Mid-Year Goals Check, 2022

Today is June 30th. The official end of the first half of 2022. I’ve had it on my calendar to wrap up first quarter since first quarter ended. Have I actually done that? No. I haven’t even really looked at the first quarter goals. So today I’m going to take a look at the first half of 2022. I’m planning to see where I’m at and set myself up for success in the last half of the year. 

Join me. 

Zero Draft Goals

I planned to fully draft two things in 2022. 

• The Apocalypse Project was the first thing I’d hoped to work on. As you probably already know if you’ve been following the blog for awhile, this project has been around a long time. I’ve tossed out a ton of ideas and played around with them in the idea journal. Last year sometime I finally came up with the piece it was missing to make it a great story. But I stalled out on the outline … twice. I haven’t come back to this one in 2022. I’m thinking September/October will be a good time for me to visit this one unless it pulls itself into my consciousness sooner. 
• Darkest Fears is a project I started way back in college (before I really knew what I was doing). I wrote the beginning of a TERRIBLE draft and never finished it. I found the draft in 2019 or so and read it. I joked on social media about how it actually wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. It had some redeemable qualities. Well, in 2021 I found it again and decided I wanted to jump start that idea. Basically, this is a slasher style mystery/thriller. I have fully outlined this one and it’s my Camp NaNo project in July. My goal is to write at least 50k words on the project (although completed it should be more like 70k). I’m excited about the outline and feeling pretty good about it. Tomorrow kicks the whole thing off! Wish me luck. 

So, if you’re keeping track, that’s 0/2 of the zero draft goals completed. One is scheduled for July/August draft completion and the other I’m shooting for September/October. It’s not too late yet!

First Round Edit Goals

I also had two of these planned for 2022. 

• YA Contemporary was the first one. This draft was a NaNo project once upon a time and it’s completely finished. I know this one is going to involve a lot of revisions because I remember it taking off in a completely different direction when I sat down to write it. I haven’t tackled this yet. I’m thinking August would be the perfect time to tackle this one because I’ll be done with Camp NaNo and my Fall release (more on that in a bit) should be off to ARC readers. 
• Succour is the other project I thought I’d tackle. It’s a romance (yes, really) that I haven’t visited in YEARS since I wrote it. It’s one of the oldest complete drafts I have kicking around, which could mean it’s ROUGH. This would be a good December focus, I think. End the year on something light and romantic. I like this plan. 

Again, 0/2. Planning for August and December. It’s still not too late. 

Publication Goals

2 of these were on the goal list as well (are you seeing my pattern yet?) 

• Super Secret Project was revealed to actually be a hardcover Special Edition of 30 Days Without Wings with bonus content! That hardcover dropped on 5/1/2022, the anniversary of the original book! It’s available now from the Shop tab. Go snag yourself one! It’s good, I promise. 
• GhostlyYA is coming October 18, 2022. The official title is Noises From the Other Side and it’s a YA paranormal thriller. Since 2022 started this has been through a proofread, beta feedback and changes, ARC preparations, a cover reveal, and now it’s onto that final proof before publication. I’m excited for this one, it’s GOOD! Make sure you’re subscribed to the blog to get updates on preorders, ARC team, and more!

½ already on this section with the second one scheduled. This is the area I’m doing the best in, which is good! 

Preparation Goals

I had a LOT of finished projects going into 2022 thanks to previous years being so great for zero drafting. So I tacked on the goal to get my 2023 projects ready for publication ahead of the game. 

• Hitman Project was my NaNo project in a previous year. It’s completely drafted. I did a full editing pass on this one already in 2022. Now it’s scheduled to head to my editor in October. That should put me perfectly on track for getting those changes in and rolling out this mystery/thriller in 2023 as planned. 
• Fraun Short Stories are the tougher ones here. I drafted the longest (and most anticipated) story for the anthology a while back and that one has actually been edited already. But then I decided on a few more I wanted in the collection. I keep tinkering with which ones to include. I think I will make this my actual NaNo project this November to force myself to nail down the last of the stories and get this one ready to head to the editor early in 2023. 

Really, I’m 0.5/2 on this one. Hitman has really come far in the preparations. Once I see what my esteemed editor has to say, we’ll have a better idea if I can call this one done for now. 

Upcoming

• JULY
  • Camp NaNo! Write 50,000 words on the Slasher Project (previously known as Darkest Fears)
  • Finish the final proofread of Noises From the Other Side
  • ARCs go out for Noises on the 18th
• AUGUST
  • Wrap up the last of the Slasher Project zero draft
  • Edit the YA Contemporary draft
• SEPTEMBER
  • Outline the Apocalypse Project (or fix the outline, whatever)
  • Start the zero draft of the Apocalypse Project
• OCTOBER
  • Finish the Apocalypse Project zero draft
  • Hitman heads to editor
  • Noises From the Other Side drops October 18!
  • Prep for NaNo
• NOVEMBER
  • NaNoWriMo 2022! Fully draft all the short stories in the Fraun anthology
• DECEMBER
  • Edit Succour 

Recap

What started off looking like a dim start to 2022 has turned out to still be COMPLETELY possible. Nothing on this list looks overwhelming or impossible to me. More importantly, I have a plan! I can totally make this happen. 

So, how about you? How are your 2022 goals coming along? Let me know in the comments!