Writer's Resolutions 2009

Hope 2009 is treating you all well. And if it started out rough, like it did for me, I hope you are in a better place mentally now. I began my new year by angrily questioning the Universe, "Why THIS lesson again? WHY??????? I thought I learned it already!"

Once I calmed down, I was able to see that it is not the lesson that shows us what we've learned, but how we deal with the trials and tribulations of life that REALLY illustrate what we've mastered. And so, now that I am in a proper frame of mind once again, I want to talk about resolutions.

But I am not speaking about resolutions to lose weight or exercise more… Those are important goals too. After all, your health IS important. I am speaking about my favorite kind of resolutions - Writer's Resolutions of course!

Whether it be to sell a magazine article, finish three dummies in the year, or polish your manuscript, setting goals is the first step to obtaining them. Without setting a goal in writing, it is too easy to forget or forgo. Something magical happens when you put something in writing. We all know this - after all, we're all writers! But when you put something in writing, you automatically become accountable. Don't know where to start? Start small and obtainable.

Feel free to borrow any of these goals if you can't come up with your own…

1. Make a space that is just for you and your writing. A place where you and only you go to write.
2. Decide on an amount of time you will try to write each day or each week. For example…. I will write two hours five days a week, rain or shine. Or… I will write ten hours a week.
3. Some novelists like to work with word count instead of time. So maybe your goal could be… This year I will strive to write 5,000 a week. (Believe me, that goes fast! Take it from a past NaNoWriMo contestant!)
4. Maybe you've had a novel (harrumph!) you've been working on for quite sometime so your goal is to (once and for all, for crying out loud, G-d willing) finish the (darn!) thing.
5. Maybe it's to read more books in your sub-genre… This year I will read 20 books in my field.
6. Maybe it's to test your book to a live audience… This year I will reach out to schools or libraries to see if I can read my books to a classroom and test it out on a live audience.
7. Or here's my favorite… I will treat my writing like a business and be present each day, ready to work as if my livelihood depends on it.

Whatever your dreams are, turn them into goals. And then watch your goals become reality!

Happy Writing!

Summer's not even Here and my Kids are Bored Already!

Today is the last day of school and I'm a little nervous and I'll tell you why... See, normally my country-bumpkin kids stay home all summer. We hike down to the creek and we... well... just hang out all summer long. But this year they are coming of the age where that will NOT be good enough and who will suffer???

ME!

I will suffer because they will be bored. And when they're bored they bicker and whine. And understandably, there comes a time in every kid's life when hanging out with mom just isn't enough. But what's a struggling writer to do? Camp's expensive! Only the rich can afford to entertain their kids with really cool sleep away camps or even some of these posh day camps... I have no idea what I will do with a middle schooler and an almost middle schooler all summer long!

Summer officially begins today at 2:00 for his household and my kids are already bored and bickering. Like I said, I'm a little nervous. OK, I'm a lot more than a little nervous!

My goal this summer is to complete my novel once and for all, but now I am wondering how realistic that is with two kids who will need me to constantly come up with new and exciting things to do and places to go because they're own backyard just isn't cutting it anymore. And I will need to come up with things that won't break the bank. Even going to the movies these days is a ridiculous expense. How can I entertain them without killing my summer budget AND still finish my novel???

There should be a book for mom's just for this purpose. I can see it now... Seventy Fun and Inexpensive Things to do with Your Kids This Summer in Your Area. We can each take a different territory and write a little booklet about what these things are with a rating scale for affordability, fun-o-metor, restroom cleanliness, and more. I have been scouring the Internet looking for cheap day camps, or things like this and not much is coming up. Even horse back riding lessons for a half an hour comes to $80 a pop for two kids!!!! And with the price of gas soon reaching $5 in my neck of the woods, I don't want to have to drive too far. Plus with all that driving, I'll need a laptop so I can drop them off someplace fun for them, park it under a shady spot and type away...

Summer's not even here yet, and I am already looking ahead to the fall...

WRITING BUDDIES

Let's change the topic slightly, now that I've gotten my whining out of the way, I want to tell you a bit more about my brainchild idea as of late - Writing Buddies. I wrote about it at the end of my last posting... a friend of mine and I will be writing buddies for each other over the summer.

This Friday will be our first phone conference where we will set "new page" goals and talk about how our writing is going, and brainstorm any areas in our stories that need it. Say my goal is to write 10 new pages, the following Friday we will phone conference again and check in... did we reach our "new page" goals, why, why not, brainstorm, etc. We will continue this process until we both complete our MG novels. We are both very excited and hopeful (but now I have this little thing called "kids" to possibly throw me off).

Drat! Retrospective perspective strikes again! I remember the good ol' days when you could plop them in for a nap, or in front of the TV, or on a blanket with some toys and still get some work done.... Not anymore! Welcome to the 'tween age!

So, how do you deal with kids, summer vacation, and your writing goals? Let's hear the ideas and let the brainstorming commence!

PS We weren't actually hit by lightning btw, but it sure looks like it, doesn't it??? This was when I was doing my evil experiments in the basement of how to silence children for a few hours each day so a writer-mom can get some writing time in-between the whining chant of "we're bored... there's nothing to do..." Wha-ha-ha-ha-ha.....