Now I'll have to stick to 'em

Now that 2010 is well established, I thought I'd share some of my writing goals, like I promised.

When I summed up my efforts last year, it became apparent that I needed to change the structure of my goal-setting, and to include shorter term goals, or maybe even to focus on short term goals. Which is what I've done. Although I do have one big goal for the year.

Which is to participate in, and win, NaNoWriMo again.

Even though this is my big goal for the year, I'm breaking it down into smaller goals. For instance, until the end of June, I plan only to research and make journal notes. I've already assigned this novel its own notebook/journal and yesterday wrote the first notes in it, filling a page. The research is mostly in the form of reading, so manageable as well as fun. From July to October, I'll be making more structured notes that will act as my outline so I'll be ready to dive into the actual writing come November 1.

For other writing, I've taken a completely different approach to what I used to do, which was to designate a number of poems and/or short stories, etc I'd hope to knock off for the year. This year, I decided I want to get out more.

Not the kind of getting out I did lots of last year (although I still plan to go to a variety of events), but the kind of getting out where I go out TO write. Where there is no Facebook, no Twitter, no telephone and no housework. I've set my goal for this in hours, starting smallish, and will revise it at the end of March. Of course I'll continue to write at home as well.

Having a fairly good idea of how I tend to work, I'm going to trust that whatever's going on around me will guide me as to what to write and/or how to spend my time. For instance, when I'm planning to go to a few poetry nights, I seem to have energy (and ideas) for writing poetry and when I'm exhausted I find that outlining a piece or brainstorming an idea is the best use of time. Of course, if it turns out this isn't a disciplined enough approach for me, I'll be making changes.

I have a few other little things noted in my journal under the goals heading, like to write more non-fiction and to make sure I don't miss too many submission deadlines, but these are the main things I hope to achieve this year. And now I've shared them with you, I feel accountable.