2021 Goals

Mariajauthor/ January 4, 2021/ Author Journey/ 6 comments

Happy New Year all!

For my first blog post of 2021, it seems fitting to talk about the goals I want to set for this year. Yesterday I sat down and scribbled a few ideas for what I’d like to achieve by the end of 2021. Here’s hoping I can get this all done!

1. Proofread my 3rd historical fiction novel and get it ready for submission

This is a big one. I’m setting myself a rather optimistic goal for my 3rd historical fiction novel (following on from The Boy from the Snow and The Veiled Wolf. I’m hoping it will be a trilogy). Hopefully, I will have proofread it and have it ready by possible submission by the end of March. This will mean proofreading 16 pages each week during office hours.

It really does feel like I’ve been working on this forever, so it will be a huge relief to finally get it done and hopefully submitted to Olympia by April. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I’ve already done my first 4 pages this morning, so I’m hoping I’m on the right track!

PS interested in my historical fiction series? Then why not sign up to my newsletter! As well as the free preview of my recent fantasy novel Lottie’s Locket that you’ll get for subscribing, I’m sending out a free preview of The Boy from the Snow in January’s edition!

2. Outline and write the first draft of my 4th historical fiction novel

The idea for this novel has been buzzing in my head for a while. In fact it was a goal for 2020 to start thinking about it, but I only scribbled down a few thoughts really. I’d love 2021 to be the year that I get this novel written. I was doing some research just before writing this blog post.

All I know so far is that it will be set at least 10, possibly 20 years in the future. Although my current main character, Daniel, will feature, it will actually be from the point of view of another character and about their story. I’m excited to really dig in and see where this story takes me.

3. Participate in NaNoWriMo events

As well as focusing on my historical fiction, I’d like to take part in Nano like in previous years. If you’ve never come across it, NaNoWriMo stands for ‘National Novel Writing Month’ where participants write everyday during the month of November, with the hope of writing a 50k novel by the end. ‘Camp NaNoWriMo’ is a more flexible version of the November event happening in April and July, where participants can choose their own goals. I have one idea for Camp NaNo in April, but I’ll think about that closer to the time.

4. Have a look at old NaNoWriMo projects

January – and I think maybe February too – is known as the ‘what now’ months in the Nano community, with the chance of participants to have a look at their older projects. However, with the exception of Lottie’s Locket (which was my first ever NaNoWriMo project) I haven’t really looked at previous projects. So, I’m hoping to edit 2 projects in particular in 2021. I’m hoping to edit my science fiction project, Iris, that I did in November and also have a look at Brushing past the Brontes, a historical fantasy I wrote for Camp NaNo in July 2019.

5. Blog regularly and post newsletters

One of the things I did in 2020 was post blogs more regularly, as well as starting a newsletter (which also meant setting up this new website – more in this blog post) which I post on the 3rd Saturday of each month. I’m loving the routine this gives me, so I’d love to carry on my Monday blog posts and newsletter editions. I’d love to think of new ways to grow my newsletter list and connect with people so that will be in the back of my mind for 2021 too.

6. Read at least 12 Indie books

My final goal is to carry on with my reading. I didn’t do much reading at all in the first half of 2020, but since about August I’ve really fallen back in love with it. 1 book a month may not sound like very much – and in fact I’m hoping to read a fair bit more than this – but I didn’t want to pressure myself too much. My husband got me a new kindle for Christmas too, so I’m looking forward to diving into indie books. Hopefully this will be a fairly low goal to aim for, then any other reads will be a bonus!

So, here are my 6 goals for 2021. I’m looking forward to diving in and seeing how many I can achieve – hopefully all of them! What about you? If you’re a writer, do you have any goals? Or maybe you have a number of books you’d like to read this year. Why not drop a comment below or chat to me on social media about it, I’d love to connect with you!

Till next time,

Maria 🙂