Tag Archives: personal goals

2019 Writing & Reading Goals

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Welcome to the New Year everyone! With the beginning of a new year, it’s time to start planning ahead for what we hope to accomplish in 2019. 2018, as was the case for most of us, was a year full of turmoil and heartache. While there are no guarantees that the year ahead will be better, we can only hope. As an author and blogger, I have been planning out what I hope to accomplish in the coming year. That’s why I’m going to publicly outline my goals for 2019.

Build Website

I hope to continue building my website that you guys are currently visiting. While I want to get more viewers and followers, my ultimate goal is to provide more exposure for other authors, review and preview amazing books coming in 2019, and meet some new and amazing friends in the author community. 

Read 150 Books Or More

I will make this public on Goodreads as well, but I more than surpassed my goal of books read in 2018, and so I want to challenge myself to read 150 books or more in the coming year.

Enter 2-4 Writing Contests

Writing is going to become much more frequent and a part of my life. In 2018 my own personal writing took a step back. Between my day job becoming much more frequent and a priority, building my website and taking on more responsibilities in my personal life, my writing fell to the wayside. I did publish a short novella and began working on the third novella in that series. I also wrote the fourth book in my Nightmare Wars series. However most of that writing has fallen to the wayside, not edited or reworked or even getting a second draft. 

That’s why in the coming year, I want to further my writing goals and enter at least 2-4 writing contests. This will give me the motivation not only to write, but edit and rewrite these stories and put them out there for others to see and judge. 

Submit 2-4 Stories For Anthologies

Similar to the contests, I want to submit 2-4 stories for anthologies. I get notices all the time for publications putting anthologies together and I’d love to collaborate and work with other authors in this way. 

Edit 1-2 Books Previously Published

One thing that I’ve learned in my years as a writer and blogger/reviewer is that there is always room for improvement and more lessons to be learned. When I was first starting out, I definitely failed to edit and flesh out the stories I wrote as a young writer. I want to take some of the stories I still love that I published prematurely in my writing career, and go back and fix them. I want to bring the stories to life and edit them so that readers will appreciate them more the way that I do.

Write 1-2 Novels

I have so many series in the works and so many stories floating around in my mind, that it’s time to put some of them down to paper (or a computer screen). I hope to write at least 1-2 novels in the coming year. 

Write 2-4 Short Stories

In addition to the 1-2 novels, I hope to write 2-4 short stories (not including the contests or anthologies I plan to write stories for). 

Adapt First Graphic Novel

I would love to adapt one of my novels into a graphic novel. I plan to study and learn how to write a graphic novel, and hopefully will find an artist who is willing to collaborate on the project.

Research, Investigate and Write Book On Southern California Haunting Claims

This is a passion project I hope to pursue in the coming year. My mom and I are deeply passionate about the paranormal, more specifically finding the right science behind the paranormal (we are not religious and believe there is a science that has yet to be discovered in regards to the “spirit”). One thing we have dreamed of is going to places around the world, investigating and writing about what we found/discovered. Our goal in 2019 is to try and do this by writing our first book together on local haunts in the Southern California area. 

Monthly Vlogs on Author Anthony Avina Channel

This is not specifically a writing goal, but it is related. I used to have a vlog channel called Avina Vlogs, but after all of the turmoil and changes to YouTube, I left it behind. However I loved making videos, and want to do it again. So not only will I be filming and uploading a video each month to my new YouTube channel, Author Anthony Avina, but I will be uploading them to Facebook, Instagram and hopefully my website as well. I’m doing monthly vlogs as I have a full schedule and filming daily is not an option at this time. I may look into restarting my podcast again or creating a new one, but that is not confirmed at this time.

What are your writing goals in 2019? Any books you hope to tackle in the coming year? Leave your comments below, and to keep up on whether or not I hit my goals, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and here as I post my progress.

