Writing Goals

"...I don't know what your goals are for your writing..."

I don't remember what my mother said before or after this (I'm assuming it was something like "You should try to make a lot of money." I know; I'm trying). All I know is this line stood out because I realized that I also don't know what my goals are.

I've been published. That was literally the only thing I ever wanted and I really didn't expect it to happen this fast, so I didn't plan further.

Am I supposed to have goals? Other than "get something else published" and "figure out how my plot works when Nikola Tesla actually died five years earlier than would be convenient for me" and "make my characters stop eating soft pretzels with her pretty crush while the fabric of time is literally being torn apart"?

What else is there? Becoming Rowling-level famous and having movie deals? Okay. (Actually not okay. I'd be fine with movies, but I really don't want to be famous.)

So I've made a list of writing goals.

　

• Earn enough money to buy a house.
• ...and adopt all the cats in the shelter to live in it (if not forever, then just like an in-home kitty adoption agency where I get to keep all the really awesome ones with extra toes and name them all after Nobel Prize winning scientists. (Anyone who says they don't want a thumbed cat named Madam Curie or Werner Heisenberg is a liar)).
• Have fans dress as one of my characters for Halloween.
• Have a fan? Like, someone I've never interacted with.
• Movie adaptation (as long as I can veto if they pick an actor I don't like to play my favorite character. (I'm probably kidding, if you're a movie studio person reading this in some weird version of the future where we're actually in talks about a movie deal. I'm an extremely nice and undemanding person to work with.))
• I think it'd be awesome to have a Lego set based on the spaceship from FreakShow. I'm completely serious about this one. I want my books to be Lego-popular.
• Figure out how my plot works when Nikola Tesla actually died five years earlier than would be convenient for me. (Not kidding, this is my major plot problem right now. Well, this and the fact that my characters are casually eating pretzels during the time travel apocalypse. I think someone is going to end up going back in time to kill him so isn't alive during the Roswell crash and doesn't become a time traveler who helps himself revolutionize electricity. (If that sentence makes sense to you, congratulations.))

So I'm obviously taking this extremely seriously.

I don't know what my goals are! Write and hope people like it.

What more is there?

　

(Also, in case anyone was wondering, my story that was in a contest? It was in Cast of Wonders' flash fiction contest, which I can now say because it did not move on to the semifinals. The stories that did move on were so good, though, that I totally get why they beat me. (And one commenter said my story was their favorite. :D))