Morgan’s 2023 Retrospective (Part 1)

Past Retrospectives: 2022 1/2 | 2022 2/2 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017

As 2023 comes to a close, I like to look back at the goals that January Morgan thought she’d accomplish and laugh. It’s been that sort of year.

Each year, I like to set SMART goals, and then look back and see how I did with them. Both reaching the goals and the priorities I set. It’s a good think ‘revision’ and ‘reading’ were tops of my list, because that’s where the majority of my productivity ended up.

I revised my Space fantasy –twice — and started querying it, and over half-drafted a second space fantasy. I attended 5 in-person conventions, and even wrote some poetry.

Between various writing groups, RavenCon, Balticon, Imaginarium, and CapClave, I was ON 22 panels, 4 workshops, attended 13 panels, 8 convention events, and placed 2nd in a cosplay competition. Outside of cons and panels, I attended 3 different writing groups, participated in the #authortube community, and hit my local open mic nights for writers almost regularly.

Live conventions kept me hopping, but I didn’t completely neglect my writing. But binge reading romances on Kindle Unlimited kinda destroyed the end of my year.

My Writing Goals Last Year

As always, I made sure to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound) goals — focusing on things I could actually control. As always, ordered by priority.

2023 Goals

1. Revising

• Get the feedback from my final beta reader and revise my Space Fantasy. Revise at least 1 short story.
• PARTIAL CREDIT – I revised my space fantasy twice, but didn’t revise any short stories.

2. Reading

• I’m keeping my goal at reading 52 books this year, with at least one a month being from my physical to-read shelf.
• AMAZING SUCCESS/Partial Credit – I hit a binge reading mood about 2 weeks into November, and read probably half of the 244 books I read this year since then. Probably 10% were novellas or shorter, and 90% of them were Kindle Unlimited romances. I read about 4 physical books this year.

3. Querying & Submitting

• This year, for my short stories and poetry, I’m going to try to actively submit my polished short stories to 6 markets each quarter.
• Consider revamping the second-world fantasy as not-strictly YA, and query relevant agents. Get my space fantasy into the trenches before NaNoWriMo.
• Mostly FAIL – I only see 2 submissions this year on my Submission Tracker. I could have sworn I sent out more? 1 query/rejection for my 2nd world fantasy, and 17 queries, with at least 11 rejections so far.

4. Writing

• Write new words for NaNoWriMo (even if it’s part 2 of last year’s Suburban fantasy, or a rewrite of it), 1 short story, and at least 12 poems.
• SUCCESS – Wrote 50k of a new story for NaNoWriMo, 21 poems, and a short story.

5. Blogging/Vlogging/Podcasting

• You’ll be seeing a new blog/vlog every Thursday with writing tips or writerly musings.
• With the podcast and weekly Livestream. I plan on taking a week or so off between seasons, and no more than one livestream off a quarter (unless double-booked with a convention).
• SUCCESS – Except for this literal post which is a day late, but no weeks missed.

6. Conventions / Writing Groups

• panel at 3+ conventions, attend 6+ open mic nights, 6+ monthly writer meetings, and 3 NaNoWriMo events. Plus? Staff Balticon.
• SUCCESS – I paneled 22 times at various conventions: in person at RavenCon, Balticon, Imaginarium, and CapClave, plus, virtually, the Authortube Writer’s Conference, a local school event ‘ScribbleCon’, and The Panel Room for ConCellation. Oh, and a last minute fill-in for SmofCon. I attended maybe 8 open mic nights, 7 monthly writer meetings, 1 writer retreat, 3 NaNoWriMo write-ins, and staffed Balticon.

7. Beta Readers

• This year, again, I’m going to try not to beta-read more than 3 full manuscripts for others.
• SUCCESS – I beta-read exactly 1 full length manuscript this year, revised a number of queries and synopsis with Patrick on our Queery Helpline..

Things outside this list I achieved?

• Joined TikTok, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads.
• Attended an author retreat
• Interviewed for the podcast Writers Drinking Coffee
• Set up a KoFi for people looking for support me, or get query/synopsis revision services

---

In Conclusion

I didn’t do as much as I’d hoped. As always.

Some of the issues were the consequences of decisions. The end of the year was dominated by binge reading and a lack of executive function, but the rest of the year, I over committed on conventions and didn’t spend time outside of challenges really working on my writing. Even a lot of my livestreams, I was working on maintaining my blog and not on creating or revising works.

However…

I DID get some writing done, finished two rounds of revisions on my Space fantasy, drafted 50k of a new story, grew my vlog and podcast and TikTok, worked one convention, paneled at 5 conventions, and read an average of 20 books a month!

I may have fallen short on some things, but… as I quote Les Brown every year: “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

---

How well did you do on your goals?