Goals for the Year 2017

I've seen so many bloggers posting their goals for the year, so I figured I would share my own with you. Yes, I know I'm a little late, but at least I'm getting it up now. I mean, at least it's not goals for the month, because then we might have a problem. :P

So obviously, you don't know what my goals were for last year, since I didn't have a blog yet. Don't worry though, you didn't miss anything, because I didn't have any. But I did do some things last year that would have been goals... if I had thought of them at the beginning of the year and not the middle.

2016's Accomplishments

// I read 63 books. Yeah, so I set a goal for 100, but that wasn't until March. By then, I had only read 5 books. And you should probably know that reading that many books in a year was a very ambitious goal for me, because I was trying to go from reading maybe 25 books in a year to 100.

// I participated in NaNoWriMo. Oh, I didn't even think about doing this until October. I didn't even know what it was until I started following blogs (which wasn't until somewhere between March and April last year). So, I had been reading blog posts about NaNo and ways you could prepare for it. And then, a week and a half before it was supposed to start, I decided I wanted to participate. Yes, you read that correctly. I am happy to say that I was ready by the time NaNo started, and came out of it with a word count of 105K. :)

// I wrote the rough draft of two books and about half of another two. So if you put it together, I wrote the rough drafts of... three books? This may or may not be surprising, but that was the first time I actually wrote the whole rough draft of a book. Thank you, NaNo!

// I started a blog. Well, I created it and set it up last year, but I didn't post until this year. It took me a while to get here though. Ever since I began following blogs, I've been wanting to start a blog of my own. Although it took about 8 months to build up enough courage, as you can see, I finally did it. :)

That's basically it for last year. For not having any goals for 2016, I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish. Before I go on to my goals for this year, I will say that I've never done the whole new year's resolutions thing. And at first, it seemed like listing my goals for the year was a lot like making resolutions. But then, I realized that it's really more like a to-do list. Now that's something I can do. I've just never made one for the whole year before. Anyways, here they are.

2017's Goals

 1. Write the rough draft of 1 book. Yes, I know I wrote two last year, but that was last year. I'm expecting this year to be busier, so I'm trying not to make it to hard for myself. (At least for now anyway.) I may end up writing 2, who knows?

2. Edit 2 books. Well, I'm happy to say that this one is already off to a pretty good start. I really enjoy editing. Before I did NaNo, I would have said that I liked editing more than writing the rough draft, but now I don't really know. There are things about both that I really like. Maybe I'll come to a conclusion this year (hopefully).

3. Read 70 books. Look! I'm being more realistic this year! (I think?) Before I actually decided on that number, I had to do a little math. I should be able to reach this goal in only 10 out of 12 months. It's very likely that I won't get much reading done in November, due to NaNo. And since I'm a counselor at a summer camp, it's difficult to say how much reading I'll have time for while I'm there.

4. Journal more. I was doing a pretty good job last year. At least in March and April, and then it started going down hill. *shifts uncomfortably* But I'm going to try to do better this year. I'm even thinking about starting a spiritual journal.

5. Take 2 English classes. If you've read the page about me, then you know that I've graduated high school. I'm not going to college, but I am planning to take some classes that will help me with my writing career.

6. Beta read 1 book. I didn't even know there was such a thing as beta reading until I started following blogs! I think I would like to eventually send out one of my own books to beta readers, but I don't think that will happen this year. Maybe next year, though.

7. Study the Bible more and strengthen my relationship with God. As I get older, I realize more and more, how important my relationship with God is. Now that I'm 18, legally an adult, I find that I have more responsibility and I have to make a lot of life decisions. It can be overwhelming sometimes, and I find myself going to God more and more, because I know that I can't do this on my own. And in doing that, I have realized the importance of my relationship with Him.


So there you have it. My goals for this year. What did you accomplish last year? Have you made any goals for this year?