Looking Ahead

I must admit, each year I make rather lofty New Year's resolutions. And each year, December 31st finds very few of them reached. That includes writing goals, though I've learned to be somewhat flexible with myself. For instance, last year I wanted to write the sequel to my first novel. Later on I realized that until a publisher is interested in the first book in the series, it didn't make sense to have that as a priority.

Sometimes writing opportunities come up that conflict with my goals. At this point in my career, I'm open to most of them that I feel I can do well and that pay. I've reviewed many books this past year, and while I love free books (and early copies from many of my favorite authors), I know I need to cut back to focus on my other writing. So my goal this year is 30 reviews, slightly over 1/3 of what I did in 2004.

One of the goals I did reach last year was 10 hours of writing or writing-related work each week. This year I'm trying for 12. I hope to write a book, 6 stories, and 25 poems. We'll see how far that gets.