New Year Thoughts

From the Speakers: 3 LIBRAS by A Perfect Circle
Just Read: THE THIEF LORD by Cornelia Funke--Didn't know where it was going when I started, but I liked how it suddenly turned speculative. Very entertaining.
Reading Now: THE WOLF TREE by John Claude Bemis

It's that time again: reflection on what writing accomplishments I've made this year, and contemplation of what my goals are for next year.

Looking back, I've written innumerable short stories, one novella, completed the final draft of one novel. I started this blog. I opened a twitter account to follow authors, agents, and publishers. I submitted a plethora of tales, got several encouraging rejection letters, had three accepted, two published. Oh, and I graduated college with a minor in creative writing. All in all I'd say 2011 was a success from a writing standpoint.

Now, the three accepted stories number provides a launching point for next year. To me, three isn't very high at all (although it's about a quarter of my total acceptances), though in my defense I was finishing up nursing school for half the year, and then looking for a job, and then starting a job. My main goal for 2012 is volume related. I have a handful of files in my "Completed Stories" folder, and by December 31, 2012, I want to have a barrel of stories, if not a whole cellar full. If I'm lucky, some of them might even be published.

One thing I'm going to do to help achieve this goal is accept the Write1Sub1 challenge. I heard about this a while ago and it sounded awesome, but I didn't really think I was in a stable enough place in my life to commit to a weekly challenge of that magnitude. Now, though, as Write1Sub1 is being reloaded, the time has come to jump in. Last year was a solid foundation, but next year I plan to really take myself seriously as a professional writer.

So let's do it! Let's grab our pencil and paper, boot up our computers, put some fresh ink in our printers, and get to work! Here we go! Write on!

. . . Starting next week. :)