# 2018 Writing Resolutions Thread



## Chessie2 (Dec 30, 2017)

Same as last year! I think it was last year anyway...right? 

Ha! 

I'll start.  My writing resolution for 2018 is to hone my endings into a powerful apparatus that sends readers into emotional spins. 

Your turn. Happy New Year, Scribes!


----------



## noob of the north (Dec 31, 2017)

Oh, fun! I usually don't make resolutions, because they're the first step towards complete failure and deep shame, but a writing resolution sounds a lot more appealing than the usual stuff. 

My writing resolution for 2018 is: to finally finish the editing of my last two novels. I have a habit of stopping on the finishing line, but not this year! 

Happy New Year! Have a fun and fantastic 2018!


----------



## Svrtnsse (Dec 31, 2017)

Right. What I'd really like to do is publish the first ten parts of Lost Dogs, but I don't think that's realistic, so I'm going to settle for the first five parts, and then probably fail on that too. I'll give it a try though. I can't rise to the occasion if I don't get in over my head <insert more motivational drivel>


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Dec 31, 2017)

My 2018 writing resolution is to submit my debut fantasy novel to agents. If I accomplish that, I will consider 2018 a win.


----------



## Tom (Dec 31, 2017)

Okay...my 2018 resolution is to finish both of the projects I'm working on right now. One has been incomplete for years now and it's time to get this thing wrapped up. Even if I get just one finished, it will have been a good year!


----------



## skip.knox (Dec 31, 2017)

2018
1. Finish _A Child of Great Promise_ by March; publish by June.
2. Begin work on next novel, _Into the Second World_. Have a draft by end of year.
3. Double my subscriber list. Since I have all of five people subscribing to _Altearth Chronicle_, I may actually succeed at this.
4. Toward end of year, start research for next novel, _The Falconer_.
5. Get _Goblins at the Gates_ into local libraries.

A hope more than a goal: find an editor I like
And another: find an artist who can bring visual unity to Altearth

And one I know I can do: be supportive to all my fellow writers!


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Dec 31, 2017)

I didn't fulfill mine last year, but you can't predict massive mental health crises nor can you manage your mental health in conjunction with college applications. Apparently. 

But whatever: 

1. Finish Red Nights and get it in the hands of all the people that want to read it. 
2. Write daily, even if it's just a little bit.  

I'm not going to be more ambitious than that.


----------



## DragonOfTheAerie (Dec 31, 2017)

skip.knox said:


> 2018
> 1. Finish _A Child of Great Promise_ by March; publish by June.
> 2. Begin work on next novel, _Into the Second World_. Have a draft by end of year.
> 3. Double my subscriber list. Since I have all of five people subscribing to _Altearth Chronicle_, I may actually succeed at this.
> ...



I'll subscribe. How does one subscribe? 

I mean, I love both alt history and historical fantasy, so I guess it's pretty likely I'd like your stuff.


----------



## skip.knox (Jan 1, 2018)

A subscriber! I've heard of them; always hoped I'd encounter one.

It should be straightforward. Go to my website, altearth.net (link in sig). Once there, Subscribe is on the navbar. Thanks for the interest!


----------



## Devor (Jan 1, 2018)

My resolution for the year is to write short stories, and sell and publish them to raise enough money to attend either a writing convention, a writing course, or one of those intensive workshops, which can all run around $600.


----------



## ThinkerX (Jan 1, 2018)

2017 didn't go so well for me writing wise...and otherwise.

Barely been writing at all the last few months.  And obligations, family and otherwise, linked to 2017's...issues, look set to put a crimp in things.

Plus, I spent most of the preceding four years writing almost daily.  A break seemed in order.

Still...the urge to write persists.

So, that is my principle goal for the year: start writing again on a regular basis.

Projects:

1 - Finish the first rewrite of 'Empire: Country,' hopefully by the end of January.

2 - February and March, rewrite 'Empire: Estate.'  Given the amount of work to be done, that might be overly ambitious.

3 - Novelette length project for the April NaNo.  Not sure which one, several possibilities.

4 - Rewrite the first draft of 'Empire: Metropolis' between the April and July NaNo's.  That is probably overly ambitious, especially if I'm not yet done with 'Estate.'

