2013 Roundup

It’s that time of year again, which means it’s time for me to look back on my 2013 goals and see how many (if any) I managed to actually accomplish.

REVIEW OF GOALS FOR 2013:

+ Continue 500 words a day goal with reward system for 2k+ [COMPLETED–I may not have written every *single* day this year, but I did extremely well up through December 18th (then the holidays took over). All in all–I’m calling this one good. And I still love the stickers and GOoWF cards (Get-Out-of-Writing-Free cards) for 2k+ in a single day. ]

+ Continue progress on practice novel, and preferably finish by March 31, 2013. [COMPLETED–With the caveat that it was not (by a long shot) finished by March 31, 2013. It’s true completion date was September 30, 2013. I’m calling it good, because it was done this year, and that’s something in and of itself! After ten years of puttering, this thing rolled in at over 230k, and I still love re-reading it for kicks and giggles. Is it perfect? Hell no, but I had a blast writing it and learned a ton about novel-writing by doing it. Go me!]

+ Begin draft of original novel, with goal to hit 60k by August 31, 2013, and finish the draft by December 31, 2013. [ALMOST–I’m giving this one an almost, because NANO sent me soaring past 60k, and here at the end of December, I’m at about 83k of my first original start-to-finish novel attempt. (I’ve attempted and failed numerous times before to complete anything this long.) This project is looking to be about 90-100k total when it’s done, and I’ve got the ending planned and set, it’s just a matter of keyboard pounding now. Six more chapters, and it’ll be done, and if I can really crank into it this coming month, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to finish it within the next two weeks. And *THAT* would be awesome, even if I didn’t hit the exact deadline!]

+ Practice editing, perhaps through the use of Ray Bradbury’s Story-Draft in One Week schedule to deliberately practice the editing process. [FAIL–I wanted to do this so many times and so badly throughout the year, but there just wasn’t ever a good time to slip in a short-story week without throwing the pacing/flow of whatever various novel I was working on. It was a novel year, not a short story year. But I’ve got my eyes on short stories for 2014 (easier to juggle with a little bundle of screaming joy) and am hoping to get a bunch out and about by June so I can focus only on juggling post The Big Day.]

+ Continue to read prodigiously, particularly in Philosophy and Classics, with some focus on poetry for technique; aim for 60 books for the year. [FAIL–technically, anyway. I managed only 22/60 books, but that’s probably more than I’ve read in past years. I loved the book-a-week I did at the beginning of 2013 (and got through the first eight books in two months very comfortably), so I’m going to try to reprise that again in 2014, though acknowledging a certain amount of distraction come June.

+ Begin submitting again, with a goal of having a constant 2 works out to publishers at all times by June 31,2013, preferably moving to 3 out at all times by December 31, 2013.  [ALMOST–I *did* get three stories cycling in June, and only just got back a recent rejection on another one. All the stories could probably use some cooling off time, since I’m not sure I edited them as well as they should have been, but got some good feedback and encouraging rejections, all the same. This year, I’ll be focusing on getting back into the editing zone. I’m actually looking forward to it!]

OVERVIEW OF 2013:

I’m actually pretty pleased with this past year. I finished the practice novel at long, long, LONG last, which means I finally got a chance to focus on some other long-overdue projects and actually make headway on them! I also managed to complete NANO with much less angst than I did in 2010, and actually rather enjoyed it, despite hitting the worst of my morning-sickness days during November. This NANO also taught me that with a little planning and a lot of pre-thought, I can actually write a LOT and FAST–averaging about 3,000 words a day (Whoa, there.).

Didn’t get as much submitted, short story-wise as I would have liked, but I DID start submitting again, so that’s something!

And I loved, loved, loved, LOVED trying to read one book a week. My downfall was travel, which interrupted my daily routine, though it was amazingly fun in it s own right and I had a great time. Favorite books of this year have to be (in no particular order): Triton by Samuel R. Delany, Nova by Samuel R. Delany, Bullettime by Nick Mamatas, The Haunted Looking Glass by Edward Gorey, Red Sky Black Death by Anna Timofeyeva-Yegorova, and The Touchstone by Edith Wharton.

I’ll be posting my 2014 goals here in the next day or two, and am hoping to get more regular with updating once again–at least until The Big Day. I’ve got five months before that, so let’s make ’em count! Expect random pictures of cartoons and little plushies/stuffed-animals/general craftiness, because they amuuuuuuuuse me. :)