Hello Lovelies, and welcome back to the blog.
It’s a new year, which means it’s time to set some new goals! I’ve already decided on my focus word for the year, which is START. I have a lot on my plate, so let’s jump straight in to my recap of what I’m working on, and then I’ll do some goal setting to plan for this year.
I think my count right now is 23 novels. Let’s look at each of them.
Urban Fantasy Worldbuilding Umbrella
New Adult Urban Fantasy – Angels and Demons / Gods and Goddesses
#1: Has a Working Title
I have a draft of this novel that has went through multiple rewrites and was in the querying phase as of last year. I stopped querying it in June of last year after attending a writing conference where I realized it was under of the worldbuilding umbrella of novels. It needs at least one more rewrite before I can query it again.
#2: Has a Working Title
The second book in the Oblivion Duet has a working zero draft. I never finished the draft of this novel because I wanted to get a solid draft of the first book. In my mind there was no point in working on this when things were going to inevitably change whenever I changed the first book.
Adult Urban Fantasy – Vampires with Werewolves and Faeries
#1: Untitled
I started a zero draft of this novel at the beginning of last year and honestly didn’t get very far with it. It was told from two separate perspectives, and I was writing in first person for the first time, so I struggled with the voice. This too is under the worldbuilding umbrella, so even though I have a fair idea on how the vampires specifically fit into the worldbuilding universe, I for sure needed to do some more thinking about the main character and how she fit into the series, but also into the world as a whole. Some, if not most, of this thought work I have figured out now.
#2: Untitled
The original idea was a standalone, and that book has a full draft which has become the solid middle novel of what is now the Written in Blood trilogy. Though the original idea is going to stay in tact in many ways, it will not be able to do so totally unaltered. I technically have a draft of this, but until the first book is written, I don’t want to mess with the rewrite of this novel.
#3: Untitled
Before I even started writing book 1 last year, I actually outlined all three of these novels. Since I didn’t get a draft of book 1, and I didn’t get to rewrite book 2, I also didn’t get to start book 3. This has just the brief outline and hasn’t been started at all yet.
Young Adult Urban Fantasy – Gods and Goddesses
This is a fringe novel that I wasn’t sure was part of the worldbuilding umbrella projects. In writing it, I’ve discovered it is. I am almost at the end of Act 1, and it has 14,000 words or so written in the draft. I was pantsing the writing of it as a deliberate experiment and really trying to take the time to identify what it needs. I was trying to build in more and more subplot material because I tend to just follow a single plotline and that isn’t usually enough to build an entire story around.
Young Adult Books
Young Adult High Fantasy – Magic & Dragons
#1: Has a Working Title
I don’t talk about this series much because I haven’t actively worked on these books in a long time. I do, however, work from time to time, on a partial draft of a young adult high fantasy series about a girl named Nitara who gets thrown out of the Fire Guild after the death of her mentor under the pretense that she has stolen the dragon egg that they were set to transport to the king of the fire nation. In order to prove her innocence, Nitara enlists the help of a thief named Rook, to find out who really took the egg, and return it to the new King in time to renew the dragon pact for his coronation.
Obviously, people don’t want her to take the egg back to the king, they’ve stolen it for reasons and purposes unbeknownst to a twelve year old fire mage like Nitara. In order to succeed, she has to overcome both her own adversity to fire magic and her fears. But the conspiracy runs deeper than she knows and success could put herself and Rook in even greater danger.
#2-#5: Also with Working Titles
Books 2 through 5 are titled according to the nations that they represent. I have a vague understanding of where the plot has to go beyond the first book, but have not extensively plotted out the other books. Except to say that I do have some major character elements that I know need to happen, and approximately where they need to go.
Children’s Books
Children’s (4th-6th Grade) Science Fiction – A Wrinkle in Time, but Multiverses
#1: Has a Working Title
I read through my previous draft in 2022 and started (and finished) outlining the rewrite for the first book in the series, about three children looking for their lost grandfather through different styles of multiverses. That book got rewritten. In 2023, I also rewrote it again.
