Writing Goals for 2023

Yesterday I wrote my writing goals for January, but today I thought I’d list my goals for the full year. I like to plan these quite early—I started back in November 2022—that way there are no surprises come January and I can get to work on tackling the items on the list straight away.

In addition the list below, I’ve also organized everything on my own personal paper calendar. Without both a goals list and a schedule, I can be quite scatterbrained and forgetful, so all of this will help keep me on track with what I’d like to accomplish writing-wise.

My Writing Goals for 2023

Publish the first two books in my lighthearted vampire trilogy

With any luck, the first book will be released in May, and the second will be released in October. You can preorder the first book, Fangs and Frosting, here.

Each book’s word count goal is 70,000 words (so, around 140,000 words for both), and so this is my biggest writing project for the year. That said, I’m not starting from scratch on either of these books. Both have thousands of words already written prior to the start of 2023, they have planning documents and outlines and the first one has a revision board already in use.

Still, these two books are easily the writing projects that will take up the most mental space, writing and revising time, and who knows what else for the whole of 2023.

As it stands, I’ve estimated that each book will take a total of 20 weeks (which includes drafting, revisions, beta readers, professional editing, etc), and so these two books are estimated to take up to 40 weeks of my work time for 2023.

I truly love them, though, and cannot wait to have the first two books in a series I’ve wanted to write for years and years finally out in the world.

Publish a new collection of poetry

Sometimes I think a project will be one thing (like a poetry chapbook) and while working on it, find it actually wants to be something else (a full-length poetry collection). Jellyfish is such a project. I originally estimated this collection would be around 25 poems, and now I’m imagining it closer to 80.

The more I write for this collection, the more I need to write. So, although last year I’d mentioned that this one might come out early this year, it won’t. At this time, I’m anticipating a summer release date.

Publish one novella

For years I’ve had a particular story in my head, wanting to write it, and I’ve told myself it wasn’t time. I had other projects to work on, things to finish up instead of starting something new, and I just couldn’t fit it in. But you know what? For 2023, I’m fitting this story into my schedule.

I even have the cover already made, and the story plotted out. All I need is the time to actually write the story, which per my schedule won’t be until September, but I’ll take it.

My hope is to have this story published in December, so I’ll be able to share more about it much later in the year, and I’m so, so excited to tell you everything about it.

Publish two short stories

For me, 2022 was a year of buying book covers. I cannot help my enjoyment of perusing premade book cover shops, and every now and then I become completely entranced by a design or two. Last year I bought a whopping seven premade book covers, which gives me two feelings: excitement and stress. Excitement because I only buy a book cover when I’m sure I have a story for it (often, one that’s existed in my head—or on paper in some unfinished state—for years), and stress because having the cover makes me feel like the deadline can’t come fast enough.

As with the novella above, I’m not ready to share information for one of the stories, but I can tell you the other is a Rapunzel retelling named Thorn. Here’s the cover:

Submit poetry and short stories to publications

This is, admittedly, something I haven’t done for nearly a year. I used to submit poetry and short stories to publications for consideration, but I stopped in early 2022. I have a few stories ready to go, plus a few publications in mind, so I’ll have to commit to being on submission again and get these works in front of editors. Here’s hoping I’ll end up having an unplanned publication to report by the end of the year.

There’s my list—it’s no small thing, but I truly believe it’s possible to achieve the above with enough discipline. I’ll write updates on all of the above projects throughout the year, plus share more about each book when they’re closer to publication.