Followers

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Deadlines, Goals, and Resolutions, Oh My!

Every New Year, and sometimes for the Jewish New Year too, I post goals and resolutions and set new deadlines for myself. I look back and see if I met any of the goals listed the previous year. I see if I've grown or learned anything new and I reflect on what I want to discover about myself as a writer and a person for this new year.

But this year, I am not sure I will do that. I'm not sure why exactly. It's not that I am taking some stand against resolutions because I'm not. Resolutions are just goals and I am all for goals.

So what's with the silence this year? I keep pondering this one myself. I think it's because I have the same goal I have had for a few years now so why write it? After all, it's embarrassing to have the same goals year after year. Isn't it???

So why write it and tell all of you?

I suppose to keep myself honest. I suppose to keep myself on track. I suppose to remind myself that even if it takes me 50 years to do what some can do in just a few short years, they are still my goals, my ambitions, my dreams, my desires and they deserve my recongnition and attention.

So, here it goes... Once again, my goals for 2010 are to polish this latest draft of OW and get an agent who believes in my work.

I would also like to outline and write at least the first draft of my next YA novel and outline my sequel to OW.

PHEW! There. I did it. A bit like pulling off a band aid. Quick. Maybe a little painful. But much relief now that it's done.

There's something to be said about this time marching on business that makes me feel so low about my goals still being my goals. Somethng about how that makes them feel so unobtainable. Something about the fact that my goals haven't changed much and so it feels like I am spinning my wheels. It feels embarrassing. They feel unconquerable.

But truthfully I know better.

I know that I have learned with each draft I write. And time marches on with or without you so even if your goals haven't changed it is important to stay in the game, to pick up those drum sticks, don that marching band feathered hat, and march on brave writers. March on!

Happy New Year everyone! And as always, Happy Writing.
“Personal limitation exists only in our ideas of who we are. Give up all notions of who you are and your limitations will vanish.”

- Anonymous