Writing Resolutions: I Resolve To....

Every year brings a new opportunity to reset, reassess and revitalize your life. I'm one of those people who love New Year's Resolutions. I like to look back and see what I can do better and then do it. Goal setting is fun and it's nice to cross things off your list. A good friend of mine and I used to host goal setting dates with each other and create a whole life binder out of the get-together. We'd cover everything in categories: physical, spiritual, mental, financial and emotional. I'm not as detailed as all of that anymore (this was in high school and early college), but I do love a good list.

Last years goals included:

• Finish my novel
• Speak at a professional conference
• Be published professionally
• Become a reviewer

Now this isn't the full list, because I've only listed things that I actually accomplished. I didn't decorate my sunroom or run a 5K as I'd hoped, but there is room for that this year. I'm hoping to really grow my writing portfolio, brand and reach this year so that means that I'll have to make some changes, so my goals are to:

• Query my revised novel
• Finish a novella
• Secure an agent (I don't usually like goals that require approval from someone else, so this is more of a hope)
• Post on the blog once a week
• Journal every week
• Write 1000 words each week (Now this seems small compared to a lot of writers, but I'm a binge writer, I'll knock out 20,000 in a week and then have a dry spell for a month sometimes. That is NOT happening this year. I'm increasing my output three-fold.)
• Publish or secure a deal for publishing (There is also the  idea of self-publishing, but I'm still waffling on that one. We'll hash that out in another post.)

I've got some personal goals that involve getting my soft tail off the couch, but I'll keep those private for now. There is research that suggests that making your goals public increases your chance of meeting them so I'm putting mine out there and stepping out on faith. Do you have any you'd like to share?