New Years Resolutions

    Normally I laugh at people who make New Years Resolutions because I'm the kind of person who makes changes whenever I realize I need to make a change, not just once a year. Plus, resolutions without dates are just dreams, not actual goals. And because these are things I really want to accomplish, I'm planning on giving myself an end date for each one.

• Finish draft 3 of Powerful. I'm currently doing another pass through where I'm implementing feedback chapter by chapter and making notes. I'm on chapter 9 out of 36. That's 1/4th of the way through! I plan on reviewing one chapter a day, which means this pass through will be done on January 27th. After that, I plan on actually implementing the edits (which are mostly minor, mainly description because that is my nemesis), which I'll do one chapter a day again. That means I'll finish the third draft by March 4th. I'll regularly update my progress here, and once I start actually writing the third draft, I'll update the word count on the sidebar!
• Send out Powerful to beta readers. After this third draft is finished, I'm going to give copies of Powerful to beta readers for feedback. I will also go through Powerful from start to finish without stopping and make my own comments. I plan on dedicating a full month to this, so this will be finished by April 4th. I'm going to give myself 2 weeks to go through feedback and make notes from each readers' comments and questions, so that puts me at April 18th.
• Finish draft 4 of Powerful. I will give myself 36 days to make edits, one day for each chapter. That means this draft will be finished by May 24th. 
• One final passthrough of Powerful. I will give myself one week to make a final passthrough of Powerful to check for SPAG and make the necessary changes. This means I will finalize Powerful on May 31st.
• Submit Powerful. That's right, starting June 1st, I plan on submitting Powerful to publishers. I've got a few in mind to start out with, then I get to play the waiting game.
• First draft of anthology piece. That's right, we're already starting on our next anthology! It's got a great theme and I'm really excited. The first draft of my piece is due February 19th. I'm going slowly with Powerful edits because I want to make sure I have enough time to keep up with this anthology. Then I get to read through and critique all the others!
• Second draft of anthology piece. The second major draft is due April 16th. That means everyone has to be done reading my piece by then and I have to make all the necessary changes.
• Final draft of anthology piece. After April 16th, my piece will be beta read and I'll be given final feedback to implement. Once my final draft is finished, it'll get proofread and be finalized. That's due May 14th. Then I get to prepare for the release which will by announced at some point in the future.
• Finish first draft of A Fairy's Tale. I've had to put this piece to the side for the time being. I've been so excited about it for years, but I'm not sure the plot is really ready to be seen yet. I want to finish the first draft by the end of the year, then it'll get put to the side for a good long time until I'm ready to pick it up again.
• Start unnamed fairy tale retellings. I've got at least two more fairy tale retellings in the works right now. They've been completely outlined, and another two have been summarized within a few sentences, but have yet to be expanded. We'll see what happens with those, but at least I've got lots more projects to work on for the foreseeable future!
• Major announcement! That's right, in another two weeks, I get to share with you guys a major announcement. It's 3 1/2 years in the making and I can't wait to finally celebrate with everyone this accomplishment! The only problem is that after June, the rest of the year is kind of fuzzy. So I'm only posting New Year's Resolutions for the first half of the year. Expect another major announcement when I've figured out what the heck I'm doing the second half of the year, but it'll presumably have something to do with those last two bullet points.

    Some of my goals are set in stone, some of them aren't yet. Things will definitely change as this year progresses, and who knows how many more story ideas I'll come up with over the next few months! All I can say is that I'm really excited for 2017. It's shaping up to be an awesome year for me.

    What are your goals for the upcoming year?

    ~Allie