Looking Forward – 2018

2018 has started off at full speed and hasn’t really slowed down. That’s certainly not a bad thing. It just means I have to find a way to manage my time better so I can fit everything in that needs to be done.

Outside of writing, in the real world where I need to actually work to make a living, I’m embarking on a new career… I actually started last July but life was so chaotic I’m not quite where I need to be yet. Again, the importance of time management! (stay on track here!) My new (pay the bills) career – I’m making the moving from graphic designer to web developer. Front end web developer to be precise. For those that don’t know, there are many levels to web development but I won’t get into all that. The move – yeah, that requires learning a lot of things that I never thought I would need to learn or even wanted to learn. But now that I’ve dipped my foot in, I’m finding that I actually love it and want to learn as much as humanly possible. I’ve had a slow start of it, but I’m stepping up my game in 2018. My goal is to have html, css, and javascript well in hand. I have to admit the javascript bit is a little intimidating to me but I’ll master it… one way or the other!

My writing goals for 2018 are just as challenging. I have 2 short stories almost ready to release and 2 other short stories in first draft phase. Those are on top of my debut novel. While working on the first draft of my novel, I got the brilliant idea of doing prequels to fill in the backstory of my main characters. Though I suppose they aren’t really prequels since I don’t actually have the novel complete but you get the idea.

To bolster my writing, I will also be creating a Patreon account where I will share special short stories, previews of novel chapters, drafts, etc. with those who wish to become a patron and help support my writing.

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.

Melody Beattie