New Year’s Resolutions 2018

2017 was a rollercoaster year for me, with a lot of ups and downs, but luckily, mostly ups. Some major changes happened in my life, not all of them writing-related, but it’s worth summing them up anyway.

• My boyfriend and I bought a piece of land, and next year we’re going to start building our house on there. We already have an architect lined up who finished some draft versions of our plans for the house. I’m so glad we’re taking this next step of building a house together.
• We adopted a new cat, Teigetje. While our first cat (Snoebels) didn’t really get along with Teigetje at first, they’re best friends now. And they’re so adorable when they’re playing together.
• I found a job as Legal Counsel, and I really love my job so far. Having a steady job is huge, especially if we’re going to build a house, and the work hours allow me to combine this job with writing.
• We went to Disneyland in Paris with our best friends, and it was an amazing holiday. I’ve only visited Disneyland once, when I was a kid, and it was wonderful to go back after all this time.

I hope 2018 will be as exciting as 2017 was. Here’s to 2018, and I hope it brings wonderful, inspiring memories to all of you!

On the writing side, I did finish some new books last year…but I didn’t publish any new books. I do have some books coming up in 2018, though. Ghost Slayer will release in April 2018 and A Study in Shifters, the first book in the Adventures of Marisol Holmes series, is scheduled to release in October 2018.

Besides that, I have a hug list of writing goals I want to accomplish in 2018 which (no surprise there) are more or less the same as last year, but some have been updated.

• Draft one book per month. I still want to achieve this, and one year, I will. If it’ll be this year… we’ll see. Either way, getting to focus on new content each month allows me to be more creative and to get inspired faster. The best way for me to write books is still to fast draft them, so this is still the way to go for me.
• Write 2k a day Monday-Friday. This isn’t a hard rule, it’s more of a guideline. If I aim for about 2k words a day, then I can finish a book in a month. It’s not a hard rule, though, so as long as I achieve the previous goal, I’m happy.
• Write one short story a week. I always fail this, even though I love writing short stories. Well, this year that will hopefully change. I already have a short I need to write for Ghost Slayer, so that’s a fun way to get started.
• Rewrite / Revise Allegro Academy #1. I love this series but the books need some serious polishing, and I haven’t been able to do it yet. Hopefully, I’ll find some time for it in 2018.
• Rewrite / Revise Allegro Academy #2. Same as above.
• Write Allegro Academy #3 and finish the series.
• Draft and edit Angel Assassin. Angel Assassin has been on hold for a while, as I’m not sure what to do with the series. The story is mostly written (although it still needs editing) but I’m a bit conflicted as to the future of this series, the Angel of Death Series. I love writing the series and Riley’s adventures are far from over, but I’m having doubts what route to go in regards to publishing the next books. Once I figure that out, I’ll make more progress here.
• Write 3 books in the Snoebels, Cat Detective series and publish them.
• Write 2 more books in the Sally Sleuth series (chapter books) and publish them.
• Finish the first draft of A House of Dark Temptations.
• Finish the second book in the Ghost Slayer series and send it to my publisher.
• Finish editing A Study in Shifters, the first book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series, so we’re good to go on that one.
• Complete the first draft of The Sign of The Serpent, the second book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series.
• Edit The Sign of The Serpent.
• Complete the first draft of the third book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series (no title yet).
• Finish writing my serial The Chronicles of Blood and get it published.
• Keep up with blogging regularly, at least 2 times a week.
• Update the website with my new books and upcoming books.
• Find a home / publisher for A Murder in Mind, a YA scifi thriller I finished writing last year.
• Rewrite / Revise The Sleeping Kingdom. This book has an amazing story but I need to rewrite / revise it, and make it more YA-oriented.
• Get The Gatekeeper published and work on more books in the series.
• Write a MG book.

Phew! Those are a lot of goals, and I have no idea how many of them I’ll be able to complete, but it can’t hurt to try.

What are your writing goals for 2018?