Writing Goals for 2014

It’s that time of the year again. The time when everyone makes New Year’s Resolutions. Some doable, some absolutely impossible. Because I like to torment myself, I wanted to come up with some writing goals for 2014 as well. I don’t like to call them resolutions – goals sound more definite, like something you have to do. So here are my writing goals for 2014. Feel free to reply with your own goals, or like to your own writing goals post.

1. Meet my writing deadlines. This is the most important goal, of course. I have four writing deadlines waiting for me in 2014 (so far). Three of those are for the next three books in the Weirdville series, and the last one is for a picture book. I’m not always that good at meeting my deadlines, but I plan to meet them in 2014.
2. Write three more chapter books in the Weirdville series. Since these are already planned, and I have clear ideas for all of them, I want to write three more books in the Weirdville series next year. Tentative titles are: “Drowning in Fear”, “The Clumsy Magician” and “Grave Error”.
3. Finish edits for three of my YA novels. I’m not good at self-editing. I never quite find the energy to do so. When I’m writing a first draft, or even a revision, I feel this overwhelming need to get the story out, but once that’s done, the need disappears, and I have no more energy for editing. So now I’m stuck with three novels that I think have good stories, but are in desperate need of a few rounds of editing.
4. Finish the first draft of Monster Hotel. I’m working on a MG novel “Monster Hotel”. It’s kind of my dream project, but so far, no luck in writing it. I get stuck halfway through, and I’ve had so many troubles with this manuscript I even thought about burning it. But I managed to come up with a clear outline, and 2014 will be there year I finish the first draft of this book. That’s an absolute must.
5. Edit Monster Hotel. In an ideal world, I want to edit and query “Monster Hotel”, and have it find a home in 2014 as well.
6. Query “Soul Thief”. “Soul Thief” is my baby. It’s a YA paranormal romance novel, and the one I’ve been working on since forever. I feel like now it’s finally ready to be out in the world, and I want to find it a good home in 2014.
7. Write a YA novella. There’s an idea for a YA novella series, tentatively called “Gatekeeper”, which has been tormenting me for a few months now. I want to start this project, and write at least one novella in the series during the next year.
8. Write two first drafts for YA novels. In an ideal world, if “Soul Thief” gets picked up, at least one of these would be the sequel to “Soul Thief”. Either way, I want to finish two drafts for YA novels. I won’t specify which ones in case I change my mind, but I have a few ideas.
9. Make a visual novel game. I love visual novel games – the kind of games where there’s a lot of story and background, and you have several different endings depending on the choices you make. I want to make a visual novel game next year, and if that’s succesful, maybe more than one.
10. Write a horror novella. While I love writing for children, every now and then, I want to write for adults as well. So next year I’m hoping to write at least one horror novella for adults, edit it, and hopefully start querying it.

So, what are your goals for 2014?