by Lori Domingo @loridomingo22
I’ll begin by wishing everyone a very happy New Year! Honestly, it doesn’t seem possible to me
that another year has come and gone. 2023 was a mixed bag of successes and failures, with
plenty of trials thrown in just to keep me humble. 
Part of what I like to do at the beginning of the year is reflect on the year I’ve left behind and take stock of how far I’ve come in many areas of my life, but especially in terms of my writing. I finished both my MFA thesis novel and my collaborative devotional project; I self-published both books (albeit rather unexpectedly); and I’ve written the first fifteen pages or so of what will hopefully be my next novel. Because sales of both books seemed to stall, I took the liberty of mailing copies to my local Christian radio station and the Christian author whose work was so
influential on my own. Those are all good things, but in all honesty, it felt as if I was stuck in
place as far as my creative muse was concerned, however, for the second half of the year. I tried
to write, but the words just didn’t seem to be there. Not exactly how I’d envisioned finishing off
such an important year for me.
But the past is behind us and we’re looking at a blank slate in many ways and while I don’t make
resolutions, I do try to set some goals – and I try to make them realistic. I’d love to say that I’m
going to spend such-and-such number of hours working diligently on my next novel, but we all
know that life has a way of “getting in the way.” Still, I think it helps to set small goals as a
write – breaking things down into little chunks that can be checked off as we meet them. For me,
it gives me a sense of accomplishment.
So, here are a few of my writing goals for 2024:
1. Write – just sit down and write something, even if it’s not stellar. I still struggle with the
whole “the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect” thing.
2. Continue researching the setting of the novel to get a good feel of it before trying to drop
my characters into their world.
3. Finish the plot outline – yeah, I know making one of these really helps but I still tend to
push back against doing so.
4. Make a concentrated effort to learn what to do with all the working pieces of my author
platform so I can get my work out there. They’re all in place – I’m just not exactly sure
what to do with them all.
5. Write my elevator pitch for my new novel. I find it helps me with all the other moving
pieces when I’m able to sum it all up so briefly.
6. Write – have I said that already?
Okay – there you have it. Those are a few of my writing goals for this brand new year that
we’ve just stepped into. I’d be amiss as a Christian writer if I did not add that perhaps my
biggest writing goal is to glory God and share His message of love, grace, and mercy with the
readers. After all – it’s not about promoting my will and agenda, but His.
Happy New Year, my fellow writers! May 2024 treat you kindly!
Lori Domingo is a multiple award-winning Christian/Inspirational Fiction author, whose most recent devotional piece, “Seen,” received an Honorable Mention in the 91st Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition’s Inspirational Category. Lori earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University in April, 2023. Lori currently resides in the Tampa, Florida area with her spunky eighty-four-year-old dad. Visit Lori on her website, on Twitter @loridomingo22, or Facebook.