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I cannot believe it’s 2023 already. Where did the last three years go?

Actually, let me tell you…other than the global pandemic, quitting my teaching job, being out of work for six months, and taking the only job I could at Starbucks in 2020, my life has greatly improved since then.

A recent recap of what’s positively changed since then is thus: I have been writing. Between 2020 and 2022, I’ve written over 400,000 words. I drafted, edited, and published an entire fourteen-book series, albeit under another pen name.

I’ve written more than the completed series, but that’s another topic for another day. Essentially, not teaching anymore, not having to grade mountains of papers—and not editing anthologies anymore since I closed the publishing press—my writing has soared, and that’s the best change for my life.

I also got a job where I could write, edit, film videos, take pictures, and whatever it is I need to do for my own work while there. Pair that with the four other freelancing jobs I gained in 2022, and this girl has found herself in such a good place.

I wish it weren’t true, but if not for the pandemic, I bet I would still be making peanuts as an adjunct college English professor—fulfilled to a point but impoverished, exhausted, and unable to do much else.

Okay, preamble over. Let’s talk about my goals for 2023. They’re massive. I’m not ashamed nor daunted by the fact that I won’t likely complete them all. If they aren’t there, I won’t try for them, so everything I want to do is listed.

Let me also say that this mentality isn’t for everyone. I do not beat myself up over not completing goals. I know that life can change at any moment, and therefore, so can goals. I’m a pretty go with the flow person in general, but I simply like to push myself—hard.

I have eleven projects or categories that my 2023 goals focus on. I won’t belabor the points here, they seem pretty self-explanatory, but if you want to hear me ramble about them, check out the companion video here.

So, we’ve got a lot of writing.

I just added them all together, and y’all, this number is RIDICULOUS!

I expect to write 330,000 words in 2023.

Who am I kidding?

Okay, so maybe a little more backstory and explanation as to why I would assign myself this impossible task.

Before 2020, I wrote about 75,000 words on average because I published about a book a year, plus a short story because of previously listed obligations. My goals were to try to write every day, to get to 250 words when I sat to write, then 500, and etc. But the last two years showed me that I can build that writing muscle and accomplish so much more than I have before. I suppose we will see this year if I have an average, aka now that I have the time to write whenever I want—kind of—have I reached my new equilibrium for what I can do, OR can I continue to build that muscle and accomplish more?

By the way, I can now smash out 1,200 to 1,600 words on average in an hour or two, especially when I have my weekly writing dates with Betteanne and Katelyn. The community and therapy during these sessions was absolutely a game changer.

All right… 

Goal #1: Reboot series.

I wrote my first reboot book last year. It’s a fan fiction of the series I just completed on Saturday. It’s not edited yet, but that’s part of the goal, and I want to publish it on Vella in a serialized fashion to test out that market and format. If it doesn’t work, I’ll publish more traditionally.

I also want to draft, edit, and publish book two in the reboot series, Rosie’s story. Plus, I have another short story to write and book three to plan/plot.

Goal #2: Loving Them Both.

This was one of last year’s goals, and it just got away from me. Although I would like to point out that I did reach my planned goal, word wise, for this book, but as I’ve been experiencing lately, it’s going to be a longer book than I anticipated.

So, I have about 45k in the book currently, and it feels like another 25k or so will wrap it up.

Then, we’re onto our normal progression: edit, prepare, and publish this book in 2023. It will finish out one of the two sagas within the Broken World series, and that is exciting.

Goal #3: Broken World Series.

This is a massive goal and probably where most of my word count comes from this year. I need to finish the stories I didn’t complete in 2022: Anthemos and Ry & Eli, but then tack on some new shorts, like Mark & Ari’s, and Vinnie & Nani’s. I do, however, have both of those started with previous short stories that I plan on expanding.

Plus, I want to plot, write, edit, and prepare publishing of the final book in the Blood Phoenix saga. Y’all, it is time to wrap up Ria’s story, and I am beyond excited to see the ending I’ve had in my head for more than a decade come to fruition. It will be about 100,000 words or so though. At least, that’s what it feels like right now. Book four was ~90,000 words, so…

Yeah, I’ve got a lot of ground to cover and a lot of threads to wrap up. It should be a doozy.

Goal #4: Lishky shorts.

This is a goal I implemented for my erotic pen name, Autumn Lishky. I published a book/story every two weeks last year. The series and twelve shorts: one for each month. It was a lot, but it was also a nice reprieve from the other push for longer works.

I’m doing it again this year—the twelve shorts—to keep the algorithm playing nice while creating a greater backlist for new readers to have access to. Simple as that.

Goal #5: I Love Vampire Novels.

I freelance for them, and we’re starting a book club this year, a book box, a reading challenge, and some other excellent stuff. Here’s a link to their 2023 reading challenge. It should be a lot of fun!

Oh, side note, I am totally reading challenge crazy this year. You’ll see.

Goal #6: Freelance work.

As mentioned before, I have four regular freelance jobs that I work every year, some once or twice, and others weekly. I plan to continue with them, build a few more nonfiction books in the schedule, and create a proper schedule for me to find routine. But jobs tend to be fluid, and I never know what I’ll be doing one week to the next.

I’m implementing focused days to accomplish this. We’ll see if it works.

Goal #7: Family.

We’ve been having more reading time, movie time, and game time together. I want to continue that with game nights, weekly movie nights, and a few other family/couple activities.

I’ll also be going to NY twice this year again, especially for my mom’s birthday, since it will be the first one without my stepdad.

Goal #8: Money.

I’m going to pay off my credit card. Should happen by the end of February.

Build a savings for a house. Already started, and I’m excited to get that moving.

Do quarterly taxes for 2023 and maintain a profit/loss spreadsheet.

Manifest. It was fun and put me in a great mindset about money.

Etsy: I’m going to keep creating and putting up planning printables and my yearly game boards, etc.

Goal #9: Health.

I’ve made progress here: working out consistently, eating less, drinking more water, etc. But I do have other things I need to work on: flexibility and stretching, physically.

Most of my goals are mental or medical this year. I want to start meditating—however that winds up looking for me. I want to journal just to get the stupid shit I don’t need in my head out of it. And I need to get bloodwork done and go to the doctors. I’ve been avoiding it. I don’t like doctors. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with them, and it just needs to happen. Only they can check certain things, so there we go.

Goal #10: Market(ing).

Emails—I need to build and maintain them for both pen names.

The Broken World website needs revamped a bit. Updated, mostly.

Try Amazon and Bookbub ads for the Blood Phoenix saga.

Learn to make reels and post on Tik Tok, which ugh, by the way.

And create my Wooing the Alpha physical box set for Autumn Lishky.

Easy peasy, right?

Goal #11: Skills.

I have marketing courses I need to finish. I want to build stores on my websites. It’s time to refine my food photography and build a cookbook.

And I want to learn how to use a saw. I’m afraid for my fingers…

Okay, that’s it.

Yeah, I know, how long is this post? How many things are on my goals lists? Don’t judge me. I’m aware that I’m a maniac workaholic.

But y’all, I have things to do.

It’s time to go do it.

Let me know what you’re working on in 2023.