It's that time of the year again: New Year's Resolutions!
I looked up my goals for last year. My top three were:
Finish revision and edits on the novel (Macha Mong Ruadh) I wrote a few years ago--Nope!;
After Macha, turn my focus to the novel I wrote during NaNoWriMo (2010)--Nope!;
Write 500 words per day--Nope! (though there were extenuating circumstances, and I did mostly make this one).
My minor goals were:
Write at least one complete short story per month--Nope!;
Quit lozenges--Nope!
2011 was not a good year for my goals.
Now it's a bright, shiny new year, the slate is wiped clean, and we get to start anew . . . and hope to do better this time!
Dean Wesley Smith has a great post on goals:
When setting goals, everything about your goal must be in your control. Completely.
So I'm taking his advice and leaving out goals that are beyond my control, like getting X amount of short stories published.
Writing Goal #1 for 2012: At least eight new short stories.
I did manage to write four new short stories in 2011, plus I revised/revamped/polished several old partials, so I'm shooting for at least eight new ones in 2012.
Writing Goal #2 for 2012: *Bleep* or get off the (social media) pot.
I drank the "social media" Kool-aid and now belong to pretty much every social media site that exists. I tend to neglect them, though, so when I read some article about how an author HAS to engage readers on social media, I feel guilty about neglecting my social media and I beat myself up about it. Then I try and spend more time on social media, usually at the expense of writing, and then I feel guilty about not writing and beat myself up about that . . . you can see it's a vicious circle.
So this year, I resolve to finally "make a ruling" on social media. I enjoy this blog and Twitter and I'm fairly diligent about staying active on both. I'm keeping them, for sure. But I need to decide which of the others I'm going to keep (and be active on) and which I'm going to give up on. No more guilt!
Writing Goal #3 for 2012: Put the novel issue to rest, once and for all.
I've blogged before about my "novel issues." Though I'd like to someday "be a novelist," I'm not sure if I ever will. If not, I'm certainly okay with being a short story writer--but I'd like to at least try.
So this year, as a back-burner goal, I'm going to try and get a novel "finished" (in my case, that means revised and ready to search for an agent). The only novel I've ever tried to revise has been Macha, so I'm going to try and revise/edit/polish the NaNo novel I wrote in 2010 in case the problem isn't that I'm not a novelist, but that the Macha novel is just too messed up to be salvageable.
Those are my writing goals this year--doable, simple, and completely within my control.
What are your writing goals this year?
You should give novel writing a try. It never hurts to try. I am a novelist who couldn't write a short story to save his life (there are probably some who will say the same thing about my novels too, but anyway :P ).
ReplyDeleteI'm releasing two novels this year, a third in early 2013. My goal is to get on a more consistent writing schedule. I've gotten to the point where I can turn the muse off and on, but I need to manage my time better, because there are weeks that pass by where I write nothing at all.
Congrats on the novel releases!
ReplyDeleteConsistency really helps. I know every time I have to take time off, I come back to my writing feeling "rusty" (plus I tend to "lose my place" and spend a lot of time trying to figure out where I left off--one of my biggest problems with novel writing/revision).
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!