2018 Goals

Oh, heyyyyyy. The self-declared Momma of Commas is baaaaaack. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I sure did. And then I got to cuddle my babies extra as Influenza B took its time moving through the ranks of my family…ugh. It’s been a rough couple of weeks. Influenza B is a greedy jerk. There is nothing that makes you feel more inadequate as a mother than a sickness that takes its sweet ol’ time with your babes. (SIGH!) So I’m late to the 2018 partay, but I’m here. And I’m here to talk about my writing goals for 2018…

Three goals. Just three of them. That’s it.

My writing goals for 2017 were three goals. Don’t get me wrong, there were 700 million different little things I had to do to accomplish those three goals, but they were the big picture. The milestones. What I had to do, after years of work and a little hemming and hawing, to have a book in my hands that I actually wrote. A finished work.

So here is a screen shot of those exact goals on my phone:

The gameplan to get those three things?? I told myself that six days a week, I was going to give two hours a day to my dream. Two hours. I should note here that I had a baby and a three-year-old. After my high risk pregnancy with my second son and the emotional and exhausting roller coaster my pregnancies take me on, and then having to figure out how to be a mom to a toddler and an infant both, I took some time off of writing. Yep, I took maternity leave. See ya! A nice, good and long maternity leave. I just couldn’t emotionally give it my best while writing when I was trying to figure out this mom of two boys thing. Not that I have it figured out now…but whatevs. I had a super valid excuse and I milked it for all it was worth. I took 9 months off of writing.

Last January, I decided enough was enough. My baby was almost a 9 month old and wasn’t so baby any more (unfortunately). I still had every excuse not to write….but two hours was doable. Hard, certainly exhausting, but doable. If the boys happened to nap at the same time, I could get a half an hour or an hour then. If not, I had bedtime or roughly 9pm-11pm to make my dreams come alive. I gave my family 12+ hours a day, so I could give my dream two hours a day.

And I worked my stinking butt off. I can’t tell you how many times I stayed up late to finish a chapter, fix a plot hole, or meet my editing goal of the day. I can’t tell you how many times I ended up with four hours of sleep because I was in a groove and didn’t want to stop. (Too many!)

As I think and look back on this year, I mainly think about my pace and my work ethic. I pushed it. I worked it. I had three goals, and two hours a day to get to them. I was constantly bogged down with fears and insecurities and feeling like I had no idea what I was doing. So many times I wanted to walk away. So many times I was convinced that once my book finally was out, no one would even like it. I had no idea what would happen once the book was out, I just knew I had to get it ready.

And so I freaking did the dang thang. I crushed it. I can honestly say that I have never worked or pushed myself as hard as I did in this last year. When I think about that pace and the mental mind games, I want to curl into a ball and sleep for a solid day or two. It was not easy. Not even a little.

But you know what? I. DID. IT. I actually have a book out. A book other people can hold and read. And it’s still just as surreal today as it was on Pub-day. Was the hard work worth it? YES.

2018 has me literally bouncing with excitement. Can I do two hours a day again? Even if I don’t get two hours in, since the napping thing is not as long or as happening now, can I still at least give it an hour a day?

2018 finds me a bit of a goal addict and a bit crazy with all these goals I have and want to have. I have personal goals. I have health goals. I have writing goals. I wanted to train for another half-marathon. I want to get my books ready and edited. I want to do sooo many things. Do this. Do that. SQUIRREL! Why? Because 2017 showed me that if I shoved my excuses aside and just simply worked hard, I could do it. So having already done it once, why can’t I do it again??

Now. After much deliberating and self-reflecting, I’ve had to take a deep breath and simply realize that I can’t do it all. Example, training for a half-marathon takes time…editing books takes time…being a mom takes time. I fear if I try to do all three this spring, I’ll be worn out by April. So I decided to put the half on hold for now. Though I have other personal/health goals, I want 2018 to be as simple as 2017 was. Because if I want to maintain my pace, if I want to push hard, I need focus.

My focus? Three goals. Two hours.

Here is a screenshot of this year's goals:

What can you accomplish with three goals and two hours? Three goals and just one hour? If I did it, you for sure can. I promise you.

Now, as I leave you, I want to talk about timeframe. Some of you are chomping at the bit for The Fracturing. And believe me, I’d love to just hit publish and let her rip. But editing is a must. I haven’t wanted to say out loud (or write) a deadline because the truth is that I am a mom first. And in just this last year, we have been sick so much that it feels like every time I give myself a self-imposed deadline, we all get sick, or the dog has explosive diarrhea all over the carpet (true story), or I sprain the crap out of my ankle trying to be a cool mom on the trampoline (sadly, also true)…SOMETHING…EVERYTHING…happens to try to derail my timeline.

So I will tell you that you will have The Fracturing no later than October 2018. I’m aiming for August 2018 but I don’t want to say that louder than a whisper. If you know anything about editing and the book world, you will know that sort of turnaround is straight-up INSANE. Even more INSANE is that I want to get the third one ready to go even faster than that.

Know that I've got my hustle on. I started on The Fracturing in October as soon as the first book was released. Every spare moment, nap, evening, etc., I'm working on it. I’m doing this for you and I’m doing it for me. I probably should be spending more time making more advertisements and building a social media following, but all I want to do is get that second book ready for you.

Bottom line is that it’s coming. I am beyond thrilled so many of you are asking for it. You keep recommending it to others and I'll keep on my editing grind, and it'll be here before you know it.

So what are you doing in 2018? Make some goals, my dear peeps. It's not too late. Go crazy. And don’t forget to work hard and ride that fine line between exhaustion and determination. What’s the worst that can happen? You chase down one of your dreams and actually get it?

Let’s do this. 2018 is our year. Momma of Commas out.