#goals Mid-Year Review

Being an ambitious artist means setting goals and often having a hard time meeting them. When 2018 began, I was inspired by my favorite podcast, The Mando Method, to publicly state my author/artist goals. They recently did a mid-year review and shared an honest look at where they are at with their goals for the year.

Now it’s my turn. Here are the 6 goals I set with follow-up comments on my progress:

• Finish and release two books with soundtracks (the Masks trilogy). I am on schedule to make Mask: Persona available for pre-order on July 4. It is unlikely that I will get the third book + soundtrack, Mask: Self, finished this year, but I will be working on it.
  
• Start a Patreon account with exclusive content (music & writing). Check. I release at least 6 new things every month on the JVB/Sykophunk Patreon page: poetry, songs, short stories, remixes, revisions, videos, and a serialized novella.
  
• Finish my serialized novella, The Black Circle. On track. I have been dropping a new episode every month on Patreon. Part 7 is going up next month; I think it will end with part 9 in September.
• Start my first novel and/or interactive fiction. I just started an interactive choose-your-own-adventure type story that I would love to have out by October. As for stating the novel, I’ll consider it a victory if I at least get the outline done this year.
  
• Write more short stories and poetry for market. I have done this and submitted 10 pieces to poetry/fiction markets, with two rejections and two acceptances so far. There are a few more on my radar that I still want to submit to.
  
• Keep working on building my platform. Slowly but surely. I am in the process of updating my website, making all my social media jive, and increasing my mailing list (recently hit 100+ subscribers!).
  

Wow. I am doing surprisingly well on most of my goals, especially considering the personal milestones I have also hit this year: graduating college, getting married, and starting a new day job. Thanks to Armand and Chuck for reminding me to check in. Good luck to you guys staying on track with your goals this year.

How are you doing on your 2018 goals?