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2026 Goals - The Next 12 Months

2026 Goals


Realistically based on my past performances, I'm carrying forward the two main goals. I tend to grossly underestimate the time given, and overload myself. It makes me feel productive to have many goals. :) Anyway, I've been carrying over my goals from 2023 where stretch became actual. Without further ado.

Finish my main novel-in-progress book 2: This needs more draft passes than I am willing to admit, but I'm working on being realistic and seeing how much effort things take me. Draft passes, then editorial-copyediting/proofreading-which can take up to 3 months, cover design and all that. I rarely consider those steps in my goals.

Publish my novella: I want to do this in January but I'm thinking of reader magnets and all that stuff. It was a world to sharpen my 'commercial' writing skills. I have three shorts associated with it. If I do write those, it may be delayed. Am I going to put them on my PadlockStack (Substack) or blog or some reader magnet?

I'm tempted to put down a stretch target but based on my history, I shall put them as optional. I just like setting goals, and buying planners and all that stuff. It makes me feel productive and organised as I said above.

Added Additional 'optional/stretch' goals


I couldn't resist :) so I'm back again. I’ve been doing this for years so just having two goals, even if based on my past performance, feels a bit empty. I’m adding optional/stretch goals.

I watched a video about learning, applying and building on that knowledge so I've decided to take stock and do a review and declutter and consolidate where needed. This may be a difficult one since as a learner, I tend to hoard and squirrel away information or material then move on to the next learning adventure with little practice or review.

Review romance conference material: During the pandemic, I took the opportunity to attend some long-time dream conferences, and though I enjoyed them, I was busy writing a novel so didn't review or look at the material. I attended most sessions but just hoarded the material. target: 10 workshops

Review Jericho conference material - again this was really affordable but I just added, collected material and that was that. target: 10 workshops

Review & consolidate other writing information on Google drive target: 30 docs

Genre exploration I've been thinking of pivoting from Romance so I want to write four to five mystery/suspense short stories. target: 4 short stories

Watching Instructional videos: I've had a subscription for three years running to a course platform and haven't looked at any of the videos so I'm going to do that. Target: complete the courses

Complete LinkedIn Learning course - I forgot to cancel my subscription so I might as well. Some of the courses are so boring, I'm running on double speed. But then again gotta look professional and talk the talk, Confuse people with jargon. There are some definitions and concepts that blow me away that I need to pause the video and reconcile it to years of practice. target: 30 minutes a week

The cover design course: Do the difficult project. Not sure where I’m going with this or if I’m just going to buy covers. target: 3 covers from the course

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