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My 2018 Goals

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It’s a new year. 2018. The time to make changes, set goals and decide what you want your life to be. While some things are out of our control, there are so many things we as people are capable of doing to make positive changes in our lives. As an author, a blogger, a writer and a YouTuber, I have made a decision to make 2018 the year of Anthony Avina. In other words, I plan to better myself in all aspects of my career, and make this the year my goals become somewhat of a reality. I also want to improve my own personal life, including being more open about the life I’m leading with you guys, the readers. With that in mind, I thought it was time to write about my 2018 goals.

No, this isn’t a New Year’s Resolution kind of thing. Instead, I’m going to be focusing on setting goals for myself to work towards with no commitment that they will definitely happen, but with the hope that maybe, just maybe, I can accomplish these goals. So here are my 2018 goals!

Personal:

I plan to get healthier. Those of you who don’t know need to know that I am never going to be 100% healthy. I have several disabilities that hinder me and my daily life, including Dercum’s Disease (look it up), Fibermyalgia, Hashimodo’s Disease and probable Rheumatoid Arthritis (test pending). These diseases have no cure and have made it impossible to get a 9-5 standing job, to be able to run, hike, or work out normally. It’s also lead to weight gain. If I’m being honest with myself, part of it is due to depression and eating food I shouldn’t. However a lot of it is due to the diseases themselves, which some lead to weight gain you can’t control. Before all of these illnesses, I was working out. I was loosing weight and getting fit. That life of a skinny or athletic person is never going to happen for me, but I’m OK with it. I have accepted this is my life and I am striving to make 2018 the year that I at least improve my health. Already I have been doing well on a new diet, cutting out most of the carbs I used to eat in my life. I am also starting to walk with my little dog Sammy and will be working to improve the amount of walking I can do. No matter my size, I’m determined to be happy in my body and still get healthier.

I also plan to push myself to get out more. As I mentioned with the disabilities I also have depression, anxiety and social anxiety. I have a hard time conceiving a situation in which I could approach someone and strike up a conversation without any lead up. Talking with people in real life is a lot more difficult than emailing them or live chatting them. When I got sick, I had a lot of friends that suddenly stopped talking to me. It was high school, so I tell myself that they were kids who had their own lives and moved on like any other teenager and young adult would have. However it was difficult to make friends after that. This year I plan to change that. I want to converse more and talk with the online friends I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in the last couple years. I also want to travel more and meet new people, befriending them or possibly starting a relationship with a woman I meet in the world. Overall I want to push myself to be a more social person.

Professionally:

2018 is going to be the year I move forward with my career. This year, I plan to make my blog here and my YouTube channel prosper. I am dedicating myself to writing more on this blog and growing both my subscriber base and newsletter following. I want to entertain, educate and start a conversation in multiple areas on both my blog and channel. I am going to be doing way more book related posts and videos. I have gotten over 150 book review requests and that number continues to grow. I am hopeful I can build both my blog and channel into a thriving community where we can discuss books, pop culture and the world at large in a positive and happy arena.

Finally, this is the year my writing takes center stage. Towards the end of last year I was fortunate enough to get a new job working for the online publication TheGamer, a popular entertainment magazine where my articles have garnered over seven million views thus far. I want to grow my presence on the website and make that a big priority for my work, bringing the most entertaining articles possible. I have some exciting Nintendo related articles coming to the site soon. I also plan to self-publish and traditionally publish books. I have several self-published books in the works right now, and will be working to write and edit/publish more this year. Most exciting of all, I have a publisher I’m working with on my first publishing deal right now. I can’t reveal the book or the publisher yet, but I just finished the editing phase of the process and my book is now in the hands of a proofreader, so needless to say I am so thrilled that my writing career seems to be hitting an all-time high and I feel this is the start of a wonderful new phase of my life. This is where my dreams of becoming a writer begin to take shape, and I will work to make that a reality in the months to come.

Those are my main goals of 2018 guys. I hope you’ll follow along as I go on this journey to make myself and my career shine in 2018. If you guys want to watch my latest YouTube video where I talk about these goals, be sure to check out the link here! What are some of your goals of 2018? Leave them in the comments below and be sure to subscribe to my blog and sign up for my free newsletter! You get a free short story when you do and it’s free to sign up. Thanks for listening guys and I look forward to hearing from you guys!

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