Goals for the Coming Year

The start of a new year is traditionally the time we sit down and make resolutions about how we’re going to make ourselves better in the coming year. I am all for introspection and making plans for improvements, but the whole resolution thing simply doesn’t work for me.

Making a resolution to lose 75 pounds, get 15% better looking and appear on the cover of “GQ” has never seemed terribly useful to me. And while it is traditional to make resolutions, it is also part of the tradition is to “cheat on the resolution”.

That seems pretty counter-productive to me.

So I won’t be making any New Year’s Resolutions this year. Instead, I’ll be setting some firm (but doable) goals for myself, complete with plans on how to achieve them.

Let me list them for you, with high-level plans on how I hope to achieve them:

1. Write, record and post a new comedy podcast every two weeks until finished – I’ve already got a head start on this one as you may know. ‘GalaxyBillies’ episode 0 is now available in the ‘Get Published’ feed and will have its own feed very soon. The hardest parts of the podcast (IMHO) have been done: characters, plot, music and sound affects are all in place. With the recording of the first  episode I worked many of the bugs out of the production. All that is left now is to meet the release schedule. That means 5,000 words of new content every two weeks, written and recorded. To accomplish this I will write a little everyday, just like I did during NaNoWriMo. If I give myself 10 days to write and 4 to record and produce I should be in great shape. That means I need to add 500 words per day on my writing schedule. Extremely doable.
2. Continue producing and releasing episodes of ‘Get Published’ every two weeks – I have a year of experience doing this. I will continue to line up interesting guests for interviews, write the occasional episode with just me and generally follow the same formula I have been using for the past 12-months. I encourage you to submit anything you feel is relevant to the show and I will happily play it. The one thing I will be changing slightly is how I write and plan the episodes. I did it a little differently when I was on the road and it cut down on my production time SIGNIFICANTLY.
3. Have two new books finished by the end of 2010 – I’m cheating a little here. ‘GalaxyBillies’ is one of the two planned books which is getting written episodically. The second will be written for NaNoWriMo 2010.
4. Get an agent – this has not been a priority in the past, but it is now. One of the things I’ve learned from doing ‘Get Published’ is how important an agent truly is. Beginning the second week of January, I’m putting together a submissions package and I will begin the quest to get an agent. I will research agents on the Internet and submit to no fewer than 50 by the end of the year (unless I get one before I hit that magic number). I will also talk to agents anywhere I meet them (like the Surrey International Writer’s Conference) to pitch myself.
5. See my work in print – this could be a book or a short story. I will be submitting to publishers (both online and traditional) and to any and every contest I can find. I’ve got to buff up my writer’s resume.

Those are my goals for 2010. I don’t think any of them are impossible or even unreasonable. There is definite work involved in all of them, but if I’m truly serious about being a writer I shouldn’t be afraid of a little work.

What are your goals for the coming year? I’d love to hear them.