Is it me or did 2023 just fly past? I didn’t achieve nearly as much as I wanted to this year, but I’m not beating myself up too hard about it – it’s been a tough year in many ways and at least I tried. There’s always next year to try again!
Like Janus, the Roman god of doorways, staring both into the past and the future, let’s start by having a look at how my writerly goals for 2023 turned out.
2023 Primary Goals
Publish Mythical Menagerie Book 2
Yes! The second book in the series is called Myth Keeper and is available in e-book, paperback and hardcover at Amazon and most of the usual alternative online stores.
Write and edit 2 instalments for Mythical Menagerie Book 3
Nope! This goal is being bumped into 2024, because I spent the greater part of the year working on a prequel story, Becoming Keeper, which should be published early in the new year.
Create a Mythical Menagerie story bible
Yes! Sort of! As it turns out, there are soooo many things to keep track of when you’re writing a series and compiling a comprehensive story bible is hard work. I’m almost done referencing Book 1 and then I’ll have to do Book 2, plus the two prequel novellas. So technically, yes I created the story bible, but I’m not completely finished with it yet and will continue next year.
Write a monthly flash fiction piece
Yes! My newsletter subscribers received a free flash fiction story in their inbox every month this year – with the exception of June, which is my birthday month, and in which I usually do something a little different.
2023 Secondary Goals
Write and publish 1 standalone short story / novella
Kinda. I did write a prequal novella, Becoming Keeper, but it’s not published as yet. And I got distracted by another short story which was only written halfway (twice!) before I decided to focus on my Mythical Menagerie world again. I do still want to write more standalones, so this goal will make an appearance again in the future.
Grow my email, Facebook and Instagram following
Erm, well, sort of. My email subscriber list went down from 263 to 244 subscribers, but Facebook went from 137 to 149 followers, while volatile Instagram grew from 282 to 307. I must admit that I didn’t put a lot of effort into social media or email list building this year, so although I’m not too happy about the downturn in my email list, I’m happy with the direction Facebook and Instagram are (slowly) going.
Complete the Balkan Camping 2019 posts on my travel blog
Yes! It was pretty difficult to remember the details of a trip we took 4 years ago, so I’m quite chuffed that it’s all finally written down now.
Complete the Maggie Stiefvater writing course
Not yet. I was aiming to get it done before we ring in the new year, but I think I might give it a good go in January instead.
Read John Truby’s Anatomy of Story
Yes! And I’m sad to say I didn’t learn much from it. Maybe my expectations were too high… I can see it being very useful to beginner writers, though, so if you fall in that category, do check it out (affiliate link in the heading).
Read John Truby’s Anatomy of Genre
No yet. Moving this over to next year’s to-do list.
Read 12 classics
Yes! And let me tell you, some of them were delightful, but many of them were a slog! Read more about it in my 2023 in Books post.
So, as usual, my 2023 goals were a bit of a mixed bag. I achieved most of my primary goals, so that makes me happy, and a few of my secondary goals. Additionally, I also managed to do the following:
- Completed a Learn to Write Movies course
- Went on a trip to the UK and visited Oxford for story research
- Completed an AI for Authors course
- Used Dall-E, Midjourney, ChatGPT and various other AI tools for my author business
- Created Mythical Menagerie-themed bookmarks for my subscribers
- Completed an Affinity Publisher course and learned how to do book interior layout and design
- Released Myth Hunter, Myth Keeper, A Spark of Reverie and A Flight of Reverie in paperback and hardcover formats
- Attended various Bookfunnel webinars
- Migrated my newsletter from the old MailerLite to the new MailerLite API
- Redesigned my author website
- Read 46 books
2023 was also the year in which I held a physical copy of one of my books in my hands for the first time! It was a steep, but incredibly satisfying, learning curve to get to that point, but so worth it! Especially since I hadn’t planned on ever doing physical books. I might consider tackling audiobooks next, who knows!
And now, without further ado, let’s look at what 2024 has in store for me.
2024 Primary Goals
- Publish Becoming Keeper (in e-book and paperback)
- Write and edit 3 instalments for Mythical Menagerie Book 3
- Complete the Mythical Menagerie story bible to date
- Write a monthly flash fiction piece
- Publish Book 3 in the Reverie Flash Fiction series (in e-book, paperback and hardcover)
- Monetary goal from writing income *
* I’m finally ready to take my writing further, in the hopes that I can make a full-time living from it in the not-too-distant future. As a result, I want to start tracking, and more importantly increasing, my monthly income from writing.
2024 Secondary Goals
- Grow my email, Facebook and Instagram following
- Grow my beta reader list
- Read John Truby’s Anatomy of Genre
- Complete the Maggie Stiefvater writing course
- Complete the UK 2023 blog posts on my travel blog
- Publish an audiobook
I can already see I’ll have to put my nose to the grindstone next year! But I’m excited and ready. Let’s do this!
How did you do with the goals you set for yourself for 2022? What is the one thing you HAVE to achieve in 2023?
