New Year, New Dreams

Oh, look, 2017 is over. Imagine that.

I now greet you from the amazing FUTURISTIC YEAR 2018. (Seriously though, who gave that number permission? I swear it’s still 2013…)

I’ll get to some quick writerly highlights of 2017 in a minute, but first…

Now is about the correct time to list goals and resolutions for the year.

But they’re funny things, goals.

They are things to mark off, and every moment spent NOT marking them off (other than moments spent actively working toward them, of course) can be seen as a failure… (Or is that just me? *cough*)

Which means that most of the time, goals can leave a person deciding to throw in the towel and move to the Alps to live with the goats instead.

(And don’t get me started on Resolutions, because those can be even worse. The second you break one: NOPE, DONE.)

Dreams, though… Dreams are different.

Dreams, you’re allowed to — well — dream them. And yes, you work toward them if/when you can, but they’re something more elusive; maybe they happen and maybe they don’t; maybe they’re out of your control but you can hope anyway; and maybe, just maybe, one day they’ll come true… especially if you work on them.

Dreams are less guilt-oriented and less of a rigid To Do List You Must Mark Off Or Else You Are Not A Decent Human And It’s Alps And Goats For You. (Don’t ask about the analogy, just… yeah, just roll with it.)

That’s why, here at the start of 2018, instead of resolutions or goals, I’m going to share some of my writerly dreams.

2018 Writer Dreams

• Finish another novel. Not particularly picky as to which one, though The Siren and the Skyship would be my first choice at the moment.
• Finish the short stories I started. (The Treasure of A Distant Storm, The Tangled Thicket of Perilous Perrifeld, Hairdo Havoc.)
• Stop getting hung up on perfection and not-starting and just WRITE A LOT.
• Which also means not getting distracted or letting other things get in the way of actually letting myself have some writing time. (This is harder than you might think.)
• Start a newsletter. (Is this a terrible or awesome idea? Please advise!)
• Start Instagramming. (I actually have one, I just… can’t post there yet because you need a smartphone to do so. *cough*)
• Start a Facebook page. (Shocking, I know…)
• Set up my official website. Which I’ve only been meaning to do forever. (Don’t worry, this blog and my book blog aren’t going anywhere! I’d just like a central hub, is all. Because #professional. And because — let’s be honest — MORE PRETTY WEBSITES!)
• Get a crystal fox from The Last Jedi for a pet. (Wait, what? How did THAT show up on my writing dream list? O_O Ahem. Moving on…)
• Spend more time with the stories and characters I love most. Like Tare and co., The Other Half of Everything, and The Siren and the Skyship. Speaking of which…

• Develop the sequels to The Siren and the Skyship. (Yes, it’s a trilogy now. Yes, I know I haven’t finished the first one. Yes, there are more fairytales, though I’m not 100% as to which. Yes, I’m insane. Shush.)
• Get my freelance proofreading/copyediting business off the ground. (This is the part where I get annoying and actually *gasp* market my services, and say: “Does anyone need a book edited? I love catching typos! I’m good at it, too!” But I’ll skip that part, because it’s boring. XD Oh, wait…)
• Be more open about my writing dreams and thoughts on my blog. Wait, what? Isn’t that what this post is about? Well, yes. I’m not saying I’m not open and honest on this blog, because I am. But I’m somewhat of a shy, introspective person, and I was realizing I don’t actually share about things that really MATTER to me and are important to me, like my deeper struggles about publishing and writing and all of those goals and things. Would anyone care, I wonder? Is it only me? Sometimes I don’t share my writing goals because I’m afraid of failing; because, somehow, I expect to fail — and I need to stop that. So being more open with you, my lovely readers, might be a step in a better direction. Tare and I need to realize we need our Chess Club. (That’s you.) And as much as he and I like to work alone… “it’s more friendly with two.” 🙂
• Figure out what on earth I plan to do about publishing, because I’m dreadfully confused and have been for years now. I think I’m pinning down some of what’s going on with my struggle, but it hasn’t shown the answer yet. I should probably post about this…
• Speaking of: Write more awesome blog posts. And have a giveaway or two, because those are fun. And basically continue (hopefully) epicness and keep all involved happy. (Everyone: me, you, and the pixel-fairies who carry the words between us across the tangled web of internet. No idea where that came from. It must be getting late, y’all.)
• Gather all the info I’ve accumulated over the years about publishing and marketing and make a sort of list of said tips. Because I feel like I know and have learned SO MANY THINGS, and would kind of like to see how much there is.
• Get closer to publishing something, somehow.
• (And… while I’m dreaming — hey, why not a really big one that I have no idea if it’s even feasible?) I would love to be able to go to Realm Makers this year. 😉 No idea if it could even happen, but it would be nice!