#2: Has a Working Title
I started outlining the rewrite for the second book in that series in 2022, continuing the adventure from another child’s Point of View and a different multiverse style, and also drafted a rewrite during NaNoWriMo 2023.
#3: Has a Working Title
Which book has space pirates hacking their way through multiple instances of the multiverse creating ever-increasing entropy in an anything-that-can-happen-will kind of way? Oh, it’s this one. And I only have a few chapters written of this book, because even though I kind of know what happens to the main plot, I didn’t have quite enough whacky mayhem subplot scenarios for the book finale to finish these novels off. But I do know how the end of the book and the conclusion of the series ties together, so it isn’t about that. This multiverse is the weirdest and hardest of them all to explain, and, if I’m being honest, to even wrap my brain around.
So I have a zero draft of this that is unfinished.
Adult Romance
Standalone Novels
Adult Romance – High School Crush Comes Back to Town
I started an outline for a completely new, adult romance book that I never thought I’d actually write.
This book is about two high school friends who become more one night at Prom. The next day, the guy ghosts, and eventually leaves for a college in the big city. They don’t speak again for six years.
Until one day, he’s back in town. And not only is he back, he’s bought the restaurant she works at. It’s his first acquisition for his father’s company, and the old man who owned the restaurant wanted to sell to someone local, someone young and with passion that he could trust. He flashes her a smile, and all the old feelings come bubbling back up to the surface, ready to drown her.
She takes her frustration out at the local gym, but eventually, he shows up there too. They’d both been athletic in high school, loving the pool and the water, but with the pool shut down, the gym really was the only place to come for exercise. And when the gym announces their yearly King and Queen lifting competition, of course he notices, and has the gall to ask her to partner with him. But he’s pushing almost twice the weight as her, and they’d always partnered together before, so she agrees.
And now there’s no space left between them. They need to work it out, or everything in their lives is going to fail.
Adult Historical Fiction
Hawaiian Monarchy Series
#1-#8: (Some of them are already titled)
I feel it’s necessary to start talking also about my Hawaiian Monarchy series. I was born and raised in Hawaii on the island of Oahu, and though I no longer live in Hawaii, I learned a lot about the islands, their history, their people, and their culture, in the first 23 years of my life.
In the United States, they teach children the history of their state, and they often teach a foreign language. I learned Hawaiian History and Hawaiian Language, learned to dance the Hula, and took many a trip to the cultural museum or a monarch’s palace where a child from another state might have gone to a national park or a bowling alley on field trips instead.
People in Hawaii watch the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival with more fervor than the Olympic Games. We have cultural fairs similar to the ones in Japan, where each class or grade level will work together to produce a cultural exhibit. In 4th grade I carved and polished my first ipu, a Hawaiian drum made from a gourd, and learned to make leis and baskets. I learned about the Monarchy of old Hawaii and about the majesty and the downfall of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
When I say that I have a project that is dear to my heart, it is true that there is no other than the story of the monarchs of Hawaii. I have had this project rolling around in my mind for a long time, and I of course want to do it justice, while also telling a compelling and accurate tale. Books are, as you’d imagine, not easy to find. But I have been thinking about this series very hard lately and it has been weighing ever more heavily on my mind and in my heart that I have got to tell these stories.
Eight monarchs. Eight Hawaiian islands. All the triumphs, majesty, disease and heartbreak in-between.
I haven’t started writing any of the books, but it’s been weighing very heavy on me lately that I need to give voice to these people and to bring eyes back to the little slice of land that I love still so much and still would call my forever home.
Goals for 2024
Now that we are both caught up, let’s talk goals for 2024.
Writing Goals:
During NaNoWriMo of 2023, I smashed through my goal of finishing the second book in the children’s science fiction rewrite. It came out so good, I cannot wait for people to read it. But because I finished it early and it didn’t yet have 50,000 words, I started working on the only other thing I had on a backburner (everything else needs a complete reboot/reread and it’s NaNoWriMo, there’s no time). I worked on my outline of my Adult Romance novel.