5 - Another unspecified novelette length project for the July NaNo.

6 - July, August and September tend to be low productivity months for me writing wise.  Still, the goal is to finish the rewrite of 'Metropolis' if not already done, and at least get started on 'Empire: Spiral,' next to last of the Empire series. 

7 - Maybe try for a full Novella for the November NaNo.

8 - Try to finish the rewrite of 'Spiral' by this time next year, likely a futile hope.


----------



## Chessie2 (Jan 1, 2018)

Thinker, try not getting snowed in! Kind of far from you but we read last night that Portage is receiving 20 inches of snow this week. Stay warm!


----------



## ThinkerX (Jan 1, 2018)

Chessie2 said:


> Thinker, try not getting snowed in! Kind of far from you but we read last night that Portage is receiving 20 inches of snow this week. Stay warm!



Got about 0.5 of an inch overnight of snow.  Wind blowing pretty good.  Expect another inch or three later on tonight.  (Cook Inlet acts as a funnel, so a lot of the time the worst of it just misses us.)


----------



## Thoras (Jan 4, 2018)

I don't usually make any new year's resolutions because of the simple fact that I hate that people always talk about their resolutions like "new year new me!" and they keep it up for a week or two. It is just related with failure, and additionally - why would you need a new year to make a change? Anyway - this year have been rough in many ways and I've finally gotten my feet a little more steady on the ground so I actually scribbled down a few goals for 2018 about two weeks ago, so I'll go ahead and share them here just to make myself even more accountable. 

My reading/writing related goals for 2018:
1. Read _a minimum_ of 5 pages each day (fiction books that is).
2. Write _a minimum_ of 500 words each day (outlining and world building does not count within this, just pure story).

- To most people, this both may sound like really *easy goals* - and it probably is for me too. The thing is that I have a habit of setting my goals to high and end up not reaching them which often just lead to negative energy and even stressing me out. So I've decided to do this differently and set my goals low so that I can always achieve them - and build on a positive momentum that way. Usually I read more than 5 pages when I pick up a book, but having the goal at 5 pages offers me the chance to reach my goal even on the most stressful days, there is always time for 5 pages. The same goes for writing, 500 words isn't much - and I usually write more, but again this is achievable every day. Additionally 500 words each day is 182 500 words a year, that would be well enough to finish a first draft at least.

I might add that I do not have as much time as the average person at the moment as I study my last year at university and work a couple of days a week, and I have additional goals for the year besides writing/reading, such as a work-out goal, keeping a tab on our finances and so on. And we plan to move to the other side of the world in september so there has to be some "wiggle-room" for special occasions. 

My tip for others who have their resolutions/goals something like; "finish this book", "read more", "exercise more" - those are fine and all but I would suggest that you make your goals *measurable* to make sure you're actually moving forwards toward your goal. Set a goal in *numbers*, and make sure you're on track each day. I keep my track on an excel-document where I fill it in like a dairy - how much I read, how much I wrote, how much and what I exercised (and some other minor things).  

Rock on!


----------



## Russ (Jan 4, 2018)

I have ambitious writing plans for this  year.  Some changes to my career path should make them doable.

I plan to finish both of the novels I am working on write now and sign with an agent.


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 4, 2018)

Thoras said:


> My tip for others who have their resolutions/goals something like; "finish this book", "read more", "exercise more" - those are fine and all but I would suggest that you make your goals *measurable* to make sure you're actually moving forwards toward your goal. Set a goal in *numbers*, and make sure you're on track each day. I keep my track on an excel-document where I fill it in like a dairy - how much I read, how much I wrote, how much and what I exercised (and some other minor things).



My goal remains the single task of submitting my debut fantasy novel ms to at least one agent. That's measurable, and it has a number: one. It's not a daily goal, but the problem with setting a daily goal in numbers for me is that as soon as I miss one day, the resolution is a failure, and I'll quit measuring after that.


----------



## Russ (Jan 4, 2018)

Michael K. Eidson said:


> My goal remains the single task of submitting my debut fantasy novel ms to at least one agent. That's measurable, and it has a number: one. It's not a daily goal, but the problem with setting a daily goal in numbers for me is that as soon as I miss one day, the resolution is a failure, and I'll quit measuring after that.



