You can’t make new year’s goals without taking a quick peek at last year’s, so I’ve just done that. And did I meet my goals? The answer is a resounding No! But hold the condolences, ’cause I’m giving it a positive spin. (Must practice in case I’m one day impersonating a politician, ya know)
I did pretty good by way of blogging, though I’ve dragged a bit the last couple months. I’m reasonably pleased with my progress by way of publications this last year, though I’ll freely acknowledge that I fell short of my goal, and I did okay in the departments of self-editing and critiquing for friends.
I didn’t write as much as planned, I didn’t work much on my worlds, and my ability to use an apostraphe correctly still suffers relapses. I also have only now begun reading up-and-coming fiction.
However, (here comes the spin) goals are to be striven for–to achieve them all would probably mean I aimed too low. Plus, when setting these goals a year ago, I had planned on taking 14-18 credits over the course of the entire year, and not graduating until the winter of 2009. Instead, I finished 20 credits in just the fall semester, will swallow another 18 this spring, and will graduate this summer. Stepping up the class load left me with less writing time, of course, but will leave me with more time in the coming year. Which leads me to… (drum roll, please)
My Goals for 2008
- Write one novel outline each month while finishing my degree (Jan-May)
- Choose top two outlines and write at least one novel during remainder of the year
- Write six full-length (non-flash) short stories
- Read a wide variety of fiction, a large percentage of it new to the field
- Read six books on writing or editing
- Continue 2007 work in blogging, critiquing, etc.
- Continue to keep all polished, non-published stories in circulation
As you can see, these are more performance oriented then last years. Which is not to say I’d object to a little externally-oriented success! I’ll just try to make it the natural outgrowth of all my blood, sweat and tears.
