New Year's Resolutions/Writing Goals for 2020!

[Eric_Moser]

I was surprised one of these hadn’t popped up yet, unless I missed it!

1. See Zip! published
2. Finish draft of Community College Hero 3: All Things End
3. Grow my Patreon presence (I have a # in mind)
4. Grow my mailing list (I have a # in mind)
5. Attend NarraScope again

Crap, if I can make these things happen, I would view 2020 as a very successful year. I hope that Zip! can give me at least a small boost with CCH sales, patreon, and my mailing list. I really needed to get something published, so the timing is great.

Stretch Goal 1: Actually get CCH3 submitted to HG by end of 2020 (unlikely, but possible!!)
Stretch Goal 2: Pitch CoG a follow-up to Zip! (who knows?? depends on how it goes!)
Stretch Goal 3: Finally finish Talon City (I swear, I just need 30 uninterrupted days and I could push it out…it’s all in my head!)

Anyone else want to chime in? Non-IF writing counts too! And non-writing tasks like mailing lists, promotions, education, etc.

I find these helpful in prioritizing projects, even though we all know that life happens and things go off the rails sometimes. 2019 was a challenging year for me with some family issues, and I had to take a step back from writing for much of the year.

I’d love to hear what everyone else has planned for 2020!

[JMH]

I just posted my wip a few days ago, and while I’d love to finish it in 2020, I’ll give myself a slightly more realistic goal: to make significant progress towards finishing it at least!

[Schliemannsghost]

By the end of the year I want to have my WIP submitted to HG, and to have started on the next one. I’m also, in “real life”, trying to turn my PhD thesis into an academic book. So there’s a whole lot of writing going on!

[AdmirableAnimation]

First things first: Don’t let uni run me over again. I’ll be the best Multimedia and Sound technician this city has ever seen, ffs!

Second, hopefully finish and submit my wip to Hosted games (Which implies not spending %70 of my time playing with code instead of writting)

And third, go to actual English lessons. It’s not my first language and sometimes I don’t even know if a sentence makes sense and spend… way too long rewriting things, sometimes. It would be good to have a more solid understanding of the language for a change.

[rose-court]

My biggest goal(s) for 2020 is to get either B’s or better in all of this year’s classes! But my more minor goals include:

• Making that study binder, finally
  • I bought the supplies for it, like, back in August but never actually started it
• Get a better study routine going, so I can confidently say I’m studying at least an hour a day without caveats
  • “Well, if I average it out over the month…my four all-nighters means I studied approximately an hour every day!” No. No! Bad Rose. You stop that.
• Speaking of getting a productive routine going: exercising at least an hour a day by the end of next year
• Get an emergency fund going
  • 2019 had a surprising amount of emergencies where I was hurting for cash. Even having a hundred bucks squirreled away somewhere would’ve made a difference
• Draw at least one (1) thing a month.
  • It doesn’t have to be good, it can even be a sketch, I just have to draw more than the six whole things I drew this year
• W r i t e   s o m e t h i n g
  • To be fair, I wrote a lot in 2019. Like, a lot. But none of it is publishable because it was all fanfic, lol, but I really need—well, not really need, mostly I just want—to get into writing original stories again

[snowgoose]

1. Get to 50% point for the first 1/5 of a gigantic translation project. (Each 1/5 is the length of a standard novel.)
2. Take small translation projects for things I’m interested in and stop worrying about fandom drama. (I’ve already gotten a headstart on this.)
3. Ask if I could retranslate something other people have taken for gospel but has egregious, massive errors in it.
4. Finish writing proposal for next research project lmaoooooooo
5. Write a fanfic for old fandom that’s been dead since 2007
6. Maybe write that shortform IF that’s been floating around my head, as an experiment.

[ilovecoins]

One goal that actually i really wanted to do is… Actually put all of my ideas into an actual writing, instead that of just that of “Ideas”.

I was afraid of putting all the ideas into words, because of my anxiety, also the grammars and pacing. Which of course, made me to keep hesitating to actually write it.

And hopefully, i can share my works to you guys this year. Hopefully…wish me luck, Guys!.

[rinari]

Oh God I answered the same question last year posted by the same author… at least I accomplished one of my goals then!

Main Goals

1. Be completely done with work and revisions for my upcoming novel, WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE - and see it finally published in 2021!
2. Finish the complete draft of Shepherds of Haven.
3. Finish an undisclosed other IF project.
4. Launch a special Patreon promotional campaign.
5. Make “significant” progress on my second novel - at least 50% would be a success!

Stretch Goals:

1. Finish Shepherds of Haven before law school starts in August or September.
2. Submit Shepherds of Haven to HG for publishing by the end of the year.
3. Finish the undisclosed IF project before law school starts in August or September.

Like Eric said, if I could just get uninterrupted 30 days to write, so much of this would be done… but that’s life! 2019 felt like a year of wins for me, and I’m very happy with how it went. 2020 holds even more excitement on the horizon, but that also means more busyness and work, but I’m really grateful to receive support from this community and my Patrons: it’s that support that allows me to keep working on my greatest passion projects! Good luck to everyone in their 2020!

