Past, Present, and Future: 2015-2016

2015.

It's all done. Over. Finis. A memory to fade and eventually feel like it was just yesterday.

Actually, it was five days ago. Gosh. Where has the week gone?

Probably the same place the heat went. I'll admit I spent all Christmas complaining about the lack of cold. It just didn't feel like Christmas without being miserably curled up under five blankets. But Christmas happened anyway and now, with the new year, comes the chill and I'm wondering why I ever missed it.

So, what's the verdict on 2015?

It was... a year. Three hundred sixty-five days. Some good, some bad, nothing particularly spectacular, event wise. I'm a year older, my house is still in need of repairs, and I'm still unpublished.

However.

However.

I wrote five new short stories in 2015, and...

I actually reached my goal. I finished three novels. The End, Finis, First Draft Complete. I barely squeaked in under the bar, finishing the third one on the 31st, but I did it. For the first time, my Novels In Progress pile has gotten shorter and I have a Second Draft pile started. Sadly, it's just as intimidating as the WIP pile.

2014/2015 Goals:

Goal 1: Finish the next step of all four short stories for the Aces collection by Dec 31st, 2014. Two to finish editing, two to finish writing and edit. Completed 12/31/14

Goal 2: Write and edit this year's Sekrit Solstice Science-Fiction Fantasy Story Swap (a holiday short story exchange) by Feb 14th, 2015. Completed 2/15/15
Goal 3: Plot and write the main story #1's shorts tie in to. Plotting by Feb 28th, written by May 31st. (Abject failure. I wrote half the story and dropped it because I realized it wasn't turning out perfect.)
Goal 4: Finally finish the edits on my one complete novel by June 30th. (Didn't even try after realizing it's not actually a complete novel in a trilogy but 1/3rd of a long book)
Goal 5: Replot and finish three of my five incomplete novels by Dec 31st, 2015. Color me astounded, I did it. Completed 12/31/15

Grand total: 3 goals out of 5 finished. Not amazing, but considering goal 5 was the big one, I'm content. The schedule more than half worked, which is why I made myself set ANOTHER set of goals for 2016. And this time, I'm going in armed with three complete novels, about a dozen short stories, and a Duotrope subscription.

2016 Writing Goals:
Goal 1: Write and edit this year's Sekrit Solstice Story Swap by 2/29/2016 (Yes, I'm doing this again. It's fun.)
Goal 2: Edit at least 1 of the completed novels to submission ready by 6/1/2016. (I'm anticipating The Business of Being Dead for this one. It's the most complete, longest, and cleanest currently.)
Goal 3: Edit the other two completed novels one draft by 8/1/2016. (No lazing around letting them sit in the Draft Box.)
Goal 4: Submit or self-publish at least 1 short story a month.
Goal 5: Submit Goal #2 to agents.

I've also set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 50 books this year. On top of that, we've got contractors starting work on our house and I turn 30 in April. 2015 may have been a slow year of a lot of crawling towards goals, but here, at the beginning of 2016, I feel like I'm standing at the top of my hill, and there's so much I can finally see in front of me. A finished, fully-functional house, an acceptance letter, a LOT of rejection letters. Let's see what I can grab on my way down.

Happy New Year.