2015: THE GOALS!

I've posted before on the importance of WRITING down your goals/objectives so I won't bore you with all that again, but I do want to share mine here and, just as importantly, review what happened in 2014. I'm incredibly lucky to have Wendy as my writing chum - we meet at the beginning of every month to talk over our progress (the ups and downs of a writer's life) and to look ahead. Yesterday, we met for a mammoth session (the tearoom staff were very understanding despite us taking root for almost 3 hours!) and now have our Writing Goals all set down for 2015.

But first let's look back over 2014 ...
THE STATS:
30 positive successes, which I count as competition wins/placements/shortlisting & long listings, stories sold, stories published online or in anthologies/magazines etc

Out of these successes 20 stories were published, but only 10 resulted in income.
The really bad news for 2014 was my overall income from writing was significantly down (I won't depress you with the figures). My writing business is basically running at a loss. The shareholders would be pulling the plug by now me thinks ...
Some part of this is due to focusing (quite rightly) on my MA in Creative Writing (University of Chichester) and completing the novel. Meaning I had less time to write new short stories or articles.

At the beginning of 2014 I posted my goals for the year here and am pleased to announce the top 3 were all achieved. I am putting together a collection of short stories, but I hope to attract a publisher for these rather than self-publish (aim high I say).

THE ACHIEVEMENTS:
These are the ones I'm most proud of ...

• First draft of novel completed (>100,000 words)
• Shortlisted for the COMMONWEALTH WRITERS SHORT STORY PRIZE (read more here)
• Judge on Hysteria 2014 Writing Competition (short story, flash fiction & poetry categories)
• Runner-up HE BATES Short Story Prize (more here)
• Finalist WRITE IDEA Short Story Prize (more here)
• Short stories published in new anthologies: Fugue (Siren Press), Light in the Dark (Bridge House)

And I was asked to submit my work-in-progress novel to several Literary Agents (unsolicited by me) ...

So what came out of the teacake chat with Wendy?
THE 2015 WRITING GOALS:
1. Finish and submit dissertation for MA.
2. Identify a list of Literary Agents I would like to work with.
3. Complete editing/polishing of novel and begin submission to identified agents.
4. >50 short stories published (currently at 43).

These hopefully are within my control. Note, I didn't list: get an agent, sign a book deal etc because those are not strictly within my control. I can do the utmost to ensure my work is of the highest standard, but the rest is in the lap of the Writing Gods - and we know how fickle they can be ...

What are your writing goals for 2015? 

We'd love to hear them.