New Year and all that

With the New Year just around the corner I guess thoughts turn to plans for the future. I know mine certainly do. Along with all the usual stuff (lose weight, excercise more, be kind to people you can't stand) there are things that I hope to do with my writing. In the past I have been pretty non specific about exactly what. It amounted to "I want to be a writer." But my writing has come on so much in the last year and now I need to be more focused. Or I should probably say that I want to be more focused. In 2007 I had my best year ever in terms of success and although that success is incredibly modest when compared to most people's it was my success and I am proud of it. So what if I only had 6 pieces published in 2007. That's 5 more than in 2006 which was 1 more than any year before that. I submitted 47 pieces of work so 12.7% of them were successful. So okay it's not great but it's a start. The first step.

So in 2008 I aim to

1. Submit a bare minimum of 5 pieces of work a month. - That would take me to 60 which would represent an increase on 2007's output of 27.6% which any company would be happy with.
2. Work on the WIP folder regularly. There are some ideas in there that just need developing.
3. Finish the first draft of NMBK. It's been left alone for a while while the other stuff has been going on and I don't need to but would like to get back to it.
4. Make a contract with myself to work a minimum number of hours each week on writing. Twelve and a half would take my working week up to 50 hours. That should be achievable especially if I can get a few hours in on Sundays.
5. Continue to enjoy writing. Afterall, if the big break doesn't come in 2008 I've still got the day job to fall back on.

So there you have it. In a nutshell they are my New Years writing resoloutions.

Happy New Year everyone!