Six Month Check In With Goals - The Creative Process

SIX MONTH CHECK IN WITH GOALS

It's that time of the year again where I look back on the goals I set myself on my Authortube channel at the end of 2022, for the whole of this year. I like to check in with them because sometimes things change over the year and you realise that you've not been prepared for the way things have gone. I don't generally change goals, because I feel like even doing that, sometimes some things are just not going to happen, and that's okay!

So let's jump into those goals!

1. RELEASE INVISIBLE IN 2023
This one is on track. I'm in the midst of doing my corrections from my developmental editor right now, and should be sending it off to the line editor in August. I have a tentative release day, but that won't be announced until the cover reveal happens on July 20th on my Authortube channel. I've been loving the way the story is coming together, and how well edits have gone so far. I may be saying otherwise later though because I know there are some big changes that need to happen for it to work.

2. REVISE CRAMPING CHRONICLES: THE THIRD ACHE READY FOR PUB IN 2024
This one is also on track. I started revising this book back in November of 2022, and have been making inroads with getting it into shape. The plan is to release it next year, but we'll see how things go. I'm happy with the way Jessie's growing, happy with the way the book comes together, and how it leads into the fourth book in the series.

3. START REVISION ON TRANSLUCENT READY FOR PUB IN 2025
I plan to start this in around August time, just because I'll be fresh off the developmental edits at that point so will be able to weave things into the plot that need to be changed and also get a better idea of what kind of shape it's in. I plan to use the same sensitivity readers as I did for Invisible, so that will take a chunk of time, and I'd like to be able to spend as much time as possible on this one first.

4. FINISH CACHE OF MEMORIES & DISABILITY DETECTIVES: THE FRENCH MURDER
I've completed this one. I finished both books in March, and while Cache Of Memories ended up shorter than I plan, The French Murder finished right where I thought it would. I really loved both of these, and can't wait to dive back in to revisions at some point in the future. We'll see how it goes though, I might be taking a year or so off drafting next year so that I can spend more time in revisions, but we'll see if that happens.

5. START & FINISH VIRAL DETECTION & DISABILITY DETECTIVES: THE HISTORY THIEF
I've started both of these in April, and am loving how they're shaping up. Viral Detection is a dystopian, and it's just awesome to delve back into those kinds of stories. The History Thief is obviously the second in the Disability Detectives series and it's been nice to get to know the characters and see how they deal with things.

6. START VIRAL INFECTION & DISABILITY DETECTIVES: THE SPANISH STALKER
I obviously haven't started these yet, but I think I'm on plan to start them in around September, depending on how things go with my current projects! I am looking forward to working on both of them and it'll be interesting to see how it all comes together.

7. DO 4 COLLABS ON AUTHORTUBE
I haven't done any of these. I don't know if I will manage to get them done in the next six months, but I'm always open to collabs, maybe I might bite the bullet and think of some kind of collab so that I can reach out to people to pull this one off.

8. KEEP UP WITH WRITING LOG
This one has been easy to keep up with. I even finished my last log book after using it for about five years, and am now using a completely different one which I will probably be using for around the same amount of time, maybe longer if I take that time off drafting, but yes, so far this one has been done.

9. KEEP UP WITH AUTHORTUBE CHANNEL
Again, this is another easy one for me to manage. I love recording and sharing on youtube, and so it's been pretty smooth for me to keep up with that. I've not missed a single Thursday so far this year, and I don't foresee me doing so in the six months left!

10. TAKE TWO DAYS OFF COMPLETELY EACH MONTH
So far I have managed this. It meant that I had to shuffle things around a little some months, because they either didn't have two days, (like in Feburary with it being a shorter month) or I had other medical stuff that I had to get done so those days off wouldn't count (like in June when I had Mepo twice) but I have managed it, and am loving the extra time off!

11. KEEP UP WITH MONDAY AND FRIDAY POSTS ON BLOG
I've done this one so far as well. I write my Monday posts for the month at the tailend of the month before, and then I'm set up for it without having to scramble around and find time to get them written. My Friday posts, which have actually been just reviews so far this year, have been booked up quickly by other authors, and so I've been able to not miss a single week so far this year.

12. DO 12 SPREADS IN PLANNER
I have done every month, even switched to a new planned in June after my old one was filled, and again it's something I enjoy doing, and something that I want to keep doing over the rest of the year, and into the next one as well.

13. DO #JOWRIMOGO EVERY MONTH
This one is not going to be on my goals list next year because I feel like it's such an easy one for me to manage, that it's not really stretching myself to achieve it. It's now been about seven years since I started doing at least a page a day for every day of the month, and I hit this goal every month, without fail, so I might see about thinking up something else to go in this spot.

14. SEND 12 NEWSLETTERS
So far I've sent seven newsletters, so I'm on track to do this one as well. I send them out on the 1st of every month, and if you're ever interested in seeing things first, then you can sign up here. My newsletter isn't huge, but the people I have are good ones, and I'm going to be keeping up with this.

15. DO ADS EVERY MONTH
This one I managed until about March/April time, when I started to realise that even with all the research I'd done, I wasn't consistently getting anywhere with ads. So I didn't do them in April or May, or even June, and because of that, this one is very much a fail, but I'm okay with that. I'd like to experiment with them some more, but for now, it's definitely not something I'm going to achieve.

So there we go, those are my goals for the rest of the year, and I have to say that I think I'm doing pretty well with them. I'm hoping that the next six months show that as well!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

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