2024 Reading and Writing Plans

Reading Plans

I'm not making any drastic changes to my reading life this year. I set my Goodreads goal to 200 books, but I won't be surprised if I exceed it, and I decided to stick with seasonal TBRs. 

I have just a few goals: 

• Read at least one short story per week. I intended to read more short stories last year, and I did read a few anthologies, but I often found it tedious to stick with one theme or author for too long. By committing to one story per week, I can feel free to jump around between different collections and authors without worrying about finishing a book.
• Read 30 minutes on Kindle app daily. I'm finding this somewhat difficult to get in every single day, but I'm still going to try to get into a routine for at least the weekdays. The true goal here is to read more books from Kindle Unlimited, Netgalley, and the books I own on Kindle. 
• Read 40 books that I own in some format. Books from my physical TBR, Kindle TBR, and Audible library will all count toward this goal.
•  Take notes on some books. The books I have in mind for this are the ones I read with the Close Reads and Literary Life podcasts as well as with my book club and any other classics or "serious" books I pick up.

Writing Plans 

When I first decided on this list, I didn't quite have a vision for how I wanted my writing life to look this year, but a week into the year, I have figured it out. This is the year for reclaiming the fun of writing. The past two years have mostly been about proving to myself that I can write fiction and submitting to a variety of places to see what I could get into. This year, I still have plans to submit, but only to things that I'm actually excited about. 

Here are my writing goals: 

• Skip Flash Fiction Magic at least once a month. Since I first joined in April 2022, I have never missed an FFM prompt. I have decided to intentionally break that streak so that I don't feel endlessly compelled to keep it going.  I also want to feel free to skip multiple weeks if I'm devoting my writing time to another project. 
• Submit to 4 Reedsy Prompts contests. I get the emails about this contest every week but have yet to ever write a story for any of the prompts. This year I'm aiming to do one per quarter, as long as there is a theme that interests me.  
• Submit to Woman's World 15 times. I am determined to increase my chances of getting published in Woman's World by submitting more often. I think, without a lot of anthologies, and with less pressure to do FFM every week, this should be doable. 
• Submit to one anthology. Right now, I'm leaning toward having this be another Dragon Soul Press anthology but that could change. 
• Write a short story collection. I have an idea in mind for this, but I'm still working out the details. I'd like to start in February.