In With the New

As I mentioned last week, I did not start out last year with a set of goals. Now I’m not saying this is what caused the pandemic or anything, but I’m pretty sure it was at least in part the reason why it took me so long to get into the writing swing of things.

So this time, as 2020 started running down, I started thinking more and more about what I wanted from the year ahead. I made lists, and came up with five main goals, and sub-lists of ways to achieve these goals. This is what I came up with:

1. Write More

Kind of self-explanatory. I did a lot of weekly prompt stories last year, but it was a struggle and it didn’t leave anything left for other writing, which is why it took so long to finish Blood Ties. But when I did finally get going on Blood Ties, I really enjoyed myself. So much so that I went ahead with NaNo.

Once upon a different blog, I had links to two very cool writing exercise prompts. The first was One Word, which would generate a single word and give you one minute to write something based on that word. The second was Write Every Day, which would give you a sentence and five minutes to write. Alas, these wonderful writing aids are gone now, but I did a search and found a random word generator that generates as many words as you like. I’m going to set it for three, and give myself three minutes to free-write on a daily basis.

I will also (hopefully) work on Knightsong to get the first draft finished by the end of the year.

2. Edit More

Believe it or not, I actually enjoy editing. Just not my own stuff. LOL

First up is Blood Ties. I’ve already started this and it’s going well. I want to keep up the momentum and finish ASAP.

Next will be An Elemental Spirit. The draft was done for last year’s NaNoWriMo and I haven’t touched it since. It needs a lot of re-writing and I’d like to see that finished by year’s end.

In between novels is my ever-increasing collection of flash fiction that needs to be polished up.

3. Publish More

It should go without saying that I’d like to see Blood Ties released into the wild before the year is over.

I’m also planning on submitting a story or poem for publication on a weekly basis. There’s no point in writing all this stuff and not doing anything with it.

4. Learn More

I’ve collected a lot of information on writing techniques over the years, but mostly I’ve just put it all in folders on my lap top to look at “later.” Well, later never seems to come so I’m going to start going through this pile of information and maybe even take notes.

I also want to take a couple of classes. I really enjoyed the Speculative Fiction classes I took a few years ago – they were both fun and informative. Of course with the pandemic and all these classes will have to be online, but that’s fine by me.

5. Find A Balance

Woman cannot live by writing (and editing) alone, she also needs to read. And I don’t mean the reading binge I was on for the first half of last year, more like an hour or two a day.

I also need to carve out time for my crafts – it’s either that or get rid of my copious amount of craft supplies and I’m not ready for that. I’m also still a member of the Northumberland Stitchery Guild, and when we start meeting up again I don’t want to show up with an empty work bag.

And spending so much time at all these things that are done sitting down, I need to get off my butt once in a while and get some exercise. It might help if I snacked less too.

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So those are my goals for 2021 and how I’m hoping to achieve them. There are some things I’d like to do every day – the three word prompt, editing, reading, and exercising. The rest will take some juggling until I find a workable system.

But I think as goals go this is doable. Only time will tell how doable they are.