Writing goals for this past year

The end of the year is quickly approaching! How are you writers doing with reaching your goals for this year?

I did okay with mine since I set a very simple goal -- just to get some writing done -- but several things have happened and I am not very happy with my overall performance this year. Most of these things are pretty much beyond my control, though.

To get the year started off, two jobs were eliminated. One was a newspaper featuring writing freelance job that I'd had since I started freelancing at the beginning of 2004. The distance was the major factor in the decision I made to stop doing this feature. The other job that was eliminated was a newsletter position that was cut because of budgeting. Caught up in the middle of that was an annual report that I produced and was paid half of the proposed price.

I acquired three new newsletter production positions during the year; two are going wonderfully and another is dragging as I wait (going on almost a month now) to be notified of corrections to the first draft. I hope to hear from them soon.

Another couple of issues I've experienced with another nonprofit organization mainly concern communication and billing; because of that and a few issues with the other organizations I work with I've changed my policy on billing (will now be sending the invoice with the first draft instead of waiting until the final draft is completed to bill) and have vamped up my communication.

I wrote quite a bit for a newspaper during one part of the year then got busy with newsletters; this never turns out to be a good thing since the newspaper publishes and pays quickly, and has excellent exposure.

I have a monthly assignment with yet another newspaper; this has been going wonderfully. I've met some wonderful people this year and have written some very good pieces.

My issues this year haven't been with writing itself, but the business of it and little things like travel, billing, etc. I hope that next year goes smoother in those areas.

I hope that you have had a great year with freelance writing and that another wonderful year awaits you!