Goals for 2016

I really wasn’t on planning to do another post until after the holidays but I’d thought I’d write one more before the year is out. 

Writing New Year’s Resolutions hasn’t come across my mind since I was in high school. I almost never fall through with any of them but this year I have a few goals that I hope to actually accomplish in 2016.

 (This is usually how my list looks like…)

Participate in Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge

I hate social media challenges. They’re annoying and I’ll constantly see buzz about it on my feed across all my profiles, but I think the Read Harder Challenge is a great opportunity for me to incorporate one of my other goals which is to read books outside of my favorite genres (YA & TeenLit). I don’t often read novels that break away from those categories but I decided that opting for reading material different from my typical preference would be a fun change.

Finish my manuscript

I’m getting really close to completing my manuscript. In fact, I did outlines for the last two chapters so once I actually write it out, I’ll have finished the story (YAY!). My plan from the start was to finish my manuscript before I went back to school on the 6th and if things go as planned, I might be able to end it this weekend. I’d also like to finish editing early within the new year.

Meet more fellow writers and rally up Beta Readers/Critique Partners

My goal is to connect with more people within the writing community. I’ve met a few writers on Twitter and YouTube who are also in the process of writing manuscripts and we elected to be each other’s beta readers. Talking to other people who are also writers is such a comforting experience because many of us share the same concerns and worries about our stories and publishing and it’s great to have someone else to talk to that just gets it. I hope to interact with other writers through my blog and other social media channels and hopefully, I can get a few volunteer beta readers and critique partners in the process. (Anyone that is interested in possibly being a beta or critique partner, comment below!)

Research as much material on self-publishing as possible

There are so many articles and videos I forwarded to my email that I plan on looking over about self-publishing. I’ve always been a supporter of self-study and I plan on doing just that all throughout the new year. I want to get to the point that I’ve read so much about self-publishing that I will be confident enough to know that I am ready to start the process of publishing my book. I will probably do a future blog post about what material I found the most helpful and encouraging.

 Blog outside my comfort zone

They say the best way to start a blog is to write what you know. That’s true but it’s also fun to explore other topics that you’ve always had interests in but don’t necessarily know much about it. A great way to learn a topic is to research and reflect about your findings.

While interning for a publishing company, public relations firm and now a software distribution company, I’ve had to wear many hats when it came to writing and creating content. A lot of the topics I wrote about for these internships, I had no prior knowledge of their subject matter and I had to do extensive research to make my expertise sound legitimate. I was able to write confidently and learn in the process.

Currently,  I am writing for a health and beauty blog (which I will discuss more fully in a later post) and I’ve never written about anything health or beauty related (although, I did imagine myself as being a beauty guru like Michelle Phan in high school). However, I know I’m a decent writer and I just write about things and ideas that interest me. For example, I bought some new makeup and I wore it to a work-related event and to the office a few times so I wrote an honest review about what I thought of the products (which you can check out here). I’ve written plenty of product reviews when I was a public relations intern and I used to have a thing for makeup (back when I binge watched Michelle Phan’s videos) so I relied on those two things to write a thorough blog post.

Goodbye ’15, Hello ’16

As 2015 comes to a close I think it is a perfect time to reflect on what we did or did not accomplish this year, how things have changed in our lives and use 2016 as a chance to improve ourselves and make changes. I hope that everyone has a happy and healthy 2016!

What are your goals for the new year?