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Plans, plans, plans (the sequel)
Dec. 15th, 2023 10:31 amAll right, here are my goals for the end of the year and for 2024:
1. Finish Novel #5.
This is my top priority for the near future, to draft and revise Novel #5 so I can jump into the querying trenches again. I'm not sure how long it will take, since my outline for the second half of Novel #5 is much vaguer than my outline for the first half. Ideally, I'd love to wrap this up in a few months, but we'll have to see. (I'll probably have a better idea after seeing how much progress I make during my 10-day work vacation/writing retreat.)
2. Manage my physical and mental health.
I've learned some hard lessons about managing my mental health in the publishing industry this year. I've had a bad mental health year, and I want to improve. I've learned that I can't count on traditional publishing for anything, and I can't just sit around waiting for things to happen. As difficult as it is, the best way to cope is to forget the book exists while I'm querying/on submission and to focus on other things. (Having a better agent who genuinely believes in my work would probably also help!) Since I've been out of the querying trenches for a while and querying is apparently harder than ever, I do want to work on managing my expectations and potential anxiety in case querying doesn't work out.
Because my mental health has been so bad this year (though also because I've been traumatized by the US healthcare system), I've put off addressing some physical health issues. I do want to use next year to address them. Maybe it's not the greatest idea to wait until Novel #5 is done to work on that, since I don't know how long it will take to finish Novel #5? But...that's just how I am. When I'm actively drafting a book, it's hard for me to focus on anything else.
3. Brainstorm and revise Novel #4.
This will be my project while I'm querying, since the only way I can cope with how much the publishing industry is out of my control is by focusing on something I can control. I still believe in the premise of Novel #4 as something hooky and commercial, I still think the characters are great and the worldbuilding is cool. If I revise it enough, I can use it to query in case Novel #5 dies in the query trenches, and it might be able to go on submission again.
But, on the topic of mental health again, I'm not going to push myself to work on anything else besides Novel #5 and Novel #4. (I'd probably be too mentally exhausted to work on something new, anyway.)
4. Other life stuff?
Every year I tell myself I'll start dating again, and every year I end up pushing it off. It's harder than ever to make this resolution since so much of 2024 is going to be up in the air due to finishing Novel #5 and querying. So...we'll see.
I never have reading goals, since I always just read as many books as I'm interested in in a year. But there are a lot of books I'm looking forward to reading next year, plus I recently got a NetGalley account so I'm excited to potentially read some ARCs.
1. Finish Novel #5.
This is my top priority for the near future, to draft and revise Novel #5 so I can jump into the querying trenches again. I'm not sure how long it will take, since my outline for the second half of Novel #5 is much vaguer than my outline for the first half. Ideally, I'd love to wrap this up in a few months, but we'll have to see. (I'll probably have a better idea after seeing how much progress I make during my 10-day work vacation/writing retreat.)
2. Manage my physical and mental health.
I've learned some hard lessons about managing my mental health in the publishing industry this year. I've had a bad mental health year, and I want to improve. I've learned that I can't count on traditional publishing for anything, and I can't just sit around waiting for things to happen. As difficult as it is, the best way to cope is to forget the book exists while I'm querying/on submission and to focus on other things. (Having a better agent who genuinely believes in my work would probably also help!) Since I've been out of the querying trenches for a while and querying is apparently harder than ever, I do want to work on managing my expectations and potential anxiety in case querying doesn't work out.
Because my mental health has been so bad this year (though also because I've been traumatized by the US healthcare system), I've put off addressing some physical health issues. I do want to use next year to address them. Maybe it's not the greatest idea to wait until Novel #5 is done to work on that, since I don't know how long it will take to finish Novel #5? But...that's just how I am. When I'm actively drafting a book, it's hard for me to focus on anything else.
3. Brainstorm and revise Novel #4.
This will be my project while I'm querying, since the only way I can cope with how much the publishing industry is out of my control is by focusing on something I can control. I still believe in the premise of Novel #4 as something hooky and commercial, I still think the characters are great and the worldbuilding is cool. If I revise it enough, I can use it to query in case Novel #5 dies in the query trenches, and it might be able to go on submission again.
But, on the topic of mental health again, I'm not going to push myself to work on anything else besides Novel #5 and Novel #4. (I'd probably be too mentally exhausted to work on something new, anyway.)
4. Other life stuff?
Every year I tell myself I'll start dating again, and every year I end up pushing it off. It's harder than ever to make this resolution since so much of 2024 is going to be up in the air due to finishing Novel #5 and querying. So...we'll see.
I never have reading goals, since I always just read as many books as I'm interested in in a year. But there are a lot of books I'm looking forward to reading next year, plus I recently got a NetGalley account so I'm excited to potentially read some ARCs.
