Writing Wednesdays: My writing goals for 2020

Happy New Year, everyone! And with the New Year (and a new decade) comes everyone's resolutions and goals - so in this post, I'm going to share my writing goals for the year.

Last year was a pretty crazy one for me. I ended up working on eight different books (you can read a bit about them here, back when it was only seven books...) and I'll be talking more soon about how I juggled all of that.

This time last year, I didn't even know for sure that I'd have anything published in 2019. I didn't know we'd be publishing The Beach House, and we didn't have a contract for my Christmas book either. With that in mind, I'm sure there will be things that crop up unexpectedly this year (I sure hope so!) - but for now, let's just focus on what I do know about...

1. More of The Kissing Booth madness!

With The Kissing Booth 2: Going the Distance out NOW (after seven years of working on it... yikes!), another spin-off called The Kissing Booth: Road Trip coming in March for World Book Day, and the second movie set to come out later this year... Well, while there might not be much 'writing' going on there, it's still plenty of book-related work for me! And I'm really looking forward to it all.

2. Editing (and hopefully publishing) my new YA book

Remember that book I wrote in five weeks, in October/November? Well, last I heard, we had vague plans to publish this year, so I'm banking on doing a fair bit of editing on that book!

3. Publishing more adult books?!

I finished a new adult book (I say adult... it feels more like adult-in-training, since the main characters are twenty-somethings!) last February, and finished a bunch of edits in September. I'm hoping my agent will secure a publishing deal for it this year. And, I'm planning on two more books in the same genre - one of which I started writing last year, and the other I've got plenty of ideas for. I'm determined to finish the first drafts of both of those throughout 2020!

4. YET ANOTHER NEW BOOK???

Literally five days after I finished writing that YA book in five weeks, after thinking 'I'll take the rest of the year off', I got an idea for ANOTHER new adult book. And it - would - not - go - away. So... I started writing it. I'm planning to finish the first draft of that one by Valentine's Day (worked out last year as a reasonable marker to use as a deadline!)

5. More. consistent. blogging.

Inevitably, my blogging seems to come in cycles. It flags around spring, and again in autumn. I have no real idea why. It's not for lack of ideas or planning. I just... never seem to get around to it? It always falls to the bottom of my priorities, and I, also inevitably, end up feeling disappointed in myself. This year, I'd like to put more effort into being more consistent with posting regularly - and posting more in spring and autumn, when I tend to go quiet!

(I know this isn't quite so bookish as my other goals, but still a writing goal, as far as I'm concerned!)

6. Keep journalling

Another non-bookish-but-still-writing goal! In 2019, I kept a journal beside the bed. If there was lots going on, or I was feeling particularly low or excited about something, I'd journal. If things were pretty average, I'd made sure to journal and 'check in' every couple of weeks. This really helped my mental health, and it definitely helped me stay on track - and stay sane - with all the book stuff I had going on, so it's something I want to make sure I do again this year.



And that takes us up to... actually writing three books, and (hopefully!) doing edits on two. Five books for 2020. Seven, if you count the two TKB ones being published.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

Compared to eight last year, I feel like I'm getting off way too lightly. I love feeling busy and productive, and love writing, so part of me feels like I should be pushing myself to write more, but... I'm also trying to be sensible, and focus on finishing these books as a priority. 

Who knows, maybe I'll end up finding even more books to work on as the year goes on, depending on how well these ones go!


Do you have any writing goals for this year? Share them in the comments, or tell me over on Twitter, @Reekles.