There are some super duper exciting things going down for me on the writing front in the New Year. For the record, I don’t do New Year Resolutions. I don’t believe in them. Every new year people make resolutions to change aspects of themselves they believe are negative. So, for the past few years I haven’t made any resolutions. I set goals instead. And no, they aren’t goals like ‘land a husband’, or ‘lose weight’, or ‘quit smoking’, or ‘give up drinking for 3 months’, or whatever. They are goals that I want to work towards. Goals that I have been working towards for years. These are goals that are ‘achievement’ goals towards my own hopes and dreams. Do I want to set myself resolutions to look like a magazine model? Oh yeah, sure, why not. But no matter what I look like, it’s not going to give me any life satisfaction if I can’t actually achieve what I have been working towards for years, now, can it?

So… as part of my goals to eventually become a full time writer – it means that I need to blow the dust off some of the old manuscripts and ideas that I have been hoarding around, and turn them into something useful. I did start doing this job this year, I must admit, but while I have the momentum going, I’m going to keep it up. I cannot become a full time writer if I don’t have books out on submission.

So for my 2012 writing goals – I would like to achieve the following:

Firstly, I’m going to write a new thriller. I know that I still haven’t finished off the urban fantasy trilogy, but I just feel like this is a book that I need to get off my chest, and so I am going to go whereever my Muse is directing me. I just feel as though I need to listen to the old Muse every once in a while. If I don’t, they’ll probably abandon me, and then I’d be really annoyed – because it’s just so hard to find good staff these days! 😉

Secondly, there is going to be another round of fairly serious editing of another manuscript (thriller) that has been sitting in my literary drawer for years. This has all come to a head from Merrilee Faber and her brilliant idea of Project 2012: From first draft to submission.

Thirdly… if all goes well, I will have two completed and edited thrillers ready for submission by the end of next year. Hopefully – all going well that is!

In the meantime, this is what I’m thinking about:

• Juggling my writing year with Bumpkin on my hip who is meant to arrive in February. Obviously Bumpkin will always come first, but there are still goals that I would like to achieve along the way. However, I have made an agreement with myself not to be dissapointed or to beat myself up if my goal line has to move about a bit. That can’t be helped, so I’m not going to worry myself over it.

• 

  After last weekend’s success with the paddling pool, when I eagarly went to uncover it on weekend to dump myself in it, part of it had slowly deflated over the week, much to my disappointment. So, instead of using a pool that is going to deflate every week (and we will be going into water-restrictions for our area soon) my dear husband felt it best that we go and buy a new one, that won’t deflate as easily. Happy birthday to me. I can just tell this thing is going to be my saviour over the next couple of months.

• I’m still not ready for Christmas, but like it does every year – it will come, and it will go. This year I have been more than distracted by everything else going on in my life, and frankly, everything else is a hell of a lot more exciting. I would much rather nest, and get rid of junk in my house. I would also much rather potter about in my pool and cool down when I need to. It’s amazing how other priorities just take over. And Bumpkin is a pretty damn big priority right now, and one that I am more than happy to turn my attention and focus on, and get ready for at my own pace.

So…. on that note, there are some interesting things happening. I’m really really looking forward to them. In the past I have written a few books a year. Next year – I’m planning on writing just the one, and editing two. I think that’s pretty reasonable, bearing in mind that I’ll have a newborn Bumpkin on board as well. I’m looking forward to it.

Who else has goals lined up for next year?