We're halfway through the year. If you set goals back in January, how are you getting on with them? What's been working for you and what hasn't?

Here's how my writing goals have been going during April, May, and June ... and what I'm planning to do over the next three months too.

Goal #1: Write or Edit 250+ Words Per Day

As in the first quarter, I missed a handful of days (my tracking has been a bit haphazard, too...) There was quite a bit of planning/outlining in this quarter, especially in April, and I didn't do a great job of sticking to the modified goal that I set last quarter of either writing 250+ words or spending 15+ minutes editing/planning/etc. I spent some time each day on writing, but it wasn't necessarily 15+ minutes!

Going Forward: I've returned to the goal of 250+ words of daily writing/rewriting. For me, I find a wordcount goal works better than a time-based goal, and it's nice to see the wordcounts adding up! I'll be fitting planning and outlining into other bits of time.

Goal #2: Finish and Publish My Novel-in-Progress

This is a year-long goal, so my sub-goal for this quarter was:

• Get the manuscript ready for an editor by the end of June 2023 -- I managed this, but I had thought I was nearly done at the end of Quarter 1. ;-) The edits dragged on a bit!

Going Forward: Nothing to do on the novel until it's back from my editor, and in all honesty, I'm a bit tired of working on it at present! I'm sure I'll have my enthusiasm back once I've tried out some other things...

Goal #3: Explore Other Genres of Fiction

My third goal for the year was to explore other genres (beyond my usual "contemporary fantasy") by:

• Writing two short stories (which I managed in the first quarter)
• Completing two novel outlines plus the first 3 chapters in different genres

In the last couple of months, I had some lovely news: one of my short stories was shortlisted in the competition I wrote it for, and the other short story won third prize in its competition. So that was really encouraging!

This quarter, I'd planned to write the new novel outlines and chapters too, but I ended up spending longer on my existing novel's edits than I planned. However, I did some brainstorming on a children's fantasy novel idea (about 3,600 words of notes) and also wrote most of the first chapter (possibly 2 chapters, it's nearly 4,000 words) of that.

I also did a little bit of brainstorming on another novel idea (contemporary, not fantasy), but didn't write any of the actual story. And at the start of the quarter, I did quite a lot of brainstorming on the contemporary fantasy idea I mentioned last time.

In more derailment, though ... I remembered about a novel I'd started work on a few years ago and last touched in 2021. I'd like to take that one forward too! It's near-future slightly dystopian sci-fi, rather than my usual contemporary fantasy, so it's a little different in genre.

Going Forward: I want to spend some more time working on the ideas for the children's novel, as when I started writing, I realised I don't really have enough of the plot nailed down to get off to a strong start. I'm also going to continue work on the near-future sci-fi novel.

Just like last time, I've had some ups and downs with my fiction writing during the past quarter. I've definitely been writing more fiction this year than I managed in 2020-2022, however, and I'm really pleased to see various projects taking shape.

However your writing's been going, I hope you've had a sense of progress and that you're moving towards finishing at least some pieces.

If you're in the Aliventures Club, come and share your progress in our quarterly "how's it going" thread here:

facebook.com/groups/aliventuresclub/posts/4375548996002608

* The Aliventures Club is open to anyone who's bought anything from me, ever! If that's you, you're welcome to join us here: facebook.com/groups/aliventuresclub

If you haven't bought anything yet but you're planning to do so during the summer sale, you're welcome to join too (when you answer the questions to join, just let me know what you're planning to buy).

If you're not in the Aliventures Club, or if you'd prefer to let me know about your writing goals privately, just reply to this email and tell me how your writing's going. I'd love to hear from you. :-)

Happy writing,

Ali

If you missed last week's blog post, you can find it here:

9 Stages of Writing a Novel (Plus Where You Might Get Stuck and How to Move On)