The New Year – A Grand Symbolic Gesture
Even though I know that the possibility to change, grown, and improve one’s situation exists every day, there’s something about the symbolism of a new year starting that helps to inspire me to help me refocus and to get my rear in gear and jump start my goals again. So here I am publicly setting my goals for the new year.
Last year, I didn’t set any year long goals, and instead tried to stick to weekly goals (which are posted on my livejournal). I only sort of succeeded. I still intend to set weekly goals this year as a way to keep me constantly aware of what I’m up to, but I also have some BIG things that I want to get accomplished in the course of this year, so I’ll go ahead and post those, too.
2010 Goals:
- Finish draft 0 of my Untitled Alternate World Fantasy Novel (currently at 51,189 words). In order to accomplish this, I plan to set aside time to write. There’s a local coffee shop, where I know there’s no wifi, so I can go there and get some focused writing done one to two days a week. Otherwise there are just too many distractions at home. It’s the same way I was able to complete Nano.
- Actively write poetry and short stories for submission to anthologies (which will give me focus and a deadline), preferably a minimum of one submission a month. This is rather scary for me, because completing that many stories and poems on top of completing a novel feels like a lot, not to mention the possibility of facing rejection. However, I’m trying to look at it this way: if I complete a story that’s rejected by an anthology, then I will still have a story that can be reworked for submission elsewhere.
- Train for and participate in the Disneyland Half Marathon in September. I’m not putting “lose weight” as a goal, because I don’t think that’s a good thing to focus on for me. But running in a marathon with my mother and sisters will be a lot of fun, will challenge me physically, and will probably achieve the “lose weight” thing in the process.
- Attend a convention of some sort. This is just something that I’ve been wanting to do and talking about doing for quite some time. I think it’s about time I actually did it.
[X-posted to my livejournal.]
January 24th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I found your blog when I searched for “train track in the alps” and found your entry about the Under the Tuscan Sun quote. When I read what your blog was about, I saw myself in you. For one thing, we share our first name–I’m an Andrea too. For another, I am working on goals similar to the ones you’ve set out in this post. Though I have published (three books with large or medium publishers), I’ve found continued success to be a bit elusive. I got sidetracked with the internet. And a week ago, I set what I think is the biggest goal I’ve ever set–to always find reasons to feel good. Whew–a challenging one.
So I applaud your goals and wish you great success with them.
Know that a fellow writer named Andrea is rooting for you!
January 27th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Thank you so much for visiting my website and for your kind comments. It is definitely quite a challenge, and the biggest part of that challenge for me right now, is making sure I stay committed to my writing goals. Get the writing done, so that I have the product to even submit.
I think “always find reasons to feel good” is an excellent goal and certainly attainable. There are so many things about life worth loving.
Out of curiosity…what are the names of your books?