My Writing Goals for 2018

Good morning lovely readers,

I hope this post finds you well.

I want to update you on what's going on with me. Last weekend I was at a conference for indie authors and it was inspiring and challenging. I learned a ton about how to be a better author, from writing tips to marketing tips to setting difficult goals for myself.

To that end, I want to share my 2018 goals with you guys so you can keep me accountable. :)

My Goals for 2018:
1. Pick one genre to write in.
2. Come up with a concept for a series.
3. Publish the first two books in the aforementioned series.

You guys, these goals scare me! The idea of picking ONE genre scares me. The goal of writing and publishing two books in one calendar year scares me. My mind is full of what-ifs. What if I can't think of a concept I like well enough? What if I simply can't do it in the limited time I have after my girls are in bed at night? What if...?

But do you know what I'm realizing?

The biggest thing stopping me is fear. I CAN do this. All I have to do is put my fear aside and get to work.

Now I want to know, what are your goals for next year? How are you going to make 2018 your best year ever? Comment  below to share your goals with me. I'd love to hear them.

On Finding a Community of People Who Share a Common Goal

When I first published Malignant in December of 2015 I pushed the button and it went live on Amazon. It's that easy -- the publishing part at least. It was a whim, a fancy, and a flop.

What I didn't know about publishing is that writing the book is hard, but it is equally as hard to market the book. And marketing doesn't stop. What I've learned in the past year and a half is that if I'm not actively marketing Malignant, it floats around in the bowels of Amazon where people will never find it.

I have since then decided to take writing more seriously, and with that decision came a phone conversation with a friend who is a more successful author than I am. He gave me lots of helpful tips so that marketing my book didn't sound so big and impossible.

Is Malignant a best seller? Nope. Will it ever be? Probably not. However, I have learned a lot from the experience, mostly by doing the wrong thing. But I have confidence that when I'm ready to release book number two I will have a better handle on the process and hopefully a better outcome.

One of the most important things I have learned is to find my tribe in this industry. I needed to find a group of like-minded people of varying levels of success who are actively trying to help each other by sharing their wins and losses. And I did, thanks again to my aforementioned author friend.

What I'm trying to say is, if you have a dream, go for it, but don't go in blindly. Find your tribe and watch them. Read their to-do lists. Learn from their successes and failures. Lift each other up rather than tearing each other down. Work your heiny off. And, perhaps most importantly, enjoy the process.

What I'm Reading: The Awakened Heart by Dr. Gerald May

As the title of this post states, I'm reading The Awakened Heart, by Dr. Gerald May.  I'm almost done w/ the book and I've really enjoyed it.  In it, Dr. May talks about love, practicing being present, and much more.

Courtesy Amazon.com

 As much as I've enjoyed the entire book, one quote struck me today:

"While washing the dishes, you might be thinking about the tea afterwards, and so try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible in order to sit and drink tea.  But that means that you are incapable of living during the time you are washing the dishes" (spoken by Thich Nhat Hanh).

Wow.  Incapable of living?  But it's so true.  If I am not consciously present when I'm doing anything, I'm not really there, am I?  Nope.  I'm just waiting for the next thing.

But I don't want to live (or not live, rather) like that.  I want to be present in whatever I'm doing.  I want to be able to focus on one thing and do it well rather than just trying to finish it quickly (heck, I can't even just sit and watch TV.  I have to be doing something else while I watch.).

So, I'm going to make an effort to slow down and be present in whatever I'm doing today.

Do you ever notice that you are not present in moments?  How do you combat it?