Saturday, January 4, 2014

Setting writing goals and a progress report

Dear friends,

I don't usually do a whole "what did I accomplish last year?" thing, but I was prompted by that insanity over on Facebook, where they do a Timeline thing for you. And one of my playwriting groups posts numbers of items subbed and accepted. This is not meant as a brag; I hope it's encouraging for some of you who don't think you have time to write. :-)

Make your own list; you might be surprised. And it might spur you on to doing more in 2014.

I've been a bit down because it feels like I did nothing last year.  Well, other than remodeling the Old House from Hell, participating in the local Art Guild, and tending the garden, that is. I mean, WRITING stuff.  I'm VERY scattered and indecisive. I think I would have done better if I'd been focused. And maybe if I'd set some real goals--that's one thing I didn't really do.

Progress report: last year, I submitted 10 stories/plays/poems and had 3 accepted, including one new play that will be published (ongoing income).  One story is still out. I also had my first mystery story accepted to a "mystery" publication.

I published two novellas (illustrating one of them) and four short stories, launching my "Nameless, Texas" mystery story series. Both of the novellas started out as plays that were written a few years ago.

I finished another new play, it premiered and an older one had four productions.

I wrote over 65 blog posts/articles (most with original photos), thousands of e-mails and several blog interviews for other authors.

It just shows what you can accomplish when you just basically KEEP AT IT. Unfortunately, it also shows how much stuff you actually have to submit to get anywhere.  This doesn't include the bits and pieces of stories, plays and ongoing novels that aren't finished yet. And it doesn't include all the PR stuff.

This year, I'm setting goals, and we'll see if it gets me farther.

Onward, and Happy Trails!

bobbi c.

3 comments:

Wendy said...

It sounds to me that you accomplished a great deal, Bobbi. Just keep it up. :)

Kaye George said...

It's good to sum up. You can see that you actually did quite a lot! Here's to much success in 2014, Bobbi!

Bobbi A. Chukran, Author said...

Thanks, Kaye and Wendy. I think I'm going to do an on-going list for 2014 since it was hard to compile that one. I had information spread all over the place--on FB, e-mail, blogs, website, etc. and I still think I might have missed something.