goal-setting-feature

Hey folks,

Early last year, I made some goals for myself in regards to my writing. I want to take some time to look over those goals and see how I did. In doing so, perhaps I can make some more goals for this year!

Here they are:

Finish my novel
Finish two short stories
Writing a draft of my graphic novel
Write and produce 1 radio play
Write 500 words a day, 6 days a week.

Let’s see how I did:

Finish my novel:

Nope. I continued to work on it, and we are now nearing the climax of the story, but I was not able to finish.

Finish two short stories:

Again, not this year. I started a couple of stories, and read one of my old ones at a public reading, but I have not been able to finish any shorts this year.

Write a draft of my graphic novel:

This plan kind of changed over the course of the year. Instead of a single issue graphic novel, I’ve decided to produce this book as a four-part miniseries. The first issue is written, I have an artist interested, and we may go into production soon. I’ll give this one a half.

Write and produce 1 radio play:

I wish. I have a lot of plans for this project, but they haven’t come through yet. I had also intended to use the radio play format for our Christmas services this year, but that changed into something else as well.

Write 500 words a day, 6 days a week:

I don’t know what I was thinking when I thought I could do this. At this point in my life, finding the time to write consistently for at least 1/2 hour a day is pretty hard. To be honest, I could possibly do it, but its not really a high enough priority to make it happen. That’s life sometimes.

So, with perhaps 0.5/5 completed, am I discouraged? Not at all. Let’s take a look at what I actually accomplished with my writing this year.

I wrote 9 blog posts. Not my best, but it’s a start.

I wrote, directed, and shot 9 monologues for our Good Friday services. This was a project we had wanted to do for years, so it felt very good to have it finally come together.

I wrote, directed, and acted in 1 small drama for a sermon illustration.

I wrote, directed, and acted in 1 short play on human trafficking in Calgary as part of an awareness campaign that should be starting up this year.

I wrote 2 poems. Well, 1 of them I co-wrote with my boss as part of one of our services.

I wrote 4 short pieces on Advent, one for each week leading up to Christmas.

I wrote 3 short videos for our Advent series (that’s where the radio play thing was going to go, but it morphed into videos).

I wrote and directed our Family Service, which focuses on engaging kids with the Christmas message.

Finally, I wrote, directed, and acted in our Christmas Eve Service. Christmas is a big time for me, both emotionally (I love Christmas), and with work-load.

So, looking back on all of this, I would say that I’ve had a fairly successful year as a writer. In January, I was very focused on side projects I wanted to pursue, but with family, health, and work to deal with, I had to narrow my focus to mainly the jobs I was being paid for.

I encourage you to look back over your past year with a  little scrutiny. What did you want to accomplish in 2016? Where did you succeed? Where did your goals need to change to match your life circumstances? Where can you focus your energy this year coming up?

Let me know how your year went!

Blessings