New Years Resolutions/Annual Writing Goals

@gideonpsmith Thanks for checking in, Gideon, and for the gentle nudge as we approach the end of the year. My BIG goal this year was to publish my anthology. I'm pleased to report the manuscript is currently with an editor, and I am on schedule to launch that sucker in October as planned, just in time for Halloween!

I'll also (likely) have a short story submission for the contest for Q4, although that really depends how much work I still need when the edits come back.

Thanks for the prompt and reminder @gideonpsmith  

2026 Goals

• Submit a new story to the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest (already achieved but it was one of my goals so...I'm sticking it down so I can achieve at least one this year!). Achieved! And I made finalist! I'm trying to find a home for this story, which has had some nice personal rejections from pro magazines but just can't get over the sales line yet.
• Submit a new story to the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award. Achieved! Alas, it did not place, but my entry is currently on hold at a cool magazine so I have my fingers crossed it'll find a home there.
• Sell at least one story and get paid for it (bonus point for pro-rate sale). Achieved! I have sold two stories this year, one at a pro-rate. I'll be sure to update the "Success" thread when both are published. Both anthologies are due out later this year.
• FINALLY finish first draft of novel (I'm at 10k words but contemplating POV shift which would necessitate a rewrite). Nope! My youngest child arrived before Christmas (3 kids 6 and under), so I'm finding it hard to find time to write and getting stuck into the detail of a novel is proving very difficult. I think I am going to focus on short fiction for the next year or so and re-evaluate next year.

@ease upon skimming through this thread I just realised that I did not respond to your question about why I think I didn't write a novel last year. My excuse for this year is above 😂 But last year...I think some of it was feeling intimidated and a bit overwhelmed at the thought of writing something so long, and fear of rejection at spending a year or more writing something for it not to go anywhere. I truly hope once I have one novel written it will break that mental block. As for fear of rejection, I am still sending out short stories I first wrote several years ago so I should know by now that that fear is a loaf of rubbish! Hope you are well, mate.

Posted by: @morgan-broadhead

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My BIG goal this year was to publish my anthology. I'm pleased to report the manuscript is currently with an editor, and I am on schedule to launch that sucker in October as planned, just in time for Halloween!

This is awesome news! How exciting. Keep us all posted

@joel-c-scoberg Thanks, Joel. I definitely will! This is a collection of short stories that mostly all received personal rejections from pro magazines but never quite made it to publication. I finally decided to publish them myself. Down with the gatekeepers!

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Just a quick remind we are just over halfway done with 2026. How are you doing on your goals? Have you reached any? Had to refine any? If you don't feel like posting no worries, let this serve just as a reminder, but would love to know how everyone's doing.

2026 goals:

• Spend more time with my family - Moving along nicely
• Submit a story each quarter to WotF - So far, so good. Finishing draft for Q4
• Achieve a semi-finalist, or higher, certificate from WotF - Not yet this year, but fingers crossed
  • Of course, winning Writers of the Future (Place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd) counts  - Not yet, but fingers crossed
• Submit previous WotF HM+ stories to other markets - WofT HM received an HM ad was published in On The Premises 46th short story contest, 1st Place and 3rd place awards achieved in Southeastern Writers Association contest 
• Have at least one story published and receive semi-professional payment - Yes On The Premises 46th short story contest (Read published HTML version at https://onthepremises.com/issues/issue-46/issue-46-honor3/  )
• Have at least one story published and receive professional payment - Not yet, but fingers crossed
• Continue a novel I've started (horror or sword and sorcery) - No progress on this one

2026 Annual Goals

1. Submit the novel.   On track.  Currently 57% of the way through my "final" draft.  I should get to around 70% by the end of August, when I'll take a month for my Q4, then resume with the goal to be ready to do something with it around Thanksgiving.
2. One pro sale.  Not yet.  It doesn't help that I sold my best stories to token payment sites before I had the courage to begin submitting to pro sites.  Also, the AI policies of some  prominent pro sites are holding me back since they prohibit all AI use.  I don't use AI to write, I don't use it to edit, but I often write hard sci-fi, and I use it to guide my research.  Is that banned?
3. Be open to opportunities.  Read my children's story to two more elementary school classes, which seemed to go well.  If nothing else, I find it to be less scary now.

