2022 Goals

My overall goal is to become a published author and start a career as a writer.  This would then lead to my second goal to become a screenwriter.  But realistically, having no track record as a screenwriter, a production company would probably buy the rights to my novel and hire their own writer to write the screenplay.  If a book of mine gets produced as a movie, I’m still going to consider that as a win.  I’ve also included some personal goals.

2022 Goals

1. POLISH OFF MY FIRST STEAMPUNK NOVEL: I finished off my first steampunk novel as one of my 2021 goals.  Now, my wife reads it out loud and I make corrections on a hard copy.  It’s a way of catching awkward wording, wrong words (“there” instead of “their”) and misspellings.  After all the times I’ve looked at it, Kris has looked at it and spellcheck has looked at it, we still find misspellings.  I plan to have this done by Presidents’ Day.
2. MAKE CHANGES TO MY FIRST STEAMPUNK SCRIPT: As I have been going through my novel, I have made some minor changes to some scenes and dialogue.  I want to reflect those changes in my script.  I’m also still trying to shave down the 143 pages.  Optimally, a script should be about 120 pages.  I expect to be able to do this by the end of February.
3. SAVE UP FOR A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: This is hard to predict when I can accomplish this.  This past year has been financially challenging and this year is stating the same.  If I can do this by the end of the year, I’ll be happy.
4. SUBMIT MY NOVEL TO A PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: This all depends on #3.  Again, if I can do it by the end of the year, I’ll be happy.  I could go on with “Make edits according to editor’s notes” and “Pitch my novel to an agent”, but now we’re getting into iffy territory.  A list of goals is supposed to be a list of things you can actually accomplish, and I’m setting these for this year.  If things get better, I can always add new goals.
5. OUTLINE MY THIRD STEAMPUNK SCRIPT: I have never been much of an outliner, I’m more of a “string of pearls” writer, which when you do it, turns into a mental outline.  But I want to try something new with my third script.  It will have multiple characters fighting different battles all at the same time and I have to coordinate all these different battles so they time out with each other.  Also, I was able to write my first novel fairly easily because I had the script as a 143-page outline.   I’m thinking maybe an outline will help me write the script faster.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t stop and write a scene that really catches me, though.  I’ll set this goal for the end of March.
6. WRITE MY THIRD STEAMPUNK SCRIPT: I’ll break this down further once I start doing it.  Something like, if I can write ten pages a week, and I assume my first draft will be 180 pages, then I should be able to write it in eighteen weeks.
7. EDIT MY THIRD STEAMPUNK SCRIPT AND SUBMIT IT TO ONE OF MY CRITIQUE GROUPS: Which will lead to more edits.  I’ll break this down as I get closer.
8. WRITE MY SECOND STEAMPUNK NOVEL: If I can get an agent – and following, a publisher – interested in my first novel, I want the second one near ready to go.  Looking at this goal list, I see that I would have about twenty-two weeks in the year left.  That’s a little tight, but still possible.  But having written my first novel, I’m thinking I will be able to write the second one faster and better than the first.  I’ll break this one down further when I get there.
9. READ BOOKS: I didn’t finish reading one book last year – which is an embarrassment for a writer.  I should still be ready in my genera (which I do love, which is why I’m witting in this genera), books on writing to improve my craft, books on Victorian England as research, and other subjects I enjoy.  So let’s break this down into manageable sub-goals:

A:  Read a book in January:

B:  Read a book in February:

C:  Read a book in March:

D:  Read a book in April:

E:  Read a book in May:

F:  Read a book in June:

G:  Read a book in June:

H:  Read a book in August:

I:  Read a book in September:

J:  Read a book in October:

K:  Read a book in November:

L:  Read a book in December:

10. READ MY BIBLE: Every year my church, Calvary Bible Church in Burbank, has a plan to read the entire Bible in a year.  Every year I start out fine, but then two or three months in, I start falling behind.  Eventually, I get overwhelmed by how far behind I have gotten and gave up.  This year I dedicating myself to keeping up and writing this down as a goal is part of my accountability.  It should take only twenty minutes a day, I should be able to do that.  So let’s break that down into manageable goals:

A:  Keep up with January’s reading:

B:  Keep up with February’s reading:

C:  Keep up with March’s reading:

D:  Keep up with April’s reading:

E:  Keep up with May’s reading:

F:  Keep up with June’s reading:

G:  Keep up with July’s reading:

H:  Keep up with August’s reading:

I:  Keep up with September’s reading:

J:  Keep up with October’s reading:

K:  Keep up with November’s Reading:

L:  Keep up with December’s reading:

11. TRY A NEW RECIPE EACH MONTH: This was a goal of mine last year and it worked out very well.  I ended up trying fifteen new recipes.  So let’s do it again:

A:  New recipe for January:

B:  New recipe for February:

C:  New recipe for March:

D:  New recipe for April:

E:  New recipe for May:

F:  New recipe for June:

G:  New recipe for July:

H:  New recipe for August:

I:  New recipe for September:

J:  New recipe for October:

K:  New recipe for November:

L:  New recipe for December:

12. Ever since my company moved its offices, my job has been more sedentary. In December of        2020, I was at 210 pounds.  I had never been over 200 before.  So I started watching what I eat,       cutting out snacks and cutting down on soda and I was able to get down to 203.  But then I slacked off and with the holidays I back up to 210.  I want to get down to 190.  I know I can lose     two pounds a month if I stick to it, so here’s me making myself accountable:

A:  Down to 208 by end of January.

B:  Down to 206 by end of February.

C:  Down to 204 by end of March.

D:  Down to 202 by end of April.

E:  Down to 200 by end of May.

F:  Down to 198 by end of June.

G: Down to 196 by end of July.

H:  Down to 194 by end of August.

I:  Down to 193 by end of September.

J:  Down to 192 by end of October.

K:  Down to 191 by end of November.

L:  Down to 190 by end of December.

13:  Finally, I want to keep up my blood donations with the American Red Cross.  Either six whole blood donations or three power reds – that’s where they take out twice the red blood cells but give you back half of your plasms.  Up until now, I have been giving whole blood because I’m CMV negative, which means my blood can be given to infants.  But with my last donation, they found I have rare antigens and asked me to consider power red donations.

 

To be honest, I’m just starting to read, “Your Goal Guide”.  http://thedebmethod.com/yourgoalguide/  I’ll probably be updating this list as I go along.