Monday 1 January 2018

Spoonie Writer: Starting A New Year & Goals


STARTING A NEW YEAR & GOALS

May I be among the first to wish you all a Happy 2018! It's a brand new year, a fresh start and with it the chance to look ahead and see what you can achieve in the coming year. As you may have seen from my most recent vlog I made a list of goals for the year. All of which are listed below should you wish to check them out. I also wanted to do a piece about that whole new start of a fresh year when you're also battling chronic conditions.

I've been chronically ill for the majority of my life. Of course, with my birthday in a few days and my health finally starting to take an upturn, I'm starting the year on a better footing than I started 2017. This time last year I was worried that NICE wouldn't approve the trial drug. Now I'm going in a couple of weeks for my fourth dose of said drug. It's amazing the difference a year can make and that applies to writing too. When you're juggling a chronic illness and a creative pursuit, it sometimes feels like shovelling snow when it's still snowing. Like you're never really going to get to where you're going.

I know that most writers aren't like me in that it takes them longer to complete a book, everyone has a different writing and creating process. I've tweaked mine over the years to make sure that I have the most output for what I'm able to put it. It's a lot of work, and doesn't leave much time for anything else, but it does work for me. While you're looking at making your own goals - whether they be monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or yearly, make sure that you leave time for yourself, time for surprises and time for successes too.

I've found that if you pack things too tightly, all it's going to do is lead to heartache because when your health kicks in and it needs this or that, you're going to feel like you're failing when you're not. The first big important lesson I learned as a spoonie was that everything takes as long as it takes. Everyone, even those with the same conditions as you, reacts and deals with things differently. Even if you meet someone who is a mirror image of conditions, symptoms and all the rest, they are still going to approach and manage in different ways. The problem of chronic illness is that it fluctuates from time to time and you can never really predict how it's going to hit you next.

So my advice for those fellow spoonie writers is be kind, be careful, and leave space to flare because we know it's going to happen whether we want it to or not. And with that, I leave you with my own goals and the hope 2018 is filled with spoons and great things for you. Have a good new year!

MY GOALS FOR 2018:


-> 1. RELEASE DYING THOUGHTS - SIXTH CHANGE IN MAY 2018
-> 2. RELEASE WALK A MILE IN JUNE 2018
-> 3. FINISH WRITING INVISIBLE & CRAMPING CHRONICLES: THE THIRD ACHE
-> 4. START VISIBLE & CRAMPING CHRONICLES 4
-> 5. GET UP TO 4K NEWSLETTER SUBS
-> 6. EDIT DYING THOUGHTS - SEVENTH DEATH READY FOR RELEASE IN 2019
-> 7. GET UP TO 500 SUBS ON YOUTUBE, 500 ON INSTAGRAM & 1K ON TWITTER
-> 8. GET UP TO 240 RATINGS & 190 REVIEWS ON GOODREADS FOR ALL BOOKS COMBINED
-> 9. DO 12 EVENTS IN 2018
-> 10. DO 5 QUESTIONS FROM READERS IN 2018
-> 11. KEEP UP WITH AUTHORTUBE CHANNEL
-> 12. DO MARKETING PLAN FOR DYING THOUGHTS - SIXTH CHANGE & WALK A MILE
-> 13. DO A SIGNING IN 2018
-> 14. SUBMIT TWO BOOKS FOR AWARDS IN 2018
-> 15. DO TWO GIVEAWAYS OF MY OWN IN 2018
-> 16. PLAN TO RELEASE LIGHTS OUT & DYING THOUGHTS - EIGHTH ENDING IN 2019
-> 17. REACH 100 PEOPLE IN READER'S GROUP
-> 18. DO #JOWRIMOGO FOR ALL OF 2018
-> 19. KEEP UP WITH WRITING LOG
-> 20. MAKE NEW CONTACTS AND KEEP UP WITH OLD ONES

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