I agree.  I think daily goals are a risky proposition.


----------



## Insolent Lad (Jan 4, 2018)

I should resolve to write less and enjoy life more, maybe. Mostly I hope to just keep on keeping on. I'm okay with what I accomplished in 2017. Still, there are projects I do hope to get to and definitely too many to all fit into the coming year! Having put my Mora Trilogy to bed, I need to think of followups to some of the other stuff. Especially to the Donzalo's Destiny epic—that's been on the back burner way too long.


----------



## Thoras (Jan 5, 2018)

Michael K. Eidson said:


> My goal remains the single task of submitting my debut fantasy novel ms to at least one agent. That's measurable, and it has a number: one. It's not a daily goal, but the problem with setting a daily goal in numbers for me is that as soon as I miss one day, the resolution is a failure, and I'll quit measuring after that.



Of course, we all do as we see fit - It's just a suggestion out of my personal experience of what works for me and what doesn't.  It is something a lot of productive people seem to recommend however. And yes sure, it is measurable to say you'll submit your novel to one agent, I personally need a closer, more reachable goal to keep me motivated and keep me on track. If that would be my goal I would still *break it into chunks* to make sure I did some each day, or at least each week.

I do also recognize what you're saying about if you miss one day, it is a failure - and that is exactly how I've felt before too, that is exactly why I *set the bar so low* for my daily goals, so that even on the worst days there are some wiggle-room. Of course, even 500 words could be difficult some days - say you're sick, or you're traveling all day or something like that - for those days I've got sort of a "_clause_" in my resolution goals to make an exception. As long as I take my resolution serious, I believe I can keep this up throughout the year.


----------



## StepIntoTheRoad (Jan 11, 2018)

Thoras said:


> exactly why I *set the bar so low* for my daily goals, so that even on the worst days there are some wiggle-room.


I love setting the bar low for myself. I made one goal which was to work 25 hrs a week on personal projects minimum. Obviously, I'm not going to do this 52 weeks a year because I do want to take vacations. So I gave myself four weeks off in the year where I don't have to hit the target. It's like personal PTO.

My most significant and scariest New Years Goal is to self-publish my Novella that I've been working on for a few months now. I'd like to get it done before the end of March, but I'd be pleased with getting it out there before December 31st. 
I also want to publish 125,000 words. Between the novella, blog posts, and short stories. This number seems enormous to me, but I did the math, and I think I can do it. 
Lastly, but still equally scary, is I'd like to break 2,000 subscribers to my blog. This target is a stretch goal for me because I have just over 50 as of today. I don't know if this is realistic, but if I hit half that number by the end of the year, I'd be thrilled.


----------



## Thoras (Jan 11, 2018)

StepIntoTheRoad said:


> I love setting the bar low for myself. I made one goal which was to work 25 hrs a week on personal projects minimum. Obviously, I'm not going to do this 52 weeks a year because I do want to take vacations. So I gave myself four weeks off in the year where I don't have to hit the target. It's like personal PTO.
> 
> My most significant and scariest New Years Goal is to self-publish my Novella that I've been working on for a few months now. I'd like to get it done before the end of March, but I'd be pleased with getting it out there before December 31st.
> I also want to publish 125,000 words. Between the novella, blog posts, and short stories. This number seems enormous to me, but I did the math, and I think I can do it.
> Lastly, but still equally scary, is I'd like to break 2,000 subscribers to my blog. This target is a stretch goal for me because I have just over 50 as of today. I don't know if this is realistic, but if I hit half that number by the end of the year, I'd be thrilled.



I'd say you set your bar pretty damn high for someone who claims to love setting the bar low


----------



## StepIntoTheRoad (Jan 11, 2018)

Thoras said:


> I'd say you set your bar pretty damn high



 You are right Thoras. 
On a day to day basis, I try to make my habits easy to achieve. Like I consider an exercise 10 pushups a day. Not a full 60 min gym excursion. And writing every day is equivalent to sitting in front of a screen for an hour a day without looking at a distracting website. I don't get too picky about what project I write on or even my word count. I just find an hour and do some writing. Over time it builds up. 

We'll see how far I get on my goals though. It's January and I'm optimistic. I'll check in come March and see where I am with them...


----------

