Goals For 2016 – Life, Blog & Beyond

Hello from the other side,

Okay, that was the first and last time I’m ever doing that. It’s been ages, I know. I promised to write thirty posts during November and I didn’t. It’s been a sad year for my writing all around, and I really don’t like that. So this post is simply me putting my plans for my blogs, my writing and my reading in 2016 out there. And since this is public, hopefully you guys will hold me to it and I will be motivated enough to stick to these resolutions and goals.

What have I been doing?

Literally nothing. I have been wasting away my time and energy doing absolutely nothing. I’ve been feeling very low from the past couple months, probably from mid-October and I think I’m standing on the edges of depression but books usually keep me from falling into that abyss. I’ve been reading a lot – I’ve hit seventy-five books that I’ve read this year and I really liked a lot of them. That’s probably the only silver lining. The last show I binge watched was Doctor Who, seasons 4-6 back in October-November. I’ve been losing interest in things that I’ve loved and writing has suffered the most in my opinion. Every year I write something, a short story, start a novel (probably don’t finish it) but I write. I blog – I intern with places that I can write for, but this year I haven’t done much of anything related to writing. But I hope to change that in 2016. There’ll be a 2015 Year Recap up on my blog on the 31^st (thanks to a scheduled post) since in a drastic change of plans; I’ve got people AKA three of my friends coming over for a sleepover. That’s probably the most social I’ve been all year.

I’m excited for that post because I’ve got a little jar full of chits that I put in throughout the year (okay, till October) of happy things that took place in my life  – this includes things I accomplished, things I loved, books I read, movies, shows basically, anything that made me happy. It’s nearly full and I’m really interested in seeing how 2015 was for me.

Isn’t that the truth?

Okay, enough with the chit-chat – getting on to my 2016 goals and resolutions:

Life:

• To be more happy. I want to finally feel at home with my own skin, deal with my issues of feeling out of place (there’s even a word for this: Monachopsis) and all that stuff I mentioned in my post here.

Academic:

• To finally make the proper efforts, to not do things last minute, especially when I know I can do much, much better.
• To actually make an effort to study the right way and to enjoy what I’m reading and go in with an open mind while reading books I am unfamiliar with for University papers.

Blog:

(The one that’s the important for this post)

• Post frequently, obviously. Something with either once a week or once in ten days. I aim to have at least three to five posts every month. And I am going to attempt thirty days – thirty blog posts again in 2016 and I’m going to be much more organized with my topics and blog posts this time around.
• I’m hoping to write more personal stuff – tell you guys about the things, the people, the shows, etc. that I like and why I like them. I’m opening the book of my life and letting you guys read some of it.
• I hope to write stories or post snippets of my work in progress and hopefully, I’ll be able to do much more in the future.

Writing:

• Write something, from a sentence to a chapter every week. This should help me complete one full length novel in 2016. Hell, I know people who finished 50K worth of writing in four days.
• Attempt Camp NaNoWriMo in April and NaNoWriMo in November and hit a respectable amount if not complete the goal of 50K words.
• ACTUALLY WRITE LETTERS ON TIME TO MY PEN-FRIEND. (I’M SORRY, OVIYA).

(P.S. Anyone who wants to become my pen-friend, if only through email or something, you’re welcome to do so!)

Extra-Curricular Activities in College:

• Try and participate in more fests. I only did one this year, Malhar. I don’t think being editor of the Ithaka journal really counts as doing a fest).
• Meet more people, venture out of my comfort zone of like four people that I like and speak to in college.

Reading:

• So while 2015’s goal was 65 books and I’ve hit 75 already, I hope to read a similar number. So keeping in mind that this is my last year at college and I need to graduate with a good GPA for outside-world purposes, I’m keeping it at 50 books.
• Also, I plan on reading all 54 books of the Animorphs series. A book a week or so. And the companion novels. I’d read them as a pre-teen and loved them. I want to read them all, they were my first foray into Science Fiction and I want to go back to my roots and complete the series.
• I want to read at least three classics, three steampunk novels, five LGBTQIA novels, two retellings, four series and three chicklit / adult / romance novels throughout this year.
• I also hope to demolish a sizeable chunk of my backlist books TBR, as well the physical books I own and have borrowed from my friends.
• And finally, I hope to enjoy reading as much as I’ve done this year.

Book Blog:

• Post twice every week or review books as soon as I’ve finished them.
• Post ARC reviews two weeks after publication dates so as to garner more interest for the author and the book.
• Take an interest in reading and commenting back on others’ blogs and keeping in touch with them.

Other:

• Being more open about sharing my work with people, if only to be critiqued.
• Watching more shows, movies and keeping myself open to Bollywood and other movies, which should be good since I’m studying Cinema this semester.
• Learn some skill. Anything. Something new.
• I do not want another fall midway through the year.
• Be social – attend stuff like prom, parties (here’s hoping I get invited) and generally be nice be stupid people.

Maybe get a boyfriend? *laughs until she cries*

Nope – realistic goals only.

So there you have it. These are all of my 2016 goals; hopefully I’ll be able to keep these in mind. I’m also working on being more organized; I’m creating a bullet journal and using it. I’ll be keeping the Jar of Happy Things as I’ve named it now for 2016 as well. Here’s hoping that 2016 will be a fuller one, with happiness and everything else mixed in.

Living my life by this quote.

[In the event you want to follow my book blog Books, Feels and Tears, feel free to do so. There’ll be a post going up tomorrow with details of the Reading Challenges I’ve joined, the book blogging goals I have for 2016 and general stuff for the New Year.]

Until next time,

Nia Carnelio.