@chwalter Doesn't sound like it. If you search for answers on the internet and find answers (which now seems to collectively be called AI) then you're fine. If you ask Claude two write a story given your parameters, you're not. 

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I don't see that I put up any 2026 goals. I was afraid I did and it said "Read a book" which would be pretty lame. Not sure no goals is any better. 😊 

I'm currently finishing a side project (not as exciting as it sounds), then will get back into writing new words. And outlining. I'm certain I'm stuck because I need to do back-end stuff and I'm not. 

So my goal for the end of the year is to be at 50,000 "proper" words for my WiP. Not just more words, but figure these people out, edit them in properly, add more jokes, and get to 50k. 

If I can do that by the end of the year I believe momentum will carry this story to the finish line. Looks like it may be a longer one at 90k, but that's just a guess for now.

Posted by: @morgan-broadhead

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@gideonpsmith Thanks for checking in, Gideon, and for the gentle nudge as we approach the end of the year. My BIG goal this year was to publish my anthology. I'm pleased to report the manuscript is currently with an editor, and I am on schedule to launch that sucker in October as planned, just in time for Halloween!

I'll also (likely) have a short story submission for the contest for Q4, although that really depends how much work I still need when the edits come back.

Thats awesome @morgan-broadhead - what kind of edit stage is it at? I assume this is copyediting rather than developmental if these have all already had positive personals? You'll have to do a mega-post and walk us through the process when it's all said and done

@joel-c-scoberg Wow! Given the arrival of one more Scoberg to the nest, that's one impressive year!! Where was the pro sale? I wouldn't give up on the novel yet.  Still 5 months to go 😉 (though I admit with a new born in the house *I* probably wouldnt get a new novel done lol)

@toddsjones Ambitious set of goals - and amazing you've made progress on so many different fronts! Congrats! Thing that surprised me most was the Southeastern Writers Association contest placement as I had it in my head you lived in Michigan..?? Or is it attached to a convention rather than residency? Either way - again, congrats!!

Posted by: @chwalter

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2026 Annual Goals

1. Submit the novel.   On track.  Currently 57% of the way through my "final" draft.  I should get to around 70% by the end of August, when I'll take a month for my Q4, then resume with the goal to be ready to do something with it around Thanksgiving.
2. One pro sale.  Not yet.  It doesn't help that I sold my best stories to token payment sites before I had the courage to begin submitting to pro sites.  Also, the AI policies of some  prominent pro sites are holding me back since they prohibit all AI use.  I don't use AI to write, I don't use it to edit, but I often write hard sci-fi, and I use it to guide my research.  Is that banned?
3. Be open to opportunities.  Read my children's story to two more elementary school classes, which seemed to go well.  If nothing else, I find it to be less scary now.

I'm impressed by your tracking that you know you are at 57% (and equally that you are at 57% of the final draft!)I've never known quite how to track longer projects. Wordcounts never seem adequae as I can add 100 words of worldbuilding at the same time as cutting 100 unnesessary adverbs so just end up with the same word count. TBH I think #3 sounds the most scary and therefore most impressive thing in this entire thread - I would be so nervous of my kids freaking out about it. Probably good practice for panelist at Worldcon - if you can handle elementary school, a scifi fan audience should be a cake walk

Posted by: @tj_knight

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I was afraid I did and it said "Read a book" which would be pretty lame. Not sure no goals is any better. 😊 

 

Prize for perhaps the funniest goal of 2026 🤣 

But I like the solid plan for the next 50k of your own book  👍 👍 

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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@toddsjones Ambitious set of goals - and amazing you've made progress on so many different fronts! Congrats! Thing that surprised me most was the Southeastern Writers Association contest placement as I had it in my head you lived in Michigan..?? Or is it attached to a convention rather than residency? Either way - again, congrats!!

