Dear Me,
Before I go ahead and outline my plans for
the year ahead, I feel like I need to look back on the year that has just
been. It felt like a hard year,
and there was so much I didn’t enjoy about 2014, yet in many ways it has been
the most successful year I’ve had in a long time. I think my dissatisfaction was largely because I really didn’t
enjoy the job I had for much of the year.
It was tiring and demanding and very unsatisfying and that left me so
drained that it was hard to motivate myself to write at the end of every
day. So I haven’t produced the
amount of work I’m used to producing in a year.
But at the same time, 2014 was the year my
first novel was published and the year I got an agent. And right at the end of the year, I got
a new job that is already making me so much happier than my old one.
Going into 2015, I’m excited about my new
job. It’s going to be challenging,
but I think I’m going to enjoy that.
I’ve been doing the same thing for so long, it’s refreshing to be going
into a job where I’ll have new responsibilities and a variety of different
people to work with throughout the year, as well as a variety of different
tasks and responsibilites.
With weekends and evenings free (for the
first time in 23 years), I plan to set myself a regular writing schedule, with
enough flexibility that I can still go out every now and then without feeling
guilty about missing a writing day.
I figure a 5-day a week schedule will work because at the speed I
generally write, I can guarantee 7500 – 10 000 words a week while drafting. Revising is usually a lot slower, but I
still usually manage a chapter or two a night, depending on how much rewriting
and adding new scenes is needed.
I’m still drafting my NaNo novel, but it’s
almost finished. It’s going to need a lot of revising because it’s really just
a bare bones draft and so much of the story and characters have come into focus
as I’ve written the book. And the
story has taken me in some interesting and unexpected directions as I’ve
written it. Once the draft is
done, I’m going to leave it for a few weeks before diving into revisions.
While I let the NaNo book settle, I plan to
finish the NA I’ve been working on off and on for the last year or so. It doesn’t need a ton of work since
most of it is done, but it needs some polishing and my CP’s eagle eye over it
before I will feel comfortable sending it out into the world.
So the plan for this year is to finish the
NA and this year’s NaNo book, plus I have another story idea I’m excited to
write. Once the other two are
done, I’ll write this one (it’s also an NA story, I think…)
Another reason my productivity has been low
in 2014 is that I’ve had other things going on. An Unstill Life published in January and keeping up with
publicizing it has taken up quite a bit of my already limited writing
time. I have also been doing
revisions on another book so my agent can take it out on submission early this
year.
I’ve found switching focus between projects
is challenging for me and I have trunked a novel this year because somehow, in
between editing and publicity and revising other things, I lost what I was
trying to do with the book. I need
to get over this problem because if I’m going to have a writing career, this is
going to happen a lot. There will
always be times when a WIP has to be dropped for edits or revisions, and I need
to be able to pick back up without feeling lost in my text. I’m not sure quite how to do this….
In 2014 I didn’t manage to be as present
for my crit group as I wanted to be.
This year I will endeavor to be more regular with my critiques. I love this group and they are a huge
part of my writing journey, so I need to give them the same attention they give
me.
I didn’t manage to lose any weight in 2014,
so once again I’ll list it in my ‘to-dos’ for 2015. I have a plan for regular trips to the gym and exercise
during lunch-breaks, not to mention a diet plan I hope to have the will power
to stick to. I’ve managed to keep
my weight the same over the last few years because my job has been quite
physical, with a lot of time on my feet.
Now that my job is mostly sedentary, and the bus takes me pretty much
right there, I need to really focus on diet and exercise if I don’t want to
blow up like a balloon.
And that’s about it for 2015. I’m sure things will come up that I’m
not expecting, and some will be wonderful and others less so… I’ll check in mid-year to see how
things are tracking.
Love, Me.
I hope you all manage to achieve everything you wish to in 2015!
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