I just stumbled across a nice blog called Project 183, written by a refreshingly normal-sounding guy from Melbourne who decided he would make a public list of 183 goals he wanted to achieve before he turned 30 (he’s 25 now). You know I love the idea of publicising my goals because that makes me more accountable, so this Project 183 site got me thinking about my writing goals again.

Since it’s over half-way through the year now, it’s time to take a look at my 2008 resolutions one by one (there are only five, not 183, so it won’t take too long). Strictly speaking, they’re not all fiction writing related, but it’s hard to separate all that writing sometimes, so here goes:

1. The good news is goal #1 (edit and submit my first novel) is complete – although as some wise man once said, art is never really complete, just abandoned. So I don’t rule out returning to edit it again, and perhaps in a couple of months I’ll dust it off properly and consider submitting it to agents, not just my favourite contests.
2. I’ve already got the first chapter of novel #2 done, a half-plan is in place, and I’m on track to write it during NaNoWriMo this November – although it might be with a late start as my sister-in-law and brother-in-law will be visiting during the first week.
3. Short story writing (my goal was to submit to 20 contests) has taken a back seat to novel writing and non-fiction blogging this year. I have submitted 3, which is obviously nowhere near half way. Will try to improve that.
4. My goal of increasing my travel writing income by 50% is probably well in progress, I think. Actually, I haven’t done quite enough bookwork there recently to really check the income, but with pay rises and a couple of extra jobs, it should be on target. We’ll see.
5. My original 5th goal was to monetise my Ballerina blog, but instead of that, I decided to start up the Same Sky Magazine instead as well as moving this Becoming A Fiction Writer blog to its own domain. Early days in both those processes yet, but at least the goal is partly achieved.

Mr Project 183 has inspired me to do more than just have my annual writing goals up online, so I’m going to start collating my lifetime fiction writing goals and post them soon. Hold me to that if you don’t see them appear in the next couple of weeks.