Happy New Year!
It feels like an obscenely short amount of time since the last new year. It’s definitely true what they say about time going faster the older you get, but maybe I’ve noticed it more this year since it marked my 30th birthday.
Anyway, I managed to achieve a reasonable amount of my goals for 2014, and I’ve been thinking about what I want to do over the coming 12 months.
In no particular order my goals are:
To set up my office space at home
I had big plans to set up a dedicated work area in our new house, but unfortunately several expensive issues have cropped up since then, meaning my office slipped down the priorities list. But I’ve got my eye on a lovely desk and some bits and bobs to personalise the space, so I’d like to get that set up soon – once I can afford to go furniture shopping again!
To finish my book
Or at least get it to a stage where it is ready to be submitted, in the hope that I might just be able to get it published.
To be honest, this one feels quite far away at the moment, so it might be better to break it down into smaller goals, which would probably be:
- To get feedback from three or four readers
- To send my manuscript for appraisal with an editor
- To enter another three or four competitions
- To produce another draft using any feedback received
- To work on a list of agents who might be interested in my manuscript
To travel more
The last couple of years I’ve managed to have some brilliant trips and tick a couple of places off my bucket list. This year I’d like to do some more travelling, choosing specific places that I’m keen to visit, whether for the first time or not.
They might include:
- Santorini
- Amsterdam
- London
- Glasgow
- Liverpool
I’m being quite realistic with my travel goals for the year – I’d love to plan some bigger trips, but I don’t think I’ll have the budget or holiday time, so I’m keeping my plans fairly modest. Also on my radar is another trip to Iceland, but if we’re going back, I’d like to stay for longer than three days, and perhaps plan something bigger, like a road trip around the country.
To read even more
Last year’s reading challenge was quite enlightening; I actually managed to read quite a bit more than I thought I would. As my final number of books read was 68 – up from my original target of 50 – it makes sense to aim a little higher this year.
So, my goal is to read 70 books – although truthfully, I’m not sure how achievable this is. It’s quite an intimidating number and I’m a bit worried I’ll spend most of the year in a panic trying to keep up! Still, worth a go.
Within that, I’m also setting myself a few mini-targets to help diversify my reading a little:
- Read at least another 35 books from my TBR pile
- To read at least five classics, and five modern classics
- To read five or more books in translation
- To listen to my first audiobook
- To start using my local library again
To start work on book number three
I recently had an idea for my next novel and I’m quite excited about it. It’s still very much in its infancy and I’m nowhere near beginning it – I want to do more work on my current manuscript first.
But by the end of the year, I’d like to have made a start – even if that means NaNoWriMo again!
I’d love to hear about your plans for the year: if you’re a blogger and you’ve written a goals post for 2015, pop me a link in the comments and I’ll check them out.