Goals for Q4 of 2024

Hello, Reader!

Hey, y’all! I’ve been away for a long time, so here’s an update on how things have been going behind the scenes for the last couple of years, along with my list of goals for Q4 of 2024. The last year was incredibly difficult and busy for me and I had to set aside a lot of plans to focus on the important stuff in my life. As such, my writing has taken a backseat for awhile so I could set a better foundation that would allow me to write more consistently. There have been some major revelations recently that set me on the right path and now I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ve found the right balance to continue pursuing publishing plans.

What's Been Happening?

Last July, I had a medical emergency that very nearly killed me. I’d rather not share specifics for privacy reasons, but I will say that this particular incident came after several stress-filled years of trying to figure out why my body was dealing with chronic pain that doctors couldn’t diagnose. I’d been operating at the edge of a physical breakdown for a very long time and I believe my body finally reached a point where it couldn’t keep going.

I spent months recovering, making sure to listen when my body needed rest, and kept my workload as light as possible. It took awhile but I gradually felt better and better, until I was feeling the best I had in years, but I still felt that underlying problem hiding out quietly in the background. Then a tooth abscess reared its ugly head and the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. Given the timeline of events since my last dental work, I now believe that the tooth infection was caused by a botched filling that triggered all the joint pain, brain fog, fatigue, etc, and my body’s resources have been tied up fighting it off for years.

Up until my cheek swelled and my tooth turned blue, I had no clear indication that there was anything wrong with my teeth because all the pain went elsewhere before it finally showed up in my mouth. My teeth looked good on the outside and more than a dozen doctors missed that my problems could have been caused by an infected tooth. (Unfortunately, I have no dental insurance or I’m sure a dentist would have caught it a long time ago.)

As frustrating as it’s been these last several years, I’m grateful to have finally pinpointed the cause of all the agony I’ve been through and I’ve now corrected the dental situation. Already, my body feels a million times better and I’m both relieved and excited to have energy again. I expect a small rollercoaster effect while things return to normal, but I should have a lot more energy to put towards my goals now. Just in the last few weeks, after a couple rounds of antibiotics and continued self-care, I have been slowly building back up to a productive work load again and am catching up on some long overdue projects which is exciting.

Since I’ve definitively taken care of what was keeping me down, I feel extra motivated to get back to work on my goals for the end of this year because I know I now have the ability to catch up. After all of the times I thought I’d solved the problem in the past, with the pain always returning after a few weeks, I was demoralized and depressed. Doctors had given up on me, essentially telling me my problems were all in my head, and I was on my own when it came to finding a solution. I burned out many times and had no idea what more I could do to regain my health. I finally have my life back and I’m ready to live it to the fullest.

That being said, fall is usually my most productive writing time since school has started and the house is quiet for at least a few hours each day, so I expect to be checking things off my list fairly quickly before long. The cooler temps also mean hot beverages, cozy clothes, and the changing color of the trees which make for beautiful backdrops while I work. My soul comes alive once the fall weather arrives, so I’m happy that everything is lining up for maximum productivity.

Q4 Plans

So what kinds of things am I hoping to accomplish before the year is out? I want to keep my workload somewhat small so I don’t overwhelm myself, but I definitely want to see how much I can get done in these last few months. I’d like to find a balance between these two ideals, so I’m going to focus on the things that I think are most important for the time being.

Over the last few months, I’ve been reading through my book while waiting for the energy to dig back into editing and I’ve been piecing together the missing elements that have made it so difficult to finish the manuscript. I knew there was something off when working on the previous drafts, and I solved a number of plot holes along the way, but I didn’t have the brain power to pick out that last thread that’s been bugging me until recently.

The last notable problem with my book had to do with character motivation. While my main character was fine, some of the supporting characters weren’t acting clearly from their own motivations. It wasn’t necessarily “bad” but the story did not read as smoothly as I would want as a reader, so I’ve gone back to the outlining process and broken down the relevant scenes with each player’s goals written out to make sure they were all responding authentically.

It’s going to take a good bit of work to rewrite this draft but I’m excited about getting to the end of it because the next stage is one of my favorite parts. Once all the pieces are in the right places, editing the words to flow smoothly actually gives me energy. I love polishing the rough edges down until the reader can hold it comfortably and get lost in the pages.