(My inner editor is squirming about that missing comma before “darling.” Unfortunately, my editing does not extend to gifs… Also, yes, I went from Tangled to Inception; problem? I have wide tastes. XD)

2017 Writing Highlights

• Wrote a total of 86,000 words.
• Wrote 5 short stories (Wintertale, A Tale of Two Boxes, a Kedran’s Wood “fanfiction” for myself and Lauri, Invisible Beauty, and Tare and the Puppies) — 3 of which I shared online! *shocking*
• Started two other short stories (The Treasure of A Distant Storm, and The Tangled Thicket of Perilous Perrifeld. Wow, their titles are almost short stories in themselves…)
• I hardly ever write short stories, so working on 7 this year has been very interesting.

• Some work on Kedran’s Wood 2 (which is getting long and rambly and unwieldy; I should do something about that).
• Also dibs and dabs of The Other Half of Everything, which is at around 15K words, despite not having a complete chapter written. XD (Writing things out of order and only when you’re 110% inspired is fascinating. If I ever get it done, it’s going to be the most awesome book ever, is all I’m saying.)

• Started The Siren and the Skyship (and got maybe halfway).
• So many plot ideas and lightbulb inspiration moments and restructuring of various books and series. There’s a lot going on in the fictional worlds inside my head, lately! I’M SO EXCITED.
• Met with many amazing writer friends throughout the year. It’s been incredible! ❤
• Participated in my 8th NaNoWriMo (as well as two Camp NaNo sessions, even though I didn’t plan on either. XD) and won.
• Was an ML for my NaNo region for the 5th time, and ran a writing group sometimes.

• Was in print for the first time! (Okay, not really… I was in a print copy of the collected Tales from a Modern Bard stories from that blog, which just the authors got copies of. But I did get to hold in my hands something with a story of mine printed in it! Thanks to Hazel!)
• Got my first fan-art from the lovely Skye! (Thank you! ❤ )
• Did lots of beta-reading and editing and such.
• Built the Vintage Jane Austen website — such a joy to work with these talented authors! It’s been beautiful seeing this series release into the world this last year!
• Was part of the second annual SilmAwards!
• Announced my freelancing services.
• Wrote more or less 50,000 words of book reviews this year. (Er… yeah… I write them in Scrivener and it tells me I’m pretty close to that, and I know I wrote some I didn’t put in there, so… yeah, more or less. Plus other blog posts, so who KNOWS how much of that there’s been. No wonder I don’t write as much fiction as I used to! O_O It’s been fun, though!)
• Started a bullet journal. (Not super writerly, but it does keep me vaguely organized. I’m so excited to be starting a new one for the New Year today! The blue journal pictured in the header image of this post.)
• Wrote in my writer’s journal every week this year. (Wow! o.o)
• Posted 50 posts here on The Road of a Writer, and 66 posts on The Page Dreamer.
• I’m positive I’m missing something EXTREMELY important, but this will have to do. XD

I’ll be sharing my top 15 favorite books I read in 2017, on my book blog soon, so watch out for that!

So, there you have my 2017 and a look forward to this new (futuristic *coughcough*) year of 2018!

And as I type this on New Year’s Eve, there’s snow on the ground outside, which is practically unheard of around here…

So you see, dreams do come true.

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Happy New Year, my beloved Roadlings! May you have a most glorious and fantastic one indeed! ❤

How was your 2017 and what are some of your dreams for this year?