[Rinnegato]

My writing goals for the year are:

• Writing my thesis (It has to be done);
• Writing at least a good portion (anythig from half and above) of my novel project;

Other goals in mind:

• Graduate (technically already done, but I’ve just a “short graduation”)
• Finding a not internet reading/writing group, I really need one

[trevers17]

I definitely have a couple of goals that would be awesome to achieve by the end of the year. Not all of them are writing-related but meh.

• Get a full-time job, preferably in the writing field. This pretty much has to happen lol.
• Publish Voltaic to COG.
• Successfully get contracted to write a COG/HC game and publish it to completion.
• Restart my Patreon and make it go a little smoother.
• Start a mailing list and grow it to at least 300 people (1000 for a stretch goal!).
• Do yoga at least 3 times a week and exercise twice a week.

Stretch Goals:

• Publish Bring Us to Washington.
• Move into my own apartment.
• Become somewhat financially stable.

[Mystic_CRO]

Tricky question. I have quiet a few ambitions i am working on. So i suppose resolution to that would be…JUST DO IT!

As for writing goals…hm…

Keep up with Equia, release my other projects as well.

[HarrisPS]

Writing goals…

1. Continue working at my day job, and have my work on upcoming projects released publicly, she said mysteriously, since stuff hasn’t been announced yet

2. Complete unannounced mobile game project which I’m currently about 40% through. Hoping to make significant headway at least, though it’s challenging now I’m not full time freelancing.

3. Pitch and start a new CoG project if it works with scheduling and gets greenlit. I really hope this happens because I really want to share the ideas I’ve been cooking up!

4. Go to AdventureX if it’s on again this year; I missed out in 2019 for health reasons but I’d love to go this time.

Stretch goal: I’d like to chat on here more about what makes a fun and good game, sharing what I’ve learned and learning from what everyone here enjoys and creates.

[Hazel]

My life consists of my writing, my assorted chronic illnesses, and my family. Not much else. So, almost all of my life goals right now are writing-related, except for the health-related stuff. And that’s less “goals” that I can work towards, and more “fervently hoping and trying my best, but still ultimately out of my control”.

So, to regain the illusion of control over my life, here are some writing goals for 2020:

1. Finish and submit Turncoat Chronicle.

I’m more than 3/4 of the way through and I have excellent beta testers giving me a ton of feedback. If I’m persistent in my writing habits, I should be able to succeed at this.

My “stretch goal” for this is to complete and submit a draft before August. There’s also a smaller stretch goal, but it’s a bit more personal.

2. Make public the first chapter of my next WIP.

I have a name and an outline. If I keep progressing it at a steady rate, by spring 2020 I hope it’ll be ready for alpha viewing. I’ve been keeping this one pretty well under wraps, so it’ll be a fun surprise.

3. Get back to writing in Twine.

I wrote a bunch of fun Twine games when I was starting to transition into games writing. I haven’t touched it much lately, but in between the larger projects, I think I can find the time to try and develop a short Twine game. Part of the problem is that I work better when I have specific goals in mind, but luckily, the game/IF community has a profusion of prompt-based events. IFComp was a bad fit for me, but there are others worth trying.

4. Win NaNoWriMo 2020.

With a traditional novel. New draft for the one that I started in Dec.'17. Wow, time flies.

5. Keep making progress on Steering the Craft.

I’ve been reading Ursula Le Guin’s book on writing on and off for a year plus, and making my way through the exercises and challenges. I feel I can learn a lot if I keep it up, and that I have a long way to go, to keep refining and improving my prose.

[AlexHaydenX]

The only thing I want to achieve this year is finish or write a large chunk of my novel. I have procrastinated long enough this year, hopefully I can overcome my laziness.

[Solskin]

My main goal is to improve my writing process. Breaking it down, I end up with three sub goals:

Write more consistently: I’m a binge writer. I’ll pump out 50,000 words in three days, then not write for a week. I want to write at least 1,000 words a day for five days of the week.

Post the first draft of current WiP: I usually write out of chronological order and end up with 200,000 words of disjointed scenes. The whole reason I posted my WiP here was because it forced me to write chronologically, so now I just need to finish it.

Do (at least three) short story contests: I’m awful at coming up with ideas on the spot. It’s like I need to let my ideas marinate before they can work. Doing contests forces a deadline, which means I have to come up with and post ideas quickly, even if they end up being garbage.

Apart from that, I’d say my non-writing goals are pretty basic: don’t fail university, improve my french, buy some pants that fit.

[Dragongodess]

Doing better at school.

[Ninja1]

1. Fucking graduate. I’m almost 22 and I still haven’t graduated high school. Maybe this year…

2. Be happier. Be more active. Go out more.

3. Get a permanent job and move out.

4. Get back into hobbies: drawing / writing / reading.

5. Finish my wips.

6. Survive.

[Kefs]

1. To not be afraid of my writing skill and not to be lazy, thus finish my own WIP (or be it few short stories). Just finish anything! Too many works have started…too many ideas and plans, but never finish anything.

2. To be more dedicated of learning the craft. More reading books, researching history etc.

3. Drink less whisky. (huh, like it would ever happen!)

[Chopper]

My main goal this year is to at least finish the first draft of my novel. I assume I will, so my bigger and more prominent goal is to finish my first book and start sending it out to publishers. Besides that, I just generally want to improve my writing and expand on my skills. I think 2020 will be a big year! Good luck for everyone else, may you all accomplish your goals!!

[GoldenSilver]

Age another year. Shouldn’t be too hard I think.