw The ADHD Homestead’s web traffic roughly quadruple over the course of the year.
• Took on a side gig with a publishing company’s writing advice blog. While I initially did this to help fund other parts of my writing business, it’s helped me keep my head in the fiction game as I pursue other projects.
• For the first time, my business paid all its own bills!

What’s next?

That list of accomplishments makes 2018 look packed with active growth, but I consider it more of a setup year. I laid a lot of foundations. In 2019 I want to accomplish three things and three things only:

1. Continue producing valuable content
2. Grow my passive income
3. Dig into a key expansion of my business, codenamed Do The Thing

I’ll talk more about those plans in my first Business Diaries post, coming up in a few days.

On a more personal note, I want a solid first edit of Tilley complete by the end of the year. My critique group has given me surprisingly good feedback on the prose itself. I guess the sheer volume of writing I’ve produced over the past couple years has paid off. My first drafts now read a lot smoother, even if I have a lot of work to do on plot and character development.

With this in mind, I feel confident the only thing that stands between me an a near-complete manuscript at year’s end is time. If I put enough work into this novel in 2019, I can push it out the door way sooner than Driving Forces. That manuscript took an embarrassing number of years to whip into shape. Because Tilley feels exponentially more saleable, I hope it’ll help me get my foot in the publishing door — maybe even for both manuscripts.

Of course, that’s mostly fantasy at this point. The only part of the process I can control is my own writing, which I feel really good about. I could consider querying Driving Forces to more agents, but I’m putting querying on hold for now. I want to focus on growing my non-fiction business and finishing Tilley.

Whew. It feels good to say that. I need to set more goals that require me to let go of time sinks.

One new blog category, coming right up.

Something to know about me: I’ve always loved being the behind-the-scenes support person. I’ve worked two IT support jobs and served briefly as a human resources manager. My writing for The ADHD Homestead empowers people to reach their full potential.

I had intended to help writers use technology to manage their writing and publishing processes with the Tech Tuesday section of this blog. For 2019 I’m scrapping that in favor of a new Business Diaries feature. I’ll use it to share my progress building a business around my writing. Hopefully others can learn from my journey.

Thanks for coming with me on this adventure!