A New Beginning

That's how I see each January 1st. It's the time to sit down and think about what I wanted to accomplish the year before and just couldn't quite get to it, for whatever reason.

So, as my first post of the year 2009, I give you my updated resolutions...

1. Write more - this one seems like a no brainer, doesn't it? But I really need to quit with the revising (for the most part) and get to steppin' on writing new words. I find that I've so many more ideas when I'm writing more. So, I am going to do my best to stick to a schedule of at least 2 hours of writing per day.

2. Try for an agent (again) - this is kind of my yearly resolution. And so far, I've gotten thisclose, but no cigar. Maybe 2009 will be the year. We'll see.

3. Submit - another no brainer, right? But submitting is even more difficult than writing. Submitting means putting yourself out there for rejection and no one likes to be rejected. And being published now is no guarantee that you won't be rejected tomorrow. Writing's kind of fun that way - in the Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football kind of way.

4. Not take it all so seriously - it isn't the end of the world if I don't get an agent, or an acceptance (it will suck, sure, but it's soooo not the end) and there's no need to panic. The sun comes up every morning and today's "no" can be tomorrow's "yes." And if I never sold another book (god forbid) I would still write. That's just how it is, and that's how it should be. For me, anyway.

5. To take the time to enjoy the real world - Writing isn't the end all of my life and it will hopefully never become that. It's very easy to become submersed in whatever I'm writing, but I have to remember that there's more to life than butt-in-chair (BIC) and fingers-on-keyboard (FOK). A lot more.

So there you have it, the top five - to be revised and edited as needed, but hopefully simple enough to actually be achieved.

What about you? What are your resolutions or did you decide not to make any this year?