2023 Wrap Up and 2024 Goals

Tabatha

Jan 2

Full disclosure: I've already done a lot of analyzing and processing of this information on my end here as I prepped for what I wanted my 2024 goals to look like. I'm at the end of the notebook I've been using to track progress for a few years now and starting a BRAND NEW ONE, so that required a lot of thinking and planning to decide how best to use it.

But, let's look at my 2023 statistics.

Published 3 books
- How to Schedule a Death (Adult Thriller)
- Kingdom of Fraun (YA Fantasy series, previously published as 4 separate books)
- Tin's Tale and Other Stories of Fraun (YA Fantasy anthology)
- Check those out in the store
Wrote 80,769 words (not my best year)
- 13,635 in the idea journal where I brainstorm and flush out ideas
- 39,368 on book reviews
- 9,529 in blog posts or newsletters
- 7,062 on the Apocalypse Project (which was basically just taking the idea BACK to the outline phase AGAIN to try and fix the issues coming up)
- 11,940 on the short story anthology
Edited 321 chapters
- Most of this was done in the first half of the year in preparation for the book releases, obviously.

When it came to looking at all of this, I had a few notes for myself.

This isn't enough words. At all. There's no "right number" of words, obviously. Every writer, project, and year is different. But at the end of the year, looking back, my first thought was that it was not enough for me and where I want to be. I can do better. I want to do better.
The writing slowing down means I've left myself in a bad spot for publishing in 2024. Other than 2020, which had its own challenges, I have published 2 books per year since I started publishing. This is because I've always had things in various stages, which is still true. However, I've left myself a serious lack of completed works that are close to publication for 2024. Looking at my own schedule, I may have backed myself into a 1 book release year.
2023 was a year when I told myself I wasn't going to throw myself into overdrive and stick to a hard and fast pace. I tend to burn myself out if I go too hard for too long. At the end of 2022 I took a look at all the things I was beating myself up for not doing and decided it was too much. I needed to step back and take things easy. I needed to keep those expectations more manageable. It worked, I think. I was less stressed and enjoying things again. No regrets. But 2024 will need to be about balance.

2024 Goals

Keeping that in mind, I decided I wanted to focus on individual projects more in 2024. The idea journal should get love, but it shouldn't be where I'm putting most of my words for a year. I want to remind myself, visually, of the projects that I've already started and push those onward. My hope is that seeing the work I've already put in will keep me focused on moving forward. So, I dedicated the first section of my new journal to individual projects.

Short Story Collection, which is where I'm starting 2024. This has been an idea since 2021. As I mentioned, if I can't see the physical progress of something, I tend to forget about it. In 2021 I picked a few stories but abandoned the idea because I didn't have a cohesive theme. Then I forgot about it. As you can see, putting a little effort into this collection at the end of 2022 helped me make progress. I've picked the theme, the 10 stories that will support the theme, and completed the first 4 drafts. I'm planning to focus on the drafts in 2024.

YA Contemporary. This has been fully drafted for quite some time. I did a full edit on it probably in 2022, honestly. I have pages of notes but it hasn't had time or attention put into it in awhile. Likely that's because the pages of notes I have indicate big changes or problems that I've been scared to face. Hopefully, seeing this adorable pink page full of progress that's already gone into it will help me change that in 2024.

The Romance. This is the oldest and roughest story in my drafted collection. I love it (at least parts of it) but I already know it will be basically a full rewrite when I sit down to it. I think that's why it's sat for so long. But it's a valid project and it's worth saving. That's what I've decided.

My poor baby, the Apocalypse Project. I decided to give it a page literally just to convince myself not to give up on it. This little guy has been outlined three times in three different ways. A rough draft has been started at least twice. I just can't seem to get the kinks out enough to keep moving through the draft. I know there's a problem somewhere with the story but I just can't seem to find it. This was my way of promising the project that I'm not giving up. I will make it past the hiccups.

The final project page (for now) belongs to the Slasher WIP. This one was a NaNo project in 2022, I think. It's fully drafted. This is probably the only one of the projects that's really on track and just following my process. I always let a WIP sit before I attempt the first round of edits. Admittedly, that's not normally for an entire year … but it's been a weird few years. I have a feeling this one will make itself the next project soon, probably after I finish drafting the short stories. I can already feel it bubbling back to the surface of my brain. This one wants to be the focus project again.

Those are my project pages.

They're going to be the way that I watch myself make progress on each project as the year moves on. This idea was sort of borrowed from my blank 2023 goals page. But, I knew those wouldn't be enough on their own. So, in 2024 I'm also using monthly tracker pages (like I've always done) with a new format.

As you can see, I plan to notate what project pages I updated and how many total words I wrote. I also plan to leave myself a blank section to record some individual monthly goals. Then, I'll use the opposing page to track progress on those goals.

For the case of January, that goal was pretty obvious based on my notes about how 2023 went. I wanted to write every single day. So, I drew myself 31 little empty champagne glasses. Each day, I will write on a project and color in the champagne glass. You may notice there's no word requirement for each day. That's because I don't want to focus on how many words I write. I just want to get back into the habit of writing something every day. I'm hoping I'm able to do it.

So that's my writing trackers and writing goals for 2024.

Track each individual project so I can watch them grow and get closer to completion.
Track progress each month. Try to write something every day!

Wish me luck!

Note: for 2023 reading stats and reading goals for 2024, make sure you're following alltherightreads.com where I'll be moving all that reading content!