click date repeat 2 – K. J. Farnham

A-goal-without-a-plan-is-just-a-wish-Antoine-de-Saint-Exupery1

I had a lot of goals for 2015 and I worked my heinie off in an attempt achieve them. How did I do?

Goal #1 – Finish and Publish Don’t Call Me Kit Kat

Goal achieved! And as of today, Don’t Call Me Kit Kat has review averages on Goodreads (4.57) and Amazon (4.8) that make my heart swell with joy. This book is very near and dear to my heart, and based on the majority of responses from readers, it conveys the messages I was hoping it would.

Goal #2 – Stop Obsessing Over Click Date Repeat

Hmm. This one is iffy. While I managed to stop checking my sales stats every day, I faltered on resisting the urge to constantly check for new reviews after Don’t Call Me Kit Kat was published in May. Because I wanted to keep tabs on how Kit Kat was doing, I ended up checking in on CDR more than once a week as well. So this goal continues to be a work in progress.

Goal #3 – Finish the First Draft of Click Date Repeat 2

MAJOR fail. But, I have a really good excuse! During November, I participated in NaNoWriMo and completed a good chunk of a YA suspense novel.

Goal #4 – Stick to a Blog Schedule

Another iffy one here. For the most part, I managed to post one book review per week. But I kinda fell off the bandwagon as far as posting a personal/professional post every Wednesday. I won’t abandon this goal, but it definitely needs to be revised.

Goal #5 – Remember What’s Really Important

Goal achieved! Not only did I set time aside for hanging out with my family without writing, I took the entire summer off to do things with my kids. Honestly, this goal may have been overachieved. 😉

And now for my new and revised goals for 2016…

Goal #1 – Revise and Complete SPIN

SPIN is the YA suspense novel I worked on during NaNoWriMo. The manuscript has been through one round of developmental editing, and I can’t even describe how excited I am to see this one through to publication. My plan is to send it off for one more round of developmental edits some time in Feburary. Then, if I succeed at making this book into what I think it can be, I just might be querying agents come spring.

Goal #2 – Finish and Publish Click Date Repeat 2

As of right now, I have about a third of this book completed. However, the entire novel is outlined, so I know exactly what needs to be written. I plan to work on it intermittently for the next two months, but as soon as SPIN gets sent in for its second developmental edit in February, I’ll finish this one up. I’ll aim for sending it for it’s first developmental edit in March with the ultimate goal of publishing in late May.

Goal #3 – Stop Obsessing Over Book Stats

I will only check my sales stats and for new book reviews once a week. This might seem like an easy goal, but it’s not!

Goal #4 – Limit Social Media Time

Last year, this goal wasn’t necessary because all I had to maintain was Click Date Repeat’s Facebook page. Now I also have an author Facebook account, an author fan page on Facebook, a Twitter account, and an Instagram account. This is a lot to maintain and often turns into hours of wasted time each day that I should have spent writing. My plan is to limit my time on social media to one hour per day. (This does not include time posting book reviews and writing blog posts.)

Goal #5 – Post Regularly to My Blog

Instead of committing to personal/professional posts on Wednesdays and book reviews on Sundays, I’m only committing to posting something at least once a week and it could be any day of the week. In addition to personal/professional posts and book reviews, I’ve also started participating in cover reveals and blog tours.

Goal #6 – Write Every Day!

Even if I don’t feel like writing. Even if I’m busy with family commitments all day long and can’t write until after the kids are in bed. Even if I’m feeling under the weather. I will write at least one page of something every day. That something could be complete gibberish, but even gibberish can be turned into something meaningful. And baby steps are better than no steps at all.

Goal #7 – Remember What’s Really Important

I won’t be taking the summer off this year due to Goal #6, but I will continue unplugging every Friday night (and holidays) to spend quality time with my family.

What are your goals for 2016?

My one and only goal in 2014 was to finish Click Date Repeat. Now that that’s done—phew!—it’s time to really get to work. This year, my aspirations are much higher. I honestly don’t know how many of these goals I can accomplish, but the first step to meeting any goal is committing to it, right?? Plus, I’m the kind of person who likes to cross things off of lists, so I’m hopeful that putting my goals for 2015 in writing will keep me on task.

Goal #1 – Finish and Publish Don’t Call Me Kit Kat

I started this book in June of 2014 while Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations was designing the cover for Click Date Repeat. (One of the many things I learned about self-publishing: A cover designer must be booked anywhere from several weeks to months before you wish to publish.) However, I realized within weeks that three kids during summer vacation = zero productivity. So when I say I “started” this book, what that really means is I began planning it in my head. By the time September rolled around, I was able to draft an outline. The first third has been through a developmental edit, and I am now two-thirds of the way done. Now that the holidays are over and things are slowly returning to “normal” around my house, I expect to send the entire manuscript off for another round of developmental editing by the end of January.

Goal #2 – Stop Obsessing Over Click Date Repeat

The day after Click Date Repeat went live on Amazon, I did what most self-published authors probably do. I checked first thing in the morning to see if any copies had sold. Then I checked again a couple of hours later. Then again. And again. What’s worse is that I have continued to check at least once a day, every day. There have been times when I was ecstatic at the sight of blue and/or red lines indicating sales/borrows and others when I was devastated to see nothing. This obsession has to stop! So here’s my goal: I will only check sales once a week, on Mondays. Probably still a bit obsessive, but hey, it’s an improvement.

*The only exception is if I am running an ad or promotion and I need to check for effectiveness.

Goal #3 – Finish the First Draft of Click Date Repeat 2

This is another book that I have started writing in my head. I can’t help it. Sometimes when I am working on Don’t Call Me Kit Kat, an idea for CDR2 pops into my head. While this can be quite distracting, these brain lapses tell me that I have no choice but to write the sequel. My goal is to outline the story as soon as Don’t Call Me Kit Kat goes on sale. However, I promised my husband that I would take a break from novel writing, so I won’t begin drafting until August or September.

Goal #4 – Stick to a Blog Schedule

This post indicates the beginning of my new blog schedule. I will post on Wednesdays and every other Sunday. Wednesday posts will be either professional or personal, and Sunday posts will be book reviews. I may occasionally sneak in reviews on non-scheduled Sundays as well.

Goal #5 – Remember What’s Really Important

In my house, Friday nights are family movie nights. Each week, a different family member is supposed to choose the movie; however, I have been skipping my turn for months ever since I got into the habit of writing during the movies. Terrible, I know. Anyway, the Friday after Christmas we sat down to watch Disney’s Maleficent. It was so good that I didn’t type one word while it was on. My son noticed and said, “Holy cow! Mom actually watched the movie this time!” His excitement made me sad because it hit me that simply being in the same room with my family isn’t the same as paying attention to what’s going on around me, even if it is just a movie. So here’s my goal: I will watch the family movie every Friday night, and I will not touch my computer.