Ready For 2018 To Be A Big Year!

Well, 2017 is behind us, and 2018 is just started. Let's see how this year ends up, huh? I'm trying to aim for a much more productive one all around.

Productivity in adulting, such things as paying down my student loan, getting a better car, working on my credit, maybe getting a house or getting pregnant. Productivity in my health, such as eating healthier, working out, losing weight, seeing doctors at a more regular pace. Productivity at work with such things as maybe pitching to the owners my idea of having a Communications Director to make sure all employees are on the same page, as well as help take some weight off of the office personal.

Most importantly, productivity in my writing. Yesterday was a wash. I read, yes, but didn't even think of writing anything, not even a Facebook status. So, not the best start, but January first rarely is. Which leads us to this glorious tradition of First Blog Post Of The New Year Is The Resolutions Post!

First, let's recap how I did last year.

Resolution #1: No More Than 3 Zero Days in Any Given Week
Um..... Yeah, I was sort of hit or miss on this one. I still have my two calendars, one for marking if I wrote or not, and the other with the hourly breakdown so I can see what I do with my life. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of using those so I can crack down on this resolution.

Resolution #2: Complete the "Reading Books Like a Boss" Reading Challenge.
I got further with this one, but, as I discussed last week, I didn't finish. I'm getting further into "Ender's Shadow." I even went back yesterday and re-read the first two parts of the book I completed already in order to jot down my notes of parallel moments. That way when I re-read "Ender's Game" I can look back at my notes to get an idea of where Bean was during all of it.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week
This one was another negatory. I had bouts of good participation, and then months of ghosting. I was more active than I was in previous years, though....

Resolution #4: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight
This one I managed. I didn't really have many people give me things to look over, but the few that did I returned notes on within 14 days. A lot of them I gave the notes back probably on the 14th day, but it still counts!

Resolution #5: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2017
I DID IT! I COMPLETED ANOTHER RESOLUTION!

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

I know I celebrated last week, but it's exciting to me, so I wanted another quick hurrah!

Resolution #6: Ronoxym's Writing Challenge
Yeah. I didn't even really attempt this one. At the beginning of the year when I was doing the "A Writer's Book of Days" prompts and happened to write something under 1000 words that was original and a complete story, I used those stories for the challenge. Other than those afterthoughts, though? I didn't even think about this challenge Ron put out for me a couple years ago.

So.... that's how I did. Not spectacular, but not disastrous either. Now to set up the resolutions for this year.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week

I will try this one again and again and again until I get it as routine. Yes, I did say above that I wanted to try the fifteen minutes every day routine, but if I can't even write four times a week, I'm never going to succeed in every day. So, baby steps. I will once again attempt to write at least four days a week for at least fifteen minutes a day. We'll see where I will go from there.

Resolution #2: Complete My Personal Reading Challenge

As I stated last week, I'm not going for any actual pre-made reading challenge from anyone. I have a series of books I want to read, and I want to try to make sure I tackle those. So, here is my own personal reading challenge.

I still have three slots that I can fill in throughout the year. The key is to try to get twelve stories read even though I'm fairly confident it's going to take me at least two months to truly absorb "Atlas Shrugged."

Also, yes, I did include fanfiction as one of the categories. If NaNo considers 50,000 words a novel, why not use that as a basis of making a non-professionally published work just as "valid" of a read? It's still a challenge to read through something that requires that much time investment, so why not?

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week

I again failed at keeping up with this community, opting instead to stay closer to home with my physical friends and local writing group. However, I have been more active in the fanfiction Facebook group my college roommate got me into a few months ago, so why shouldn't I be as involved in my online writing group!? 

I need to step it up. Let's see what I can accomplish this year! No ghosting!

Resolution #4: Complete My Four Main WIPs

For those who don't know, WIP stands for Work In Progress.

I want to get the following stories completed by the close of 2018:

• "Peeping Tomcat" my main and premiere "Miraculous Ladybug" fanfiction 
• "One and the Same" my planned sequel to "Peeping Tomcat."
• My still unnamed X-Future story about Trish and Devon's last battle
• My fan novelization of Varekai

I really REALLY want to get "Peeping Tomcat" done and posted by the end of March. I'm even officially signed up now for NaNo's "What Now?" months. Once I'm done with PT, I want to get "One and the Same" posted around June. At this rate, I'd be posting something roughly once a quarter, which would have the Trish/Devon battle in September, and Varekai at the end of the year. I may use Varekai as my NaNo concept after all, just a year late....

Resolution #5: Post Some Completed Work At Least Once A Month

Just because I'm working on four major projects doesn't mean I can't try to get some minor ones up as well, right? I mean, if I'm aiming to write at least four times a week I should be able to do some "warm up" writing on a monthly project before zeroing in on further progress with my main ones, right?

I hope so. It will keep me from burning out on my main projects. It allows my creativity to still grow with these side projects, instead of shoving even more plot bunnies off to the corner. It keeps me relevant by having me post something more frequently than four times a year. It also gives me more things to share with you fine folks throughout the year. At the very least, this would mean twelve updates - one per month - but in theory could mean sixteen: one per month, plus the four main WIPs. We'll see.

And there you have it, my main resolutions. I'm still aiming to keep strong with my 52 weekly blog posts for the year, as well as my fortnight turn-around time for beta notes. However, I've conquered those resolutions. Sure, I must resolve to keep up with them, but I also want to focus on the ones that will allow me to grow as a writer.

My sister gifted me with a bunch of writing books this Christmas, and I still have the three from last year, so, here's to 2018 being the best writing year for me yet!

Hideki and Chii from Chobits by Clamp