New Year Writing Goals 2019

‘Beautiful People’ is a project created by a book blog that I love (Paper Fury), aimed at writers. Every month, they post a list of ten questions for people to answer, designed to help you get to know their characters – their quirks, their flaws, their personality, and who they are. Occasionally, there are groups of questions aimed at the writers and their writing progress, rather than just what they’re writing about.

For this blog, I’m going to be answering a group of questions. I believe that this group is the January 2016 group (I updated the years in the questions so it fits in with the current time), and I’d love to see everyone else’s responses to these questions. I’ll put the complete list of questions at the very end of the blog.

Let’s begin!

 

What were your writing achievements last year?

I have done an abysmal amount of writing this year. My focuses for 2018 (according to my blog like this for last year) was to finish writing and edit ‘Paper Forests’, and to start a draft of a new novel and make a good amount of progress writing it. I have done neither of those things. However, I have started rewriting an unfinished draft into third person for no reason other than adding in extra scenes for my word count.

 

Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?

I have become a person who doesn’t tell anyone about my personal plans because they’ll keep checking up on me and I’ll be too ashamed to say I haven’t done something or I’ve changed that thing (mostly because I can’t stick to plans) so I’m very hesitant to confirm what my plans are for this year. All I’m going to say is that I want to write 50,000 words, whether that’s on one draft or across multiple projects or just editing. I just want to write words this year.

 

List 5 areas you’d like to work the hardest to improve this year.

I’m what some people refer to as an ‘under writer’ meaning that I’m someone who writes less rather than more. Improving my word counts and managing to reach targets without forcing unnecessary scenes is my main focus for improvement this year. I think others would be incorporating a character’s backstory without information dumping, and just building relationships between characters. That’s only three things, but I’m going to aim low and see how it goes.

 

Are you participating in any writing challenges?

At the moment, I have no solid plans, but I am aware that I’m in my final year of college and will definitely have a summer holiday that lasts for two months, giving me plenty of time to focus on Camp NaNo if I want to have a go this year. I’m not sure if I’ll take part in NaNo yet as I’ll be in university and probably still learning how to navigate that life. I might try some smaller writing challenges throughout the year, like those one month ones where it gives you a prompt for each day.

 

What’s your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?

The best part of Movellas is how interactive the community is, so I guess you guys are kind of like my beta readers. Some of you are definitely my critics. I’d love to have a few consistent people to send each individual chapter to for feedback, but I understand that people may not have time to read and review everything I need.

 

Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research?

A lot of the research I do for writing (actual writing, not research for storylines and characters) is usually from blogs and YouTube videos as I enjoy how easy it is to find information on a specific topic, and how it can be delivered in a simple but educational way. I haven’t seen any writer-related books that have caught by attention, but if you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments!

 

Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?

My mind instantly went to Oliver and August – the two main characters of my current project – but I already know a lot about them. I think I want to get to know the secondary characters Ansel and Gracie a bit better as they are still hugely undeveloped. Switching the story to third person is the first thing I’m going to do: it’ll be a chance to get in their heads more and show what they’re doing when the perspective isn’t solely focused on Oliver and his separation from the group.

 

Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?

I’ve been reading Rick Riordan’s books for years, and I love them although they’re aimed at younger readers. I’d love to see similar books incorporating mythology and history in an exciting way but aimed at older readers. I read The Song of Achilles at the start of last year (which became one of my favourite books of all time) but I think that’s aimed more at older readers and is full history rather than a history/contemporary blend like Riordan. If you have any recommendations for YA mythology or ancient history inspired books, please leave them in the comments!

 

What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2019?

This was my aim for the end of 2018, but hopefully ‘Paper Forests’ will be edited and reviewed so many times that it’ll be ready for self-publication this year. I’ve been sitting on this story for so long that I just want to push it out into the world, but it has to be perfect.

 

In the comments below, let me know your book recommendations! What are you New Year writing goals? What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2019?

 

Complete list of questions:

• What were your writing achievements last year?
• Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?
• List 5 areas you’d like to work the hardest to improve this year.
• Are you participating in any writing challenges?
• What’s your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?
• Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research?
• Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?
• Do you plan to edit or query, and what’s your plan of attack?
• Toni Morrison once said, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?
• What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2019?