Reflections 2013

Oh, man, did 2013 fly by or did it fly by? Have I finally gotten to the point where I’m so old that I’m no longer complaining about how long it takes for something to happen but instead I’m wondering why it’s already Christmas when I was just complaining about how hot this summer was yesterday? Ahhhhhhh!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay. Calming down now. Man, I don’t even remember what my resolutions were for last year. Which probably isn’t a good sign…

1. Get COLLAPSE to the point where it’s ready for beta reading.

            I certainly think I’ll be able to do this. I have a system for how I go about edits and I don’t have any trouble getting to the point where it needs outside opinions.

            Hey, I did this! And I got some beta reading actually done! That’s a bonus, right?

2. Find more beta readers.

            As I mentioned in my Reflections post, I haven’t had much luck with finding a long term crit partner/beta reader : (. I’d certainly like to find some new ones, not only for COLLAPSE when it’s ready but for GLITCH (I won’t give up on it!).

            And this! Plus they all actually read the book instead of disappearing after giving me their thoughts on the first chapter! Special thanks to Nick, MJ, and Julie for helping me achieve this goal.

3. Rewrite A SAFE PLACE IN HELL.

            This won’t be just a revision, but a full on rewrite. I started on this book back before I got involved in social media and I honestly think it lacks a lot of the finesse I picked up from suggestions by my fabulous blogging buddies. However! I will not do this until both GLITCH and COLLAPSE are at the point where nothing more can be done. If I fail this resolution, it better be because I’ve finished the above two.

            Nope. I did get about a third of the way through it and I have a very good plan of what will happen next. I got distracted by a shiny new project, and hey. I did get very close to the fabled “done” in GLITCH and COLLAPSE.

4. Start posting my writing goals.

            I think this will help keep me honest. On the first Tuesday of the month, I’m going to post what I want to accomplish and how far I’ve come (basically these resolutions/reflections posts on a monthly basis). Also, I’m going to keep the list posted on my sidebar with progress reports. The guilt should definitely keep me going.

            As I’m sure you all know, I did this. : D

5. Start up a Tumblr.

            You heard that right! More details later.

            Totes! It’s totally not very popular, but I still like finding spam and laughing at it, even if no one else is paying attention.

6. Start my own utopian society.

            Well, I’m starting a bunch of other things.

            No. I kind of got busy with all my writing. Plus starting a society is harder than it looks.

7. Never give up on my books!

            Namely, the above three that I mentioned. I will edit them, I will send them out to beta readers, I will hunt down and capture said beta readers, etc. It might seem redundant to have this here, but I need the extra reminder.

            BAM! Nevar! Yes I spelled that wrong on purpose! Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Surprisingly, I didn’t do that bad. I think I’d be more impressed if I bit the bullet and started querying for COLLAPSE, though. Ugh, querying…

How’d you guys do with your goals this year, both writing and otherwise?