Goal #1 - Finish Editing the Current Draft of my Book

The first and foremost goal is to finish the current draft of my book and to give it a quick line edit so I can send it to my beta readers. As I said, I have a few kinks to work out before it’s ready for others to start reading it, so this is where most of my focus is going to go. I want the first read through to be as smooth as possible so my beta readers have an easy time catching any story elements that still need work.

As long as my health continues to improve, I expect it will take me a little over a month to get this draft finished and I may end up utilizing a NaNoWriMo-like writing challenge in November to push through it. I have to go back in and edit a fair number of scenes to correct for character motivations, and then I have to make sure that all the plot points connect the way I want them to. With that done, I’ll do some basic line edits for readability and then get it formatted to send out.

Goal #2 - Get Beta Feedback and Edit Next Draft

My beta readers were very quick to get back to me when I gave them the first few chapters awhile back, and I’m planning to do feedback in stages while they read so I can organize their notes in segments instead of all at once. I should be able to get through the next round of edits relatively easily. I like to think I’ll have this goal done in 2-3 weeks but, with the holidays coming, I expect it’ll take more like 4-5 altogether.

Goal #3 - Finish Restructuring Book Two's Outline

I’m not exactly sure when I’ll fit this task into my calendar, but it will have to be sometime after I’ve sent Book 1 to my betas. I’ve already written a significant portion of Book 2 but I need to make sure that all the plot points line up with the events of Book 1. It’ll probably take me about a week to finish adjusting the outline and fleshing out anything I missed when I worked on it the first time.

Goal #4 - Adjust My Personal Planner Set Up for 2025

This goal is smaller and much easier to fit in around other tasks. I already have a planner that I’ve been building over the last few years and I only have a few adjustments to make to get it ready for next year. I want to add a couple of trackers and create a new section for planning out my social media content, and then the rest is window dressing. The functionality is great, so now I get to clean it up and make it pretty.

Goal #5 - Finish Illustrating My Personal Stickers for the Year

Something I haven’t talked about before is that I’ve been making my own planner stickers for a few years and, this year, I challenged myself to create full sets of monthly stickers. It’s been a challenge but I’ve been pretty pleased with the results so far. I still have 3 sets of stickers to create before the end of December and then I will have succeeded at my goal for 2024. My stickers are currently just for me, but I will likely put them up for sale at some point in the future when I’ve polished them up a bit more. I hope to be able to offer planners and stickers alongside my journals.

Goal #6 - Create 2025 Writing Plan

My final productivity goal will be working on my writing plan for next year as I accomplish each of these final goals. The more I am able to finish in 2024, the more likely I will be publishing Book 1 in 2025. The most time-consuming part of editing is the bit I’m working on right now so, if I can finish it before Thanksgiving, I should have plenty of time to get the rest of it done before the new release date I have in mind. I’ll sketch out a rough timeline this week, just to have something to work toward, but I’ll have a more realistic idea of things once I’m done with this draft.

Goal #7 - Enjoy the Holidays

Last, but certainly not least, I plan to enjoy the holiday festivities since I’ve missed out on so much in previous years. I’m going to work on deep cleaning the house and then I’ll decorate for the season. I love the spooky vibes of Halloween and I can’t wait to help my son put together a costume from scratch and do pumpkin carving with friends. In November, I’m planning to do a lot more baking. I used to love making homemade banana, pumpkin, and zucchini bread, along with apple and pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving. I haven’t made a pie in years and it’s definitely a priority for me now that I can do more than the basics everyday. I’m also looking forward to Christmas lights and maybe even making a snowman this winter. With so much joint pain, I was limited when it came to outdoor activities in general, but especially in the cold of winter and the high heat of summer.

In addition to holiday fun, I have a lot of books on my TBR list that I want to get through, as well as several crafts that I’ve had sitting on the shelf for the last few years. In order to balance the workload well, I want to make sure I’m also making time for recreational stuff too. All work and no play eventually leads to burnout and I’ve been burned out enough to last me a lifetime. I’m ready to kick tasks and play games!

With only 3 months left in 2024, do you have any big plans to close out the year?

Photo by alex geerts on Unsplash