The Progress of Goals for 2025 So Far…

We’re now half-way through 2025 and I thought it would be good to look at how my goals for the year are coming along. Some goals got away from me, but some I am trying my best to be consistent.

Goal #1: First half of the year finishing a draft of my novel I can submit to literary agents. I have finished a draft, but it is nowhere near ready for submission. I am hoping to get there by the end of the summer.

Goal #2: Rewrite and submit the 2 short stories I have in the wings. This goal is achieved. Both stories have been rewritten and submitted. I’ve even gotten a rejection letter back on one. Plus, I wrote a new story and have submitted that one too.

Goal #3: Second half of the year will be for the new work I finished in 2024. This story (novel or novella, not sure yet) is still on hold. I still plan on working on it, but not until I finish the novel. Maybe late fall, or early winter I will come back to it.

Goal #4: Read 24 books this year. The year started out strong, but I have a hard time finding time to read. One nice thing about going back into the office two days a week is that I can read on my lunch break. I try to dedicate 30 minutes a day to reading, but I don’t get to it every day. So far, I’ve read 5 books. I’m in the middle of #6. I should be double that, so maybe I’ll pick up some shorter books over the summer at the library.

Goal #5: Commit to 2 blog posts/Newsletters a month. I’ve done 10 posts on the blog and 9 on Substack so far this year. I missed March completely, but in June I had three posts (Only on the blog. Substack had only 2 posts in June.). Not terrible, but I can do better. I’ve learned that if I write a few days before my 1^st and 15^th dates, I usually make them. (I am writing this on June 27^th, so it should come out for the July 1^st date.)

Goal #6: Commit to 2 YouTube videos a month. I’ve posted 12 videos so far this year. Not bad. I’m still learning how to make content, but at least I’m trying to be consistent.

Overall, I’d say I’m in pretty good shape. I need to step up the revision of the novel and reading of books, but everything else is doing pretty good. I love that I finished and submitted three (!) short stories and that I have been somewhat consistent in my posting.

I should also point out that I did monetize my Substack and have my first paid subscriber! Yay! Over the next few months, I will post my short stories that are also on Amazon. Plus, I will publish later on this month one of the stories that came out last year (both on Amazon and SubStack). Usually, I like to wait a year or so after publication before self-publishing my stories. The second story from 2024 will come out in December.

Hope everyone is having a great summer and happy writing.