What I'm Working On (for 2024)

Don't call them goals; call them intentions.

For the last at least 10 (maybe closer to 15) years, I have chosen a word to guide my goals and choices and attention for the year. I’ve used words like magic, practice, nurture, brave, and others. For 2023 my word was ease, with the intention of nesting in my new house, giving myself a break on things that are hard and manifesting solutions for things. And frankly, I think it worked pretty well.

So well, in fact, that I had a hard time coming up with a word for 2024. I don’t want to push myself too hard. I don’t see the need for big dramatic changes in my life, to be honest. I’m satisfied with what I have and where I’m going and how long it is taking to get there. What do I need to focus on in order to keep calling in more of the same?

So… 

For 2024 word for the year is ALIGNMENT.

For me, this means paring down even more and being very deliberate in what I add back in. It means not spending $200 on a fancy dinner out, when I’m perfectly happy with a $50 dinner out and can save the rest for a train ticket. It means waiting months if necessary to buy the perfect couch instead of just getting the one that is available and in my budget this instant.

For example, I’ve spent the last few years putting out as many books under my pen name as I could manage without going crazy, and now feels like the right time to actually focus more on marketing those books that already exist. It is in alignment with my overall goals to grow that (mostly) passive income of leveraging existing assets instead only pushing to make more. But also, as much as it might help sell books, I don’t know that starting a YouTube channel is in alignment with what I want my days to look like.

Being in alignment means saying no to things that are just okay so I can say yes to things that excite me.

Being in alignment also means more nesting and updating my house, making it exactly what I want in a home for years to come.

That said … here is what I am currently working on and more specific intentions for various aspects of my life.

Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash

Home

I started painting the bedrooms last year, and am (very slowly) getting through other house projects and decor. The one thing I really want to get done in 2024 is my office. Paint, curtains, rug, furniture, organization, maybe even some space that can work as a background for video. Hang art, figure out a visual planning something or other. Kanban board? Giant wall calendar? I don’t know. Still thinking on that.

Right now the room is chaotic, cluttered, with boxes still full after moving. Things I should maybe get rid of since goodness knows when I have last used them.

Other house projects that are possibilities for this year would include painting the rest of the house (and hanging my gallery wall), touching up the window/trim paint on the exterior of the house, finishing the details I still want to do in the bedroom and buying the furniture I’ve had in mind for my basement to set up my movie room.

Editing

I am not currently seeking out editing clients, but I will take whatever comes to me. Because I don’t rely on this freelance work to pay my bills, I can be more flexible about my schedule when they come to me. As far as I know, I am expecting to edit the month of March, and that might be it for the rest of 2024. I will edit whatever Spencer writes, but I don’t know anything definite about his schedule. We’ll see.

Either way, it feels really really good to know that I don’t need to hustle to find clients who both like my work and are willing to pay my rates. Hopefully in future years, this won’t even be a category.

Secret Pen Name #1

Writing goals: This is the pen name that generates 98% of my income (maybe more, tbh), and so is where I spend the bulk of my working time. The last year was one of growth and solid sales, so my hope for 2024 is to just hang on to that success. I have two books up for preorder for existing series. I have plans to write and release the first three books of a new series. Anything beyond that will depend on income needs and time available. I have plenty (plenty) of ideas and plans to fill my time for years to come.

Marketing goals: I need to get better about marketing this pen name in general. I don’t use social media for it at all. I’m just starting to learn how to use ads to promote the books more. I am tentatively considering starting a new substack publication focused on the sub-genre of this pen name (for visibility, SEO, maybe income, etc). But, again, it depends on time.

Secret Pen Name #2

This pen name has not officially been launched, but I have written some pieces that belong to it. My goal for 2024 is to finish another novella for this pen name. And … that’s it. I might publish something, but really I just care about finishing the 30k word book I’ve already started, and then figure out what to do with it later. Writing for this pen name is SO different from my other pen name that short projects work as good palate cleansers in between longer projects for the other.

Amy Teegan writing

I am just so incredibly relieved that I managed to get out a novella for this pen name last year. If I can do another small publication this year I will be so happy. But my more reasonable goal is to finish the draft of the next book (still ~70k left to write) and get it in the hands of beta readers. Once that is done maybe I’ll write another novella. Maybe some short stories to collect in the future. Maybe the first draft of another big novel.

This is unlikely to be a significant income source for a while. It’s slow going, which is just fine with me, but because I need to, you know, eat and stuff, it can’t be a high priority.

I love writing literary fiction, though. I love reading it, I love planning it, I love thinking about it. I have plenty of ideas for books for this pen name, for years to come. Ideally, part of getting the aspects of my life more in alignment this year will result in my having more time to work on these projects of my heart.

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Really my goal for 2024 is to continue to let my life be easy. Balance work and rest and not run myself too ragged. Modest goals and being pleasantly surprised when I get more done. Every day coming closer and closer to a daily existence that looks more like retirement than like holding up the system of capitalism.

And through it all I will keep trying to come back to my word of ALIGNMENT. I don’t really need to add anything more to my life, and I feel like I’ve done a good job of paring it down to what I really want and need.

Now it’s just a question of getting all the pieces in alignment so I can continue to spend every day doing whatever I want.