Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Is it 2013 all ready?

I'm just as shocked as everyone else that it's 2013. It seems like a few days ago it was still November and I was hacking away at NaNo.

Speaking of, I never did put up a NaNo Week 4 blog, did I? Sorry time got away from me again and I failed to catch it until recently.

Anyway, I accomplished my NaNo2012 goal of 200,000 words on the 26th of November. Chosen Ones of the Forbidden Object clocked in at about 152,000 words so I had to finish the novel I started in October to get my final goal. I was supposed to take last month off to edit all eight (yeah EIGHT. I'm shocked about it too) novels that I wrote last year but that didn't go as planned.

I did re-read every novel I wrote last year as well as the two NaNo novels from 2010 and 2011. I also spell-checked, grammar checked and made a few little adjustments to plot and consistency. It wasn't the major editing I was planning but at least I know where they all stand.

Onto new things since this is a new year and all. I'm making a list of goals this year. No, not resolutions. I forget about resolutions within a week of making them. If I call the following my goals then I'm more likely to get them done. My goals for this year:

1) Write 1 million words from Jan 1 to Nov 30: Otherwise known as Milwordy except I'm doing it in 11 months instead of a year. I'm also using a nifty online tracker called Write Track and keeping a running month tally through Notepad (because I'm special). The Notepad file will also have the stories I'm working on and goal reminders that I can't keep in the tracker. Going along with this goal is the goal of finishing about nine (9) novels this year. Why nine? Well, I figure that's how many it'll take to get to a million words.

2) Write 225,000 words for NaNo13: I have to beat the 200,000 from 2012. I made it my goal when I first started NaNo in 2010 that every year after I'd beat my goal by at least 25K. Why? Because I'm freaking nuts like that.

3) Finish Tale of the Twins: URG! Book one was finished in 2009. Book two finished in 2010. Book three? It's still stuck on chapter 6 or something. This was also my goal for last year (September more specifically) but I wasn't feeling it. I know I'll have to read right from the beginning to understand what's going on. I know the basics but there are details I'll probably have to remember at some point.

4) Promote (Blogging, twitter, etc): I need to but I'm not entirely sure where to start. Posting more is obvious but I tend to lack a memory when it comes to logging into things and posting random bits of information. Plus my life is relatively boring (besides writing) so I don't have much to talk about. Unless of course people want to hear about my random musings which may or may not include unicorns.

5) Get into shape, preferably something other than round. I don't mind being round really but I'd like to have the energy I used to when I wasn't so round. Plus I'd like to be able to fit into all my old summer clothes from the year before last.

6) Get my finances in order. This may require finding a new job. As much as I love my job it's not enough anymore and I hate having to choose between paying a bill or buying things I need.

So those are my goals for this year. I know 1 and 2 I can complete without issue so long as I don't break both arms or something crazy. The other four will be challenging for different reasons. Now I know someone out there is wondering why 'Get published' isn't on there. Technically I am published. Self-published yes, but published.

I know I'm not famous but I'm not really aiming to be. It's enough that I get the stories out of my brain. I know, I know, I'm weird for writing without thinking of publishing. Writing is my main interest. Just because it's something I do in my spare time doesn't mean that I want to be famous for it. I'll always write because it's something I do.

I'm going to stop right there simply because I'll get onto a long ramble if I keep going and this blog post will take up fifty pages. Well, not literally but it would be close enough. This is good-bye for now. I'm sure I'll be back eventually so long as time stays where I last put it. It's a tricky thing, time. It tends to wander off when you least expect it or hide when you really want it. Good night and don't let any nasty critters wander off with anything important.