Even so, I realized my “outline” was over 30k words at the midpoint, and was going to be far longer than most of my full drafts. So I stopped calling it an “outline” and started zero drafting this thing that I never intended to write.
Right now, I am still half in romance novel brain and half in children’s science fiction brain space. That’s where I currently want to stay. The plan, as it stands is to continue working on the children’s science fiction novels as a primary focus and use the unfinished zero draft of the romance novel as a “carrot” project if I’m further ahead in my goals than I plan to be. This is actually what I did for NaNoWriMo and it worked so well, I can’t even tell you.
January – I want to start writing the outline for the third book in the children’s science fiction series.
February – Finish the outline and start writing book three of the children’s science fiction series.
March – I have blog posts to write for the quarter, and podcasts to record, but I also want to keep writing book three of the children’s science fiction series.
April – Finish writing the third book in the children’s science fiction series. Right now I don’t know how long it’ll be, but I can guess that this should be enough time.
May – Start revising and editing the first book in the series.
June – I have blog posts to write for the quarter, and podcasts to record, but I also want to search for and book an Editor for all three books.
July – Start revising and editing the second book in the series.
August – Start revising and editing the third book in the series.
September – I have blog posts to write for the quarter, and podcasts to record, but I also want to send the books to whichever editor I chose back in June.
October – Preptober – choose another novel to start in October. Do the work to get it ready to write in November.
November – Write whichever novel I chose.
December – Finish writing whichever novel I chose, start planning for 2025 (that sounds crazy!). I have blog posts to write for the quarter, and podcasts to record once I figure 2025 out.
My focus word this year is START, and I seriously want to keep it top of mind in order to meet or exceed my goals this year.
Business Goals:
I want to continue my goal of adding one new product to my shop a month. It doesn’t seem like a big ask, except that it does take some time to create products, and to list them. If you’re wondering, no, I haven’t made much in terms of sales. I think Amazon paid me less than $3 in book sales last year. My ‘business’ is, as it has always ever been, in the negatives.
I’m obviously fine with that and I keep trying anyway and funding the website, the printer ink, my addiction to really smooth-writing pens, and all of it out of pocket, because book writing is my actual passion and the thing that I want to make my career.
Marketing Goals:
A change from years previous is that I am slowing down the blog posts this year. I am still going to be writing them, but they will be bi-weekly instead of weekly. I am going to try my hardest to pre-write them so that they will all automatically post for you on Friday.
In addition to the blog, the Hello Lovelies podcast is nearing 200 episodes. I’d appreciate you checking it out and giving it a rating or review. It features the same content that is on the blog in a different form that you can listen to instead of having to read every week. As with the blog, I intend to pre-record episodes and also have them ready for you by Friday.
Did you know I have a Patreon account where I post exclusive content for subscribers? In another goal for the year, I also need to continue to upload one piece of exclusive content for my Patrons. If you enjoy my blog content and would like to help me keep creating more of it on a more regular basis, please consider becoming a patron to unlock this month’s exclusive content, as well as the backlog of other content by heading over to my Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/authorrachelcooper
Travel, Training, Meetings Goals:
I have a writing partner and she and I do our best to attempt to hang out and specifically talk about our writing once a week.
I already know where our state writing conference is going to be held, and it’s relatively close. I have enjoyed the conference the last three years I attended, and I would love to be able to attend it again this year.
So there you have it. Those are my year goals for 2024.
Discussion Questions
- Would you be interested in taking a course that’s focused on current Social Media Marketing platforms and techniques for book writers?
- How often do you set goals and how often do you check in with them?
- How was your year in general last year?
- How many yearly goals do you set, and how far out do you plan them in advance?
- How many goals did you set last year, and how many of them were you able to accomplish?
