Tag Archives: new year resolutions

Bye 2018, hello 2019!

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I firmly believe looking back at the old year is the best way to start the new year. What to keep up, where to improve routines, what to avoid. I have to admit, I didn’t achieve all I had set out for in 2018, but it hasn’t been a complete failure either.
Here’s the list I drew up in my post at the beginning of 2018:

1) Finish the first draft of my current WIP — nope
2) Read and write more poetry — done
3) Read more in general, especially non-“on-the-craft” books — done
4) Put work into the blog: take-away-points from webinars, blog posts on story structure and character arcs  — partly done
5) submitting non-novel works – poems and possibly short stories – done
6) Use my time effectively and minimise social media procrastination — partly done

Recapping 2018, I realised I did a lot of poetry. That took up a considerable time that I eventually didn’t spend with my WIP. But I enjoyed writing poems. Some are on the blog, others I submitted to a number of magazines, journals and contests. Nothing ever came off it but I did enjoy the work with words. It helped improve my vocabulary and the sense for the English language.
I did read more in 2018, too and exceeded the 25 books Goodreads challenge by two. (27 books seems few? pls keep in mind that I’m a working mom with 2 kids and a household).
I didn’t finish my WIP, though. The focus on poetry took up a lot of time. But I’m aaaaalmost there. Another month and it should be finished.
In terms of social media, I did well with scaling down on Facebook and Instagram. I didn’t do as well with Twitter, though, partly because of the mess world politics is in right now, partly because many people of the writer community are there. I don’t want to quit Twitter, but working on an adequate time spent there is definitely on the list for the new year.
There’s one thing I didn’t note as a to-do for 2018 but am glad I did: I wrote a 5-Year-Plan to map out How to get to where I see myself in 5 years time. Breaking down large goals into achievable bits has helped me a lot.

Here’s what I’m challenging myself to achieve in 2019

1) Finish the first draft of the current WIP (Déjà-vu again) AND get it in shape for submission in 2020. I’m close to finishing the first draft anyway so the emphasis is more on the second part of this goal. Revisions will take time and since I’ve never done it, this will involve reading a few craft-books on this particular topic.
2) Do Goodreads Reading Challenge again. I read 27 books in 2018. Why not aim high? I’ll set the goal to 30 books in 2019.
3) I want to keep up the good work with the blog, but put up less poetry and more story structure posts.
4) In addition to the work on the WIP, I want to write and revise one short story.
5) In the 2nd half of the year, when I have to set aside the revised WIP, I want to outline a new novel (preferably pre-November) and write the first draft of it during NaNoWriMo.
6) And last but not least, the never-ending story of time management and reduce social media procrastination. I want to join the #5amwritersclub again more often, for a start, and use the time I got more wisely.

Now it’s your turn. What’re your goals for the new year? Anything to add? Write to me in the comments.

 

New year, new goals.

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Happy New Year to you, dear reader!
I hope you spent the last moments of 2017 and the first moments of 2018 with your loved ones and friends and had the most amazing time. I certainly did. Now, I am looking forward to 2018 for there are some changes ahead.

As the beginning of a new year usually prompts some resolutions and for me one of those for 2018 is to get my blogging routine up to a new level, here I am, posting the first of hopefully many entries on the very first day of the new year.
Fear not, however, I won’t bore you with a list of good intentions (just now). Instead, I’ll review the last “bucket list” I wrote – amazingly, this post dates back to December 2015 and was targeting my plans for 2016. Oops.

Back then, I came up with 8 points for me to strive for and I didn’t do so bad. Here’s the list again:

  1. Get a critique buddy.
  2. Check for German chapter of SCBWI – if there is one, sign up.
  3. Decide on the basic structural frame for WIP
  4. Find something else than MS word for a writing environment.
  5. Stop or at least minimise procrastination.
  6. Find a way to carve out daily writing hours.
  7. Write some more blog posts.
  8. Review this list at least once a month. Maybe the … 14th each month would be an idea and add all things that came up eventually.

So, I did quite well with items 1, 2, 4, and 6.
Yes, there is a SCBWI chapter here in Germany (it’s the Germany/Austria chapter, to be precise) and I’m lucky to have a group of ladies who meet up once a month in the Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart, just an hour from home. They basically are my critique buddies now and the group has grown considerably during 2017. This is truly amazing and I very lucky to be part of it.
Yes, I did find something else than MS Word – I chose Scrivener in early 2016 and never looked back.
Yes, I did carve out writing hours, even if this turned out to be the hardest part of the game. Hello there, #5amwritersclub. If you are unfamiliar with the hashtag, I recommend you head over to twitter and see for yourself. Or better yet, join us!

For the other four items on the list however – it’s not so easily determined if I succeeded – in the best case, I’m still on it.
I obviously did not live up to item 8, given that I only just now review this list again…
I did not write as many blog posts as I was aiming for. If I reflect on it, I was probably buried in craft books and stepping up my game in the art of writing and did not feel I had much to say.
I did not stop procrastination. Not entirely. But, I am proud of the progress I made and I’m still working on avoiding distractions and better organisation. Some days that works better than other days – I’m sure it’s not only me who feels that way.

And the decision on the structure of my WIP? Ha Ha Ha … yeah, no. I’ve since moved on from the manuscript I was working on in early 2016. I had to admit to myself that I did (and still do) lack the skill level to manage such a huge project. It’s not dead – but it’s sitting, resting, simmering in *the drawer* for now. I still love the world and the characters and the ideas about it but it’ll have to wait. I will come back to this particular story when I got some more experience under my belt.

I’m going to draw up a new bucket list for 2018 in the next days – just to write down some task and goals I want to achieve in the upcoming year.

Without a goal, there’s no direction for your efforts, right?