Five Before the End
Five things I want to accomplish before 2027
With July coming to a close and with it, the summer lull, I’m planning out my major author goals to close out 2026. I, like many people, got caught up in summer’s siren call and spent a majority of it travelling and spending time with family. Not to mention, my school aged children were on summer break which vastly cut into my writing time!
With back to school shopping complete and plans to squeeze the last bits of fun, late nights, and later mornings, set, I’m looking to the future and what I want to accomplish when things settle back into it’s typical rhythm.
My top and most important goal that I’d like finished before the end of August is completing this round of edits. More than that, I want to be done with all large edits and have only line level left.
September- My top goal is to have a beta read. (subscribe to be the first to here when these go live!). I’ve been looking forward to this since for over a year!
October- This is the big one! I want to start querying this month! After making final edits from beta reader feedback, I hope to be in a position to look for an agent.
November- knowing that querying can be a long journey, I plan to use this time to start on a new project!
December- the holiday season means that many agents take a break so I’ll pause querying until next year unless things have progressed before then. So my goal is to finish the first draft of my new project.
Those are my big five for the next five months! There are many smaller steps along the way that support these goals such as building an agent list and finding reputable beta readers, that will make things achievable. I’m aware that there are many things that can get in the way and delay the results I’m hoping for, but having goals gives me direction.
I plan to do monthly updates as well as share my thoughts on the finer aspects of getting a book ready for querying here on Substack so subscribe to stay in the loop!
I’ve always admired writers who are able to break down their goals this specifically. It’s never come naturally to me, but this has inspired me to start giving it more of a go. This is the year I really want to start treating my writing like a career and not a hobby, and this seems like a really helpful habit for that! (And I like the accountability strat of actually publishing the goals, too, for others to see – might steal that one, too!). Thanks for being so transparent with your process!!