My Goals for 2021

Last week I reviewed and evaluated my goals for 2020. As promised, this week I want to let you know my goals for 2021. As I mentioned, I forgot to make a lot of my goals SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

So, let’s start by setting the obvious timeframe, all these goals will be measured by the deadline of 31st December 2021. I think this is timely. 12 months is a reasonable timeframe for all of my goals to be achieved.

Let’s take a look at those goals:

Publish The Whitney Heir. I really hope this happens this year. My publishing contract states that it should be so. Fingers crossed all goes well.
Get the follow up to The Whitney Heir, The Impoverished Countess, ready for my editor. I’m hoping this is done within a couple of months to be honest. I’m just waiting for my beta reader feedback, then I can get back to editing.
I want to get the third book in the Men of Trade series in a suitable condition for my editor to look at too, but as I’m currently working on structural edits for this, it is more likely to be ready towards the end of the year. I need to: give it a structural overhaul and fill in those plot holes, show it to my critique group, more edits, hand it to betas, then more edits before it’s ready. There’s a long way to go.
Now it’s time for some of those SMART targets. First, I want to increase my Twitter following. It currently stands at 2,582. It’s been fluctuating, by plus or minus 10, over the last two months and never seems to get any higher. Looks like I need to work harder on this one.
My Facebook author page also needs work. It’s currently at 132 likes and I would like to increase this by 100. I think I need to work on more personalised posts for this to happens.
A couple of blog posts ago I made it clear that this blog needs some TLC. It has been sadly neglected over the last 11 months and I promise to try harder. I would like to increase the subscribers by 1000 from it’s current 2,733. Again, I can’t thank you enough if you have stayed with me since March 2020.
To help me increase subscribers, I need to get back to regular posts. I want to post at least once a week, be it a book review, a personal post, or a historical article.
The last book of the Men of Trade series needs to be drafted before the end of this year. At the very least it will be by NaNoWriMo 2021 project.
2020 has made it very clear that I am no longer happy in my day job. Like many fledgling writers, I cannot simply quit my day job because writing is just not delivering the income I require. I’m currently debating whether to become self-employed and take on proofreading jobs, or even paid beta reading. Who can argue with a job that allows me to get paid for reading? It’s not something I wish to rush into, especially as I have a family to support, but it needs some serious consideration, because this year it has affected my stress levels and mental health and I don’t think I can continue much longer.
This last target could be argued to be more important and in direct correlation to my ability to achieve all previous goals for the year. I need to improve my mental health. My stress levels in 2020 have never been higher, and as mentioned, mostly a result of the pressure of my day job. It affected my writing throughout 2020, and it still is. I believe exercise is the key. I haven’t really exercised properly since March 2020. I loved swimming and endured running because it was “good for me”. Well, swimming pools have been closed, and back and leg injuries have made running impossible. I need to get back to walking at least, and I’ve been trying a bit of yoga, which I really enjoyed when I was a student. I can feel it in my bones that the lack of fresh air and exertion is having a negative impact on my mental health. Well, it’s time to get back to it.