So according to my stats, my last post was on October 27th.
Sigh.
Can I claim the melodrama of the holidays?
Well in any case, I have been dabbling with The Enemy Within of late. I did some editing and writing last week. But with the end of the year looming before me, I am reminded that I am in violation of one of my most dearly held principles.
Make resolutions that you can keep.
A quote by Samuel Clemons reminds me that this tenant is very important:
"New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin to paving Hell with them as usual."
After many years of making (and breaking) my New Years' Resolutions, I decided about two years ago to make ones that I intended to keep. I thought I was doing good until a few seconds ago when I realized that I have not done a very good job of this.
Last year my resolutions were as follows:
1. Lose weight.
STATUS: So far, I've lost 20 lbs. So I can say that I have stuck to this resolution. I've got 10 more lbs to go but I'll take my current progress and be happy.
2. Run a 5k.
STATUS: I totally blew this one... And given the fact that it was a resolution for 2009 as well...maybe I should hang this one up. Or maybe the third year will be the charm?
3. Finish novel and start querying agents.
STATUS: Well the novel is technically finished, and yet it's still a work in progress. I suppose I did take a step back on this resolution in the last few months in that I decided that I really do need to polish my work until it is near blinding in its perfection. You only get one chance to query an agent, and given that I'm in the historic fiction genre, it's not like every agent out there handles it.
This scale back has included a lot of mulling on my part. Going over the plot and picking out the parts that didn't make much sense and then re-writing them. And finally handing over my first 50 pages to someone who could chew it up and spit it out with the knowledge that it will be better in the end even if I have to spend a lot of time fixing it.
So I have made progress, and maybe even changed my mindset to the point that I don't feel too bad about not accomplishing this resolution. Besides, I feel like I've done the best that I could given that I don't have a computer at home.
So in the end... I'd say that I was 1 1/2 for 3 this year. And, of course, there's always next year....
So have you accomplished your writing resolutions for this year? Are you making more for the next?
I think you've done a fine job keeping resolutions--I feel like the ultimate goal is that you end up further at year's end than you were at year's beginning, and you're definitely there! My resolution is just to get more fully back "in" to writing--this fall has been killer on my writing schedule, so I hope to polish my current MS and finish another next year :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a great resolution, Rowena! And I can totally relate to seeing writing schedules fly out the window. I hope that once I have a lap top again, I can make myself devote more regular time to getting this thing done.
ReplyDeleteOn a totally unrelated note, I saw on your blog that one of your manuscripts was set in the Revolutionary War era. My other "shelved" MS is too! We'll have to compare notes! :-)