Bright Shiny New Year/Dusty Old Manuscript

Checked out this link today:
StorieStorm.com: the art of creating writing goals

I've been working on my 2011 goals as part of my business plan, and this year is going to be novel-centric for me. My three main goals for 2011 are:

1) Finish revision and edits on the novel (Macha Mong Ruadh) I wrote a few years ago. I wrote the novel, got about halfway through editing it, and then abandoned it completely. It's been collecting dust in a drawer for at least three years. Now it's time to pick it back up and finish it off. This novel will be ready to shop around to agents before the end of the year. I'm shooting for having it in the mail by the end of June.

2) Once Macha Mong Ruadh is shipped out to agents, I'm going to turn my focus to the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo. Since I don't know how long it's going to take to get Macha on its way, I can't get too specific with this goal. If I can get Macha out the door by June, then the NaNo novel might be ready to go by Jan 2012. If Macha takes longer, so will this novel. But, at a minimum, I want to have at least one major revision done on the NaNo novel by the end of the year.

3) Write 500 words per day (the same goal that I have for the first few months of the year, during Kelly L. Stone's 90-day writing challenge). I think that 500 words a day, even while revising/editing novels, is not only very doable, it's also necessary: I'm going to need the daily break from revision/editing and the "enthusiasm boost" of doing something fresh. I think my revision/editing process will be all the better because of it.

My secondary goals are to write at least one complete short story per month and to get six short stories published. These are my "I wish" goals, and they take a backseat to the novel-editing goals.

On the personal front, I plan to quit lozenges. Back in 2005, when my mother was first diagnosed with lung cancer, I quit smoking by using Nicotine lozenges. I've used them off and on for the last five years--but I've never smoked again! But now it's time to say goodbye to the nicotine lozenges entirely. I hope the rest of my family survives 2011, LOL!

So that's it! That's my big plan for 2011. I'll post updates on Twitter and here in the blog to keep you updated on how I'm doing (you'll probably be able to tell how the lozenge-quitting is going by how snarky my posts are).

What are your goals for 2011 (writing or otherwise)?