With a new year comes new opportunities and a fresh start that will (hopefully) lead to good things. It’s also a good time to start motivating oneself to break bad habits and form better habits. I know my biggest bad habit is not allowing myself time for the people and things that make me happy and are important to me, so that is probably the biggest bad habit I want to break in 2017.

At the beginning of 2016 I made a long list of goals, both writing and personal, and I didn’t achieve of them. Looking back, I think I was being too unrealistic and because the list was so long, it overwhelmed, and when I’m feeling overwhelmed I accomplish nothing! So for 2017, I’m keeping my goal list shorter and hopefully more realistic. I feel that if I don’t overwhelm myself I’ll have a better chance of achieving all my goals.

So here are my 5 writing goals for 2017-

1. I want to add a minimum of 120 new followers to this blog. I feel my best bet for achieving this goal is to have a regular schedule for posts, to use tags and categories more, and to make connections in the blogging community.
2. I have been working on my novel on and off for awhile and I want 2017 to be the year I completely complete it. 2017 will be the year of Omega!
3. To go along with #2, I want to either self-publish Omega or turn it into an e-Book. I’m not sure how to go about doing either, so I know I will need to do research on both and then figure out which method will be the best one for me. So if anyone has any good site, book, or people to talk to recommendations to help get me started, I’d appreciate it because I want to make sure I know what I’m doing without any doubt.
4. After completely completing Omega, I want to have a completed first draft for the sequel Beta. I started writing pieces of it last year, but that was maybe about 10 or so pages.
5. I would like to start doing some freelancing writing to help build up my wiring portfolio, credibility, and to make some extra cash doing something that is important to me. I’ve let my retail job get in the way too much and even though I like it, my heart isn’t in it and neither is my future. My heart and my future are in writing and being a writer.

I’ve also decided for 2017 to have 2 days set aside every week for posting new blog entries. So far I only have Sunday as a set day because I’m not sure what my course schedule for school will look like yet! I will hopefully know that this week because school is starting soon and I’m getting closer to finishing my degree!

So that’s my plan for 2017. What goals have all of you made for 2017? I would love to hear them!

Wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year! Let’s make 2017 an awesome year!