I hate new year's resolutions, but it sounds like a good thing to do a blog post around. A week late. 'Cause that's how I roll, apparently. So here I go:
Rewrite (at least) one of my novels.
I finished my first two novels last year, and haven't really looked at either since. Now that I've succeeded at that first big step of actually writing ' The End', I want to get at least one of them to the point where my writing group can go over it. This will likely be quite the hurdle: I've never rewritten anything longer than a short story.
Finish my fanfic.
I have a chapter fic on fanfiction.net, in the Bleach universe, called Lucky. I think I started it . . . 3 years ago? My priorities have definitely shifted since then, but I still have lots of story alerts and favorites and pleas to continue on that story. I know how it is to be on the other side, hoping for updates, so I don't want to just leave it hanging--especially since I have the end basically plotted out already.
Weekly Artist Dates/walk more often.
These goals are tied together. Last year I bought The Artist's Way book to go along with an online workshop on it. I completed many, not all, of the lessons, but even without finishing I learned some very useful techniques to restart my creativity. One of these is the Artist Date; a date with yourself (or your creativity) for the purpose of refilling your creative well. The few of these I did engage in were very inspiring, and also a nice way to find some peace and quiet, depending on where I went. I'd like to start them up again, and along with that, I'd like to go for walks more often. These don't have to be done alone: often I'll go with my mom or the whole family. But getting out of the house and exercising are both important things to stabilize my moods, and I neglected both as I got busy with school last semester.
Design a large knitting pattern.
I've been knitting a lot over the break, and thinking more and more about improving my skills to the point where I could design my own patterns. I've made a few small things of my own in the past, mostly crochet, but I'd really like to design something more along the lines of a sweater or shawl. I have a few books I intend on purchasing to help with this, but much if it will have to be practice, trial and error, and the guts to actually try and possibly fail. And try again, until I get it right.
Stock my etsy shop, and keep it that way.
For real. With all the ideas I have, it's ridiculous not to be making things happen with them. And I've love to be able to have some money on the side without the stresses of a 'real' job. Freelance and self employed have stresses of their own, but they're more of the sort I can deal with.
Blog more often. And manage my online presence.
The first goes almost without saying. The second is a more personal issue of knowing my own limits. I keep hearing about all the things I should do, especially as an author: I should have a professional blog, with my own domain name and guest blogs and blog tours and constant posting about interesting subjects, and and I should have an active twitter, where I not only post often but link to others and have conversations and am social and bubbly . . . yeah. None of that is me. It's probably good marketing, but it's not me. And the stress of the shoulds is making me not want to blog at all. And that's just silly.
The other issue I want to address with this is my fractured online presence, that is: trying to have a writing blog here, and photos on flickr, and art on deviantart, and being witty on twitter, and keeping up with friends and family on facebook and google +. The pressure that if I do one of these things I have to do all of them is what makes me avoid the internet for such lengths of time. So my goal is to keep it simple by reworking my website to include all if these things, so I only have to post at one place. A multi purpose blog, like the Jack of All Trades that is me. If I want to talk about art, or knitting, or gardening, or writing, I want one zone to do it in. Which, to be fair, I was kind of doing already: now I'll just do it without guilt.
Last but certainly not least: Clean the house.
I know the state of the house has a big part in my moods and my oft faltering creativity. So this year, I want to actually do something about it.
Anyway, I think a good way to keep track of all of these goals is blog posts about how I've done with them, at least monthly. Weekly would be better, but I find I'm better at exceeding minimum goals than at meeting high goals. So, monthly it is.
--
Listening to: Bring on the Wonder by Susan Enan. This was playing on one of the episodes of Bones I watched while marathoning it from the start, and I fell in love with it. So simple, and yet so pretty.
Rewrite (at least) one of my novels.
I finished my first two novels last year, and haven't really looked at either since. Now that I've succeeded at that first big step of actually writing ' The End', I want to get at least one of them to the point where my writing group can go over it. This will likely be quite the hurdle: I've never rewritten anything longer than a short story.
Finish my fanfic.
I have a chapter fic on fanfiction.net, in the Bleach universe, called Lucky. I think I started it . . . 3 years ago? My priorities have definitely shifted since then, but I still have lots of story alerts and favorites and pleas to continue on that story. I know how it is to be on the other side, hoping for updates, so I don't want to just leave it hanging--especially since I have the end basically plotted out already.
Weekly Artist Dates/walk more often.
These goals are tied together. Last year I bought The Artist's Way book to go along with an online workshop on it. I completed many, not all, of the lessons, but even without finishing I learned some very useful techniques to restart my creativity. One of these is the Artist Date; a date with yourself (or your creativity) for the purpose of refilling your creative well. The few of these I did engage in were very inspiring, and also a nice way to find some peace and quiet, depending on where I went. I'd like to start them up again, and along with that, I'd like to go for walks more often. These don't have to be done alone: often I'll go with my mom or the whole family. But getting out of the house and exercising are both important things to stabilize my moods, and I neglected both as I got busy with school last semester.
Design a large knitting pattern.
I've been knitting a lot over the break, and thinking more and more about improving my skills to the point where I could design my own patterns. I've made a few small things of my own in the past, mostly crochet, but I'd really like to design something more along the lines of a sweater or shawl. I have a few books I intend on purchasing to help with this, but much if it will have to be practice, trial and error, and the guts to actually try and possibly fail. And try again, until I get it right.
Stock my etsy shop, and keep it that way.
For real. With all the ideas I have, it's ridiculous not to be making things happen with them. And I've love to be able to have some money on the side without the stresses of a 'real' job. Freelance and self employed have stresses of their own, but they're more of the sort I can deal with.
Blog more often. And manage my online presence.
The first goes almost without saying. The second is a more personal issue of knowing my own limits. I keep hearing about all the things I should do, especially as an author: I should have a professional blog, with my own domain name and guest blogs and blog tours and constant posting about interesting subjects, and and I should have an active twitter, where I not only post often but link to others and have conversations and am social and bubbly . . . yeah. None of that is me. It's probably good marketing, but it's not me. And the stress of the shoulds is making me not want to blog at all. And that's just silly.
The other issue I want to address with this is my fractured online presence, that is: trying to have a writing blog here, and photos on flickr, and art on deviantart, and being witty on twitter, and keeping up with friends and family on facebook and google +. The pressure that if I do one of these things I have to do all of them is what makes me avoid the internet for such lengths of time. So my goal is to keep it simple by reworking my website to include all if these things, so I only have to post at one place. A multi purpose blog, like the Jack of All Trades that is me. If I want to talk about art, or knitting, or gardening, or writing, I want one zone to do it in. Which, to be fair, I was kind of doing already: now I'll just do it without guilt.
Last but certainly not least: Clean the house.
I know the state of the house has a big part in my moods and my oft faltering creativity. So this year, I want to actually do something about it.
Anyway, I think a good way to keep track of all of these goals is blog posts about how I've done with them, at least monthly. Weekly would be better, but I find I'm better at exceeding minimum goals than at meeting high goals. So, monthly it is.
--
Listening to: Bring on the Wonder by Susan Enan. This was playing on one of the episodes of Bones I watched while marathoning it from the start, and I fell in love with it. So simple, and yet so pretty.
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