Goals for a New Year

Here it is February already and I haven’t posted my goals for 2013 yet. It’s not because I haven’t been thinking about my goals, mind you. I have been, but I’ve been unable to formulate what seem like reasonable goals this time.

I asked myself “Why not? Why can’t you do this?”

The answer was that I was holding myself too strongly to last year’s template. This year is very different from last year, both in where I am and where I see myself going as a writer. My goals should reflect that, but I wasn’t allowing myself that option. I just wanted to follow what had worked last year again this year. And I blocked myself. Live and learn.

I already applied to the various workshops for the year, so those aren’t exactly ‘goals’ for the year. I’m hoping and crossing fingers and knocking wood and all that jazz that I get into one of them…but I can’t count that as a goal, since it’s out of my control. Also out of my control is how many stories see publication. While I’d like to have another five stories accepted this year, I can’t write that as a goal since it’s not something I can influence (unless I self-publish, which I’m not doing just now). What does that leave me then?

Quite a bit, actually, once I thought about it. These are what I hope the year brings me, what I hope to nurture into being in 2013.

• Set up a workable writing environment in my new home.
• Find a writer’s group and community near me in New Jersey.
• Participate in Write 1/Sub 1, creating 2 new stories and 2 submissions each month.
• Continue reading slush for (a) magazine(s), and learning from it.
• Attend a new-for-me convention in the NJ area.
• Broaden my online presence (without overwhelming myself with updates, etc), and make more connections with other writers, both online and in person.

I think that should do it. While other things may pop up as the year progresses, they can be added in later. For instance, I had previously considered NaNoWriMo this year, but I’m no longer sure, with this move, if that’s going to be viable. Maybe it will, maybe not. We’ll see.

As for what I’ve already accomplished, well, I’ve found a link for the Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers website. Previously they were the Horror Writers group, and I’d discounted them due to the fact that I don’t write horror, but with this recent change I might find a home with them. Cross your fingers!

Finally, I’m adding things to this blog. For instance, the Goodreads bar to the side there. And I’ll be adding other author’s websites to my links area, too. Soon. I promise. More or less.

Now I have to go get the power turned on in the new place for when we move in. Ooh, I count that as going toward “making a workable writing space,” don’t you? 😉