It’s that time of year again. The time where everyone makes over exaggerated promises to themselves under the guise of a fresh start. Convince themselves that this was the time of year they were waiting for. A new beginning. Yes, I’m talking about those dreaded New Year’s Resolutions. I’m a member of that guilty faction, and in order to hold myself somewhat accountable for them, I’m publicly announcing them. Maybe, just maybe I’ll hold to them…until February at least.
It’s no secret I like urban fantasy. I read urban fantasy. I write urban fantasy. I’m in this little corner of the literate world out there and I feel like I need to stretch a little further. New Year’s Resolution #1 is to read at least one book a month that is not of the fantasy persuasion. Last year I read a few. Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol for one…if there’s a second one, I can’t recall. First up for January is either The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or maybe Kelley Armstrong’s Nadia Stafford books. Or maybe even Stephen King’s On Writing. I’ve been meaning to read them, but they keep falling further down my TBR pile.
New Year’s Resolution #2 is to finally query my novel. Either of them. The adult or the YA. Of course that means completeing the first draft of the YA so my betas can have at it or finally finishing the rewrite of my adult urban fantasy that I’ve been “in the middle of” since summer. Of course, this then leads into New Year’s Resolution #3…
Write at least 500 new words a day. The key word here is “new.” Not editing, but actual words. 500 words is a piece of cake…when you actually site down a do it. 500 words a day is roughly 15,000 a month. That’s a lot of words, and by the way, I am giving myself a little leeway on this: if I scrap a scene during my revisions and completely rewrite it, I’m counting that as “new” and not “editing.” Don’t argue. You’ll lose.
New Year’s Resolution #4 is attend a con. There’s actually two that I’m eyeing up because they’re fairly small and relatively close: The Pennwriter’s Conference in Pittsburg in May and the Author’s After Dark conference in Philly in August. Now AAD is a romance conference, but I figure there’s so much to learn that (a) it doesn’t matter and (b) don’t most stories have romantic elements anyways? So it counts, and it’s on the table. Besides, some of the fantasy I read is romance. Though Backspace is having a one day Donald Maas workshop, but the price…*sigh*
I have other resolutions including getting my website up and running, blogging more, photographing more, losing weight...blah, blah, blah. But those four are my big ones, my goals. If I accomplish nothing else in 2011, I’ll be happy. Scratch that. Ecstatic. What about you? What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Suggestions for my non-urban fantasy reading list? Cons to attend on the East Coast?
8 comments:
This year, I managed to not gain back the weight I lost in '09. So now I get to move onto actually getting in shape. That's going to be harder.
As for non-fantasy books, I've enjoyed some of Isabel Allende's work, and "Geisha, A Life" by Mineko Iwasake
Some great resolutions and ideal for the writer and hopefully achievable. I hope to sort something out for myself along similar lines and to be honest I really need to get the guts to start subbing.
Previous years I've made resolutions like to give up aligator wrestling etc. (Not that I actually started it but at least I knew it was achievable. LOL)
However, the best way to look at the new year is that its a new start and to treat it as such, try to let the stresses of the previous year go and look forward to each new day. Anything else is a bonus.
Fantastic list, Kelly! As for the reading...I've read Nadia Stafford and loved them. You don't lose anything by them not being fantasy. Great works by Kelley. My boyfriend even read them and loved them. He also read all three Millenium books (Dragon Tattoo) and said they were awesome. AND I just finished Stephen King's On Writing and LOVED it!
Good luck with all your goals this year!
I don't have to resolve to read a greater variety of things - maybe I should resolve to read a bit less, ha ha.
I have stories that need to be sent out into the world, some old and some newer. So, that's a goal.
I have a novel draft that needs to be revised. Another huge goal.
So, there's plenty to do.
Great resolutions! On Writing is totally worth reading!
I don't make any promises to myself because I never keep them but good for you for setting goals this year!
Love the goals! I read mainly urban fantasy (well, I'm now pretty much tied with Regency romance), but I dip into so many other things it sometimes gets confusing. Maybe my goal should be one book at a time? Haha. But what fun would that be? ;)
And TOTALLY do the con. I was definitely NOT a romance writer when I went to the Romantic Times Convention, but one look at the attendees list - a lot of the biggies in urban fantasy - convinced me that it was for me. So worth it! I want to go back this year, but don't know if I can make it work. And now, I'm both writing (post-apocalyptic) and reading (Regency or Victorian) romance so... that's interesting, I guess!
There are genre's outside of Urban Fantasy? Huh, might have to look into that. ^.~
Good luck with your resolutions. Those are really good ones.
500 words a day is a very dooable goal. When I was working over 40 hours a week I managed to do 500 words a day most days.
My resolutions are more like goals.
Write/revise/submit my two sequel novels for the books that are getting published, work on my steampunk and finish the rough draft, lots of other writing goals.
ride my horse a lot (ties in to keeping weight off lol and playing with my dog)
read.
Julie/Firewolf
I never make resolutions probably because I keep a goal list and to do lists for everything in my life. If I didn't, I wouldn't accomplish much. Like you, I want to manage to write a certain amount everyday, and finish my wip so I can send for beta reading. I'm targeting end of summer for that, and if I come close, I'll be happy with my progress. This year I plan on accomplishing so much more reading and writing since I've only been at it a year and love it. :)
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