2012 has been a fantastic year for me. Not only have I gained the status of published author, I am fully employed and officially a member of the Massachusetts Bar (aka an attorney). Indeed, I’ve had a prosperous year. But with the world still turning (thanks for the fake-out Mayans), we have a new year nearly upon us. So I thought I would share with you some of my resolutions for 2013 as a writer. Of course, I have some personal ones but those are well, personal. I’m making an effort to memorialize these writer-centric hopes with the intention of actually feeling accountable to myself. I can come back periodically and update on how well these resolutions are going.
Therefore, I resolve to:
1. Finish NaNo Novel 2012
If you have any friends who are writers, there’s a 99% chance you’ve heard of National Novel Writing Month. In fact, I’m sure I mentioned NaNo on this site before. Anyway, this year I had to juggle writing with work. While I was successful in hitting the 50,000-word goal of the event, my manuscript is still not finished. I estimate I have another 10-15,000 words to write yet. And this is of course only draft 1. So I want to finish this draft in 2013.
2. Revise and Submit One Project for Publication by August 1, 2013
I’ve finished many first drafts of novels over the last eight years. Some of them are worth visiting again. Of the finished first drafts, I have a couple projects that are classified as novella-length (50,000 words and under). So I’m going to take one of those projects and rework it and whip it into shape. I believe I know which novella will be getting the spit-n-shine treatment. I will need to go through at least two-three drafts before it is ready to submit to publication. It will go to e-publishers as novellas are easier to do in that format. To give myself enough ime, I’m going to set a submission ate of August 1, 2013.
3. Revise and Begin Querying One Project to Agents by October 31, 2013
Much like number two above, I have several longer projects which could use some work. I have two projects specifically in mind for this resolution to get shined up and out to agents. Since both revising schedules will require sending out to beta readers (basically this means some downtime for me), I can work on each project when the other is out being critiqued. To give myself sufficient time to get the query in shape (and the dreaded synopsis) I want to begin querying agents by October 31, 2013.
4. Participate in NaNoWriMo 2013
No year would be complete without the annual writing insanity of NaNo. I don’t have a storyline picked yet but this gives me 11 months to get it sorted out. I’m assuming the project won’t be done by 50,000 words but it will be a strong start. I’m looking forward to another month of literary abandon with my favorite Boston-area writers.
So I’ve shared my writing resolutions for 2013. What about you?
