13 January 2010

2010

So, goaly-type things. Deep breath, here we go.

Broken up by category:

1) Wordcount: I really would like to crack the 200k mark for real this year. That would be shiniferous.

2) Short Stories: I also want to keep at it with the short stories; I have about 13 sitting in various stages of completion on the harddrive, plus ideas for a bazillion and a half more. Last year I completed 9 shorts; this year I'm going to aim for 12, an average of one a month. It's still not very many, but hey, I'm chilling, remember? O:)

3) Novelettes: Hunter Hunted Shall be Edited, and Fever and Earth written. And maybe the wolf one or the elephant one, depending. These are all about 20k each.

4) Novels: Finish HNOT. Do something for NaNo. I've picked up Sanctuary, a YA fantasy with steampunk elements in the last couple of days, and it's working for me, so maybe complete it too.


Alternate way of breaking it up:

Drafting: Draft/complete drafting at least 12 short stories (say 30k), HNOT (another 20k) and Fever and Earth (20k), and possibly Sanctuary (40-45k). Total draft words: 110-115k.

Editing: Edit at least 12 short stories (may include already-drafted shorts) (30k-ish) and edit Hunter Hunted (20k). I'm doing Holly Lisle's How To Revise Your Novel course, so that should hopefully take care of HH. Total edited words: 50k.

Other words will be made up miscellaniously, as they always are.

Does it look like I'm chilling? Maybe, maybe not. But you can see that the focus here is on a) quantity and b) finishing, not on anything to do with c) publishing. Well, maybe the shorts, a little, but not in a big way.

ALSO, I would dearly love to read 50 books this year, since in '07 and '08 I managed 33, and then last year I got 49. FORTY-NINE! Behold, 2009 was the year of nearly-awesome stats o.O :D

So. 12 shorts, 2 novels, 2 novelettes, and 50 books. Are the goals S.M.A.R.T?

Specific - yup.
Measureable - check.
Attainable - if I get my butt into gear, absolutely.
Realistic - based on last year's stats, yes. I'm not really looking for an increase on last year, just a repeat.
Time-bound - yar, I have the whole year in which to finish them. *is tempted to write nothing all year and cram 200k into November just to observe the ensuing insanity*

...

*is not really tempted, actually* O:)

In non-writing news, I'm aiming for the rule of tens. Actually, in writing news, too:

Every day, 10 mins of exercise, 10 mins of housework, 10 mins of reading, 10 mins of writing, and 10 mins of praying/meditating/reading Bible.

10 minutes is an easy, manageable chunk of time to find, and breaking it up that way sounds much nicer than - I have 50 minutes of stuff to do today! :P

In conclusion to this somewhat scatterbrained and no doubt unilluminating post, I would also like to mention two things:

Firstly, that the cooking blog that Liana Brooks and I co-author is now alive again (*waves to the blog necromancers*), and that you should head there to check out the awesome BOOK CAKES (!!) that I made recently.

Secondly, sometime in the next couple of months, I'm planning a shiny addition to the blog, whereby you shall all glow magniferously and bask in the wonders of my generosity.

Also, competitions. I'm moving in the next couple of months, and am in dire need of a book clean out.

2010: May you be better than 2009. Not that that's hard. But hey, we're not a demanding lot around here.

Cheers! :D

7 comments:

Merc said...

They sound like excellent goals, and quite manageable, yes. B-)

Amy Laurens said...

*grin* Ta, Merc-ful One. I hope they don't prove to be tricksies...

Kristi Faith said...

I like your rule of tens :) I'll have to remember that. Best Wishes!

http://kristifaith.blogspot.com

Nayuleska said...

Your goals sound manageable and realistic :) You can do it!

Snazel said...

I hadn't thought about doing a yearly word count, perhaps I should? *frets*

Your goals sound doable, and exciting! Best of luck!

Amy Laurens said...

Kristi - the tens seems to work quite well. It's a chunk of time significant enough to get something done, and small enough to be unintimidating! :)

Everyone - thanks so much for the encouragement :)

Oh, and Snazel - you don't need to do a yearly count if you don't want to! I'm going to make the spreadsheet that I use available for download soon, though, if you want to use that :D

Snazel said...

The spread sheet sounds cool, Inksie!

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