Thank you for your continued encouragement. I'm pushing for that first professional sale.

I'm in Michigan most of the year, but just turned 55 (augh) and bought a vacation place in a small 55+ community in Florida (double-wide trailer that is nothing special).

SWA is out of Georgia and they have an annual event ( https://www.southeasternwritersassociation.org/). I learned about them last year when Wulf Moon was the guest speaker. 

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Thats awesome @morgan-broadhead - what kind of edit stage is it at? I assume this is copyediting rather than developmental if these have all already had positive personals? You'll have to do a mega-post and walk us through the process when it's all said and done

 

You got it! These are final copy/line edits. It's been a learning experience, that is for sure.

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @tj_knight

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I was afraid I did and it said "Read a book" which would be pretty lame. Not sure no goals is any better. 😊 

Prize for perhaps the funniest goal of 2026 🤣 

But I like the solid plan for the next 50k of your own book  👍 👍 

Whoa, whoa, slow down Gideon. I meant 50k as a goal. I'm sitting at 32k. 
50k new is way too much pressure! 

@gideonpsmith Nowhere near most of them.

1. Finish a novel

I started my new novel at the beginning of the year, but got horrendously stuck at around 10k words. So after a few weeks/month of thinking about it, I decided to put this novel into the "drawer" for the time being and try out my luck with another unfinished novel that's been sitting in my Google Drive for years. I'm currently about 17-18k words in out of what looks like a 100 - 120k project. 

2. Revising my first novel

Didn't start yet. I would actually be happy if I could at least start by November/December. ButI am going to consider this one a success even if I won't finish the second draft by the end of the year.

3. Have a short story published/have at least 5 short stories (or novelettes) in circulation.

I'm currently trying to finish the first draft for my next WotF entry, so that's my main project for now, and I like this one a lot. I have three stories finished, but the only one that is in circulation is my entry for this quarter. Also, I got some rejections recently (my S-F story from here got rejected by Dream Foundry). I'm focusing on finishing the fourth story and finding markets for the others.

4. Finish a novella

Did not start, and I highly doubt I will be able to do this one. Although it would be cool.

@haganenoedward you're sitting, you're writing, and you're submitting, so I definitely still see this as a win! That's the exact set of activities that define 'writer'. I also admired he ambitious goals. Nothing wrong with 'stretch goals' as long as they are motivational rather than demoralizing If you had to write the goals for the end of the year now, what would they be? Revise first novel and submit WOTF? those would still be awesome achivements!

I'm curious about the novels - are they all in one genre? Sometimes I find it helpful to switch genres between short and long form writing just to keep my interest/brain active, but always interested to hear about other people's processes!

@gideonpsmith 

Now the main goal is to have at least 5 stories in circulation. And maybe to have like 60-70k words written in a novel. 

And one of the novels is a one-person POV military-ish sci-fi action that, although written in the present tense, is supposed to be a flashback/backstory to one of my MCs in my first novel. And the issue here is that I got too used to pantsing now, so I don't have any outline. And while I know the emotional beats and scenes I want to hit regarding character development (and I already know the ending), I am having trouble with a very important B-plot mailny because I did not think that one through before I started writing.

The second one (aka the one I'm currently writing) is more of an epic fantasy with spy elements, and it's specifically to see if I can handle a proper multi-POV narrative that is above 100k (my first novel is also multi-POV, but there I follow one story, while here each character has semi-separate storylines).

I'm impressed by your tracking that you know you are at 57% (and equally that you are at 57% of the final draft!)

Well, it's from the word count of the current draft and that remaining untouched from the last draft.  I suspect the last section will get bigger, so my current 59% is a slight overstatement.

Thanks @gideonpsmith

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Where was the pro sale?

The sale was to the upcoming anthology, 'WERE-2', by Zombies Need Brains. It's coming out later this year and I'm really excited to be a part of it.

Posted by: @joel-c-scoberg

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The sale was to the upcoming anthology, 'WERE-2', by Zombies Need Brains. It's coming out later this year and I'm really excited to be a part of it.

Awesome news. Remember to share the link to read/purchase.

Posted by: @joel-c-scoberg

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Thanks @gideonpsmith

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Where was the pro sale?

The sale was to the upcoming anthology, 'WERE-2', by Zombies Need Brains. It's coming out later this year and I'm really excited to be a part of it.

You should be excited, Joel! That’s a legit respectable market and pro sale! Joshua is great to work with. And you get royalty share on top of pro pay! Lots of pro writers submit to these. 

Congratulations!!! This further establishes what I’ve already seen—you’re a great writer. Enjoy the success!👏✍️🚀

2026 Goals

1. Beat my 2025 submissions total of 69 (41 stories, 28 poems) by the end of June 2026, then set a goal for the rest of the year. DONE (new goal is an extra 50 by the end of the year)
2. Enter WotF each quarter with at least 2 of those stories being new and of at least 2,000 words. ON TRACK
3. Write at least 8 new flash fictions and at least 4 microfictions (including drabbles). ON TRACK (already written 8 new flash)
4. Edit at least 4 old stories into submission circulation. (ON TRACK)
5. Edit at least 5 old poems into submission circulation. (NOT QUITE)
6. Write at least 3 new speculative poems. (NOPE)
7. Find a critique partner to swap speculative poetry with (is there anyone out there?). (NOPE)
8. Update my website's homepage to include my latest writing publication. (NOPE)
9. Send a second email newsletter, and another if I have publication news to share. (NOPE)
10. Complete/watch at least two of the writing workshops I've paid for (I almost forgot about these, so this is my post's edit). (ON TRACK)

A would-be-nice that's out of my control assuming I keep submitting:

1. Sell a second story at professional rates or thereabouts and/or place top 3 in WotF. (NOPE)

So the poetry has fallen by the wayside.

I'll probably leave the website update and newsletter till Gideon reminds us in December.  

Posted by: @wulfmoon

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You should be excited, Joel! That’s a legit respectable market and pro sale! Joshua is great to work with. And you get royalty share on top of pro pay! Lots of pro writers submit to these. 

Congratulations!!! This further establishes what I’ve already seen—you’re a great writer. Enjoy the success!✍️

Thank you, that means a lot coming from you. The TOC has got some seriously distinguished writers so I am just thrilled my story was selected. And you're right, Joshua has been great to work with. I'm still pinching myself a bit and I can't wait for it to go live.

I've got nothing to explain my absence, except I've been away from the forums for a while because life. Good to hear about all the work people have been putting in! Here's my status update. 

• Revise novelette to submit to WOTF. No particular quarter in mind for a deadline, to allow for multiple revisions as needed. 

I finished one revision, but it needs at least one more focused on characterization before I send it out to beta readers. 

• Polish short story for a different contest

Done and "7 Reasons Nursery is the Best Calling" was a finalist in the Mormon Lit Blitz, and I got a semi-pro payment. 

• Rehaul extremely niche short story for niche market. 

I've started work on this, but it's taken a backseat for the moment. 

• Produce 2 videos/podcasts of me narrating previously published stories (semi-professional payments, so don't count towards disqualification for WOTF)

I did not produce 2 podcast episodes. I produced 4, with another one planned for December. It's called Lemmon Literature for anyone that wants to check it out. 

• Take video editing course to learn how to create above videos. 

I made it through 9 out of 10 lessons for the guide I'm following.

Overall, pretty good. 

@reigheena woah! I listened to the Lemmon Literature reading - you are great! As someone who has had to do readings I will say it is WAY harder than it sounds, and you are just flawlessly smooth in this. Congrats! 🍾 

I think you should post this in 'successes' thread - or even the self promo area - so that others can find it, as I fear not everyone will find it in this thread

@gideonpsmith *blush* Thank you. A lot of these stories/poems are niche, which is why I hadn't shared them much on here.