A Very Honest Set of Goals

Disclaimer: This article contains coarse language and brutal honesty, reader discretion is Fucking advised.

For those of you who have read my latest piece, I’m on a Time Limit, you will know that I was playing with the idea of stepping away from Vocal to better focus on my personal writing goals.

Well, I want to put any unease I may have caused to rest. I have decided to stay on Vocal and will still be an active member of the community as much as I can. But perhaps at a lower capacity than expected.

I plan to take a step back so I can focus on my writing more and through the course of this article I will outline how/ why I plan to find a much-needed balance between the two.

As the saying goes “I’m planning to be a background character and less of a main cast member”. 

Not sure if it’s a real saying or if I made it up… 🤔 Anyways…

I want you to think of me like Ginny from HP. Meaning I will poke my head out now and then but won’t be as prominent as I have been this last year. Still magical but not a focal point and I’m really excited about it.

Haha… I think I’m punny.

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That being said I would still like to take a moment and celebrate some of my successes from this past year because that’s important!! 

Right D? 😉

So here’s a quick highlight real of my 2023:

• 21 top stories (none before this year)
• 105 stories published in total (on Vocal)
• 102k + words published
• My best/ most read story was The Vocal Graveyard
• Published one book on Amazon: Jogger’s Trail

“Wait… look, it all sounds great when you say it like that. But the truth is most of that was just luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I nearly always had help…”

- Harry Potter in The Order of the Phoenix 

Couldn’t have said it better myself and I’m not even going to try to!

I feel that’s the best way to express how I feel about these achievements. Humbled and gobsmacked that I’ve even been able to get this far.

Am I proud of it all? YES! Am I blown away by those stats? YES!

But I am also super critical of myself and can’t help playing the ‘shoulda- coulda- woulda’ game. I think about how many pieces I deleted, that never saw the light of day. I think about how much of my writing I took time to create that will just end up dying here in my Vocal Graveyard and that kind of pisses me off. 

I’m a redhead… we redline a pretty quickly. It’s a thing, don’t worry about it.

That being said, I’m fired up and motivated and inspired to do better this year. Even though I did better than I thought, I still want to push myself to do better and do more things that bring me joy.

Like writing, lots and lots of writing!!!

So I have five goals for myself for this coming year that I would like to share with you all!

Goal One:

Publish and Sell More Books.

I have decided that my short stories and mini-series need to continue being enjoyed and loved because I’m still not ready to let go. So I will be collecting all of my stories with similar themes and genres to compile them into books. Then I shall publish them as I get enough to fill the pages adequately.

If you have any fun book titles you wouldn’t mind me stealing from you, please feel free to share them!

I also plan to continue working on my actual novel: Fox In the Hole. 

With the goal of it being published by spring so I can start writing the sequel.

So I will also be trying to use Vocal as a platform to not only give you all a taste of my work (3 chapters from Fox in the Hole) but also to start working on a little self-promotion. Hence where the selling more part comes in, with the hope that I can entice you all to at least a review for me! 😅

Also worth noting I am totally up for a one-and-one swap: I’ll buy yours and you buy mine kind of situation!

Goal Two:

Write more versatile pieces and try out new genres.

So I have already been dabbling in many genres; sci-fi, fiction, fantasy, dystopian, YA, horror, etc. But one category I need to get up the courage to try is Smut…. Yes, you read me correctly. Smut.

I’ve always been interested in it and somehow always accidentally write snippets of it into my work. But these bits always get edited out and never see the light of day.

Well, that is about to change. 😈

This is your warning to prepare thy selves, my piece called An Ode to my Breakfast is tame in comparison to my imagination.

Goal Three:

I aspire to win or place in at least one challenge.

I know. How bold of me to just outwardly say it, but I would love to have an achievement like that. 

That being said, one does not simply win a challenge because they desire it, they must earn it.

So here is how I plan to do that.

I plan to continue to work on my skills as an author by way of trying new narrative techniques and adding more rich settings and characters to my tales. Or at least using all the planning I do to create the characters in my writing, actually putting that stuff to use instead of letting it sit in my archives forever. I also want to do more concept and world-building, then find a way to work it into my writing in a natural way that doesn’t overwhelm the readers. 🥵

Goal Four:

Write EVERYDAY.

One of the things I was most disappointed with myself for this past year was that I didn’t do nearly as much writing as I wanted to. I did a lot of reading and supporting other Creators, which was also wonderful. But it wasn’t the reason I joined Vocal.

I joined Vocal to hone my craft, do more writing and get some invaluable feedback on my work.

Mark and Dana have been my best critics, thank you, gentlemen!

That being said, I will be getting myself to do my writing before I hit up Vocal. This means I won’t be around to do as much reading as is my usual and I want to apologize for that.

But I also want to stress that I’m doing something with this goal that I’ve never or have very rarely done in my life. I’m choosing myself.

And it feels fucking wild!!!! In the best way imaginable. 🥰

So that being said, I’m going to be a bit selfish this year but I will still make an effort to pop in and check in on you all! I will try to do some reading but please know that this is nothing personal, I’m just choosing me this year!

Goal Five:

Enter Every Challenge.

I think another great part of my authorial development is to do more challenging of myself. Last year I only entered challenges that I thought were in my wheelhouse, but that didn’t do too much to build my skill set and expand my horizons. So this year, I am going to enter EVERY challenge.

Originally when I came up with this goal, I was only thinking of Vocal official challenges but now I’m thinking I’ll take on all of them. Whatever comes my way, will be my next challenge and I will meet it eagerly as I put up an entry to the best of my ability.

Yep, even poetry… sorry in advance!! 😂

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Well, that’s my To Do List  Very Honest Set of Goals for Vocal 2024! Wish me luck and I shall also wish you all luck in achieving your goals too!!

As always, thank you for reading,

- Donna Fox (HKB)