Goals and high points
In January, I wrote goals on several index cards and put them into the blue envelope, to be opened at the end of the year to find out how well I did. I also started writing high points on slips of paper and putting them into my TARDIS mug.
I went through both last night–Rob and I went to visit friends for New Years, and last night was when I found time to get to it. With the envelope, well, I didn’t do horrible. Though I also didn’t remember most of what I put in there. Several were writing goals–write, re-outline and revise a story, finish a story revision. Some were health related–exercise regularly. There was also a goal to read a book a week.
Mostly, I fell short. Not incredibly surprising as some of the goals were extremely optimistic. I didn’t read a book a week, though I did manage to get through about 57 books. And while I didn’t finish either revision, I still wrote quite a bit.
Seanan McGuire bartending. This is an awesome thing that happened.
Going through the papers from the TARDIS mug was fun. It included some of the obvious high points, like going to London and Iceland and sending off my first submission and getting my first rejection, but it also included some other fun stuff, like having Seanan McGuire (who writes the Toby Daye and Newsflesh [under the name Mira Grant] series) mix drinks while singing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” Rob didn’t really want to watch Frozen, but that convinced him.
The other thing I did this year was keep somewhat close track of my writing. I say somewhat because the way I revise stuff, there’s no real word count to keep track of. At least, not with the stuff that only needs minor tweaks. But between a day planner and a calendar with stickers, I have a visual of how good/bad I did.
Overall, I wrote a decent amount–54,593 total words. That’s not including most revisions or blog posts. I wrote the most in February–10,853 words, and the least in November–193 words. But I also wrote 3 blog posts, revised 2 scenes, and figured out a revised rough outline for my story.
I started out well, writing consistently, for the most part, until August, when Rob and I went to Iceland and London, and after that, I started slacking. Not just with writing, but also with getting any writing/revisions typed up and keeping track of what I was getting done.
Except for October, when I challenged myself to write 250 words a day, no matter what, because I knew my biggest issue was trying to write when traveling, and we went to Bangor for a weekend. I managed to write every day, except for the last two days of the month, and ended October with 6,771 words, a short story, and a couple blog posts.
Then there were the holidays, and I actually ended up doing better than I would’ve expected, and I managed to get some revisions done.
The word count/rewards thingie I made up. Definitely needs tweaking.
This year, I do need to make some tweaks to the calendar/reward system I set up. I have to take into account the lack of new words when revising, and maybe give myself an incentive for writing during and after conventions. And I should maybe have consequences for when I don’t do so well.
This blog post will give me my first sticker of the year, and then there are things to be organized and planned, and words to be revised.
(And I have got to figure out why my Macbook doesn’t sit level on my desk. Frikkin annoying.)
