Thursday, January 10, 2019

New Year, New Me...

Yep, it's January. Cue the multitude of blog posts with resolutions, people Instagramming themselves at the gym, and skyrocketing sales of Nicorette patches. As much as I dislike the new year "let's change everything" while changing absolutely nothing, there are some perks in sharing ones resolutions. Namely, accountability.

So to the 3 readers I have here (yes, I know that's how many there are...) let's do this differently. Let's not make resolutions--let's make goals and stick to them!!!

Resolution: Write More

I have SO MANY story ideas...but I have to sit down and actually do the work. Finding time is hard. And this resolution, if I just make it, won't change anything. So, let's make it a goal instead.

Goal #1: Outline Druid Work

So I had the idea of a modern-day druid. Sort of a cross between a Rick Riordan work and an adult paranormal fantasy work. And I have some outlining done, but I want to get it more solidified. My hope is to start writing it, and have something finished by the end of the year, or be in a good place to start for the next year. So, going to have this outline done and posted on Scribophile by March.

Goal #2: Finish 1001 Days Edits

My first work. I need to finish with this already. So, I will finish the edits on it by April. So far, the feedback I've gotten on the edits I've finished has been pretty good, and I think if I can get the A4A editor to crit it as well, I can get this on the shelves in the fall. So, finish it by April.

Goal #3: Finish drafting East of the Sun and West of the Moon

I'm so close with this one, y'all. It was the NaNo project of 2016--and while I "won" NaNo and wrote 50,000 words, I didn't actually finish the story. I really only have a few chapters to go. I need to finish it and get the rest on Scribophile for crits. Once it's up, I want to leave it there, and then do an alpha read cycle for it with my critique group. I don't want to work on it again this year once it's done, so it will be a major editing work for 2020. So, finished and posted by June.

Goal #4: NaNoWriMo 2019

I failed NaNo 2018 SO hard, mostly because with the lack of time I didn't have the outlining done that I needed in order to really dig in. Once I have my other projects out of the way, I want to really dig into the outline for this one. I anticipate it taking a good chunk of summer--and I'll be doing it while (hopefully) preparing 1001 Days for publication. So outline must be done by October 31, prepping me for NaNo 2019, and at least 50,000 written for this work through November. 

Resolution: Exercise

I'm actually going to put this on hiatus--because they're building a gym at my office, and once that's there, it will be SO MUCH EASIER to do this. Once the gym is up, however, coming back to this hardcore. 

Resolution: Time Management

In order to get this writing done (as well as my fair share of work for A4A) I'm going to step back from other things I've done throughout the year. So less hours teaching (or the same hours, but consolidated down). No more other extra projects. 

I want to try something different--I want us to make these goals and keep them together. So, post your goals as a comment, and let's hold each other accountable!