Hoping and Wishing and Praying (#SFWApro)

The standard rule for goal-setting (as most of you probably know) is that they have to be doable, dated and measurable. “Make $40,000 freelancing in 2014” would be a good goal (assuming it’s realistic); “make money writing” is too vague.
Needless to say, I drew up some goals for this year. I already have my 101 in 1,001 goal list, so this is just reminding myself of a few of the key projects on that list. Plus some personal stuff, such as lot of people I want to see this year.
That said, I’ll now talk about something that’s not a goal because it’s not quantifiable (or possibly doable, at least this year). In this post about his goals for 2014, John Scalzi mentions that he’s thinking of writing an SF novella and a dark fantasy one, adding that if he goes ahead, he already has editors ready to take them.
I would like that very much. The most frustrating part of writing fiction is the amount of rejection vs. the amount of sales (this will, of course, not shock any writers reading this). I would love it if I could write confident that someone already wanted it (with the two Monster Earth stories I had a taste of that but I’d like it with my more personal stuff as well), or that if I submitted it, it would be snapped up fairly quickly. Not that there’s ever an absolute guarantee—even material under contract has to be good enough—but that’s fine; I’m not thinking of dashing off crap, just writing good stories that sell.
What exactly that will take, I don’t know, which is why I’m not listing it as a goal, per se. “Writing better stories” obviously wouldn’t hurt but that’s not exactly quantifiable, nor do I know how much better I’d have to be. So I’m putting it down as a wish, a hope, an aspiration instead. While I also have money goals down, I notice thinking of it this way excites me a lot more. Apparently it’s still more the work than the Benjamins that turns me on.
And now I’m thinking of an old fantasy novel by Gene Lancour in which the hero makes a wish that as long as what he tries is within his abilities, he won’t fail (i.e., no bad luck getting in the way). May my 2014 and yours live up to that dream.