2023 goals
Hello everyone and welcome to 2023.
Can I say I am cautiously optimistic about this year? Am I allowed to say that? Or am I jinxing it?
I have big of plans for 2023, starting with…
1 – Edit and submit stories into competitions
Last year I spent most of my time working on my next novel, The White Wasteland. While I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far, I need a break. I will return to the Wasteland in April but until then, I have nearly forty short stories and twenty pieces of flash fiction, all in various stages of completion, just sitting on my laptop.
That just won’t do at all, will it? I’ve not had anything published since 2018. That needs rectifying.
I plan to spend the first quarter of this year editing and submitting my work to various competitions. If I am longlisted, shortlisted or win, you’ll read about it here.
2 – Finish The White Wasteland
This is a follow up from last year’s target. Although I made great process I didn’t reach my goal because I kept going back and re-editing my work. I’m fairly confident that with the two hundred pages I wrote last year, I can reach the end of the manuscript by December. Hopefully sooner. The manuscript may need further edits after that but that’s okay. I just want to reach the end of the draft for now, that’s my target.
3 – Consume more media
This is the same goal as last year, the only difference being, I’m going to try to read more books rather than listen to them. Although I enjoy Audible I do miss the feel and the smell, of a paperback book. Luckily I received plenty of hardbacks for my birthday (in December) and Christmas. I’m going to keep a log of every book I’ve read on Goodreads to track my progress and to see what everyone else is reading.
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Unfortunately to achieve these goals I will have to reduce the amount of content I post on this website. Last year I missed two upload deadlines due to a mixture of work commitments and writing targets. Although I’m sure nobody noticed that the posts were a few days late, it was still irritating for me.
Although I enjoy researching and writing articles such as this, they are very time consuming. I’m not deleting this website, I’m extremely proud of all the work I’ve uploaded here over the past seven years but you can expect future updates every two or three months or so. I’ll also be incorporating footnotes into future posts which is an idea that I’ve been toying with ages 1. I only end up saying/writing a third of what I think. If you click on the number above it should take you down to any additional thoughts I have on the chosen subject or you can simply scroll down.
I’m also going to end each article with a little positive message. As you may have noticed we’re living through some dark times. Wages are low and taxes are high. So I’m going to add a little light to your world. While you’re reading my website, you’ll forget about the real world if only for a moment.
It’s the least I can do for you.
Take care and I’ll see you next time.
Additional thoughts
1- My head sometimes feels as if I have two or three separate train of thoughts simultaneously. All of these trains are running at a hundred miles per hour on interconnecting tracks and the poor drivers have no idea where they are or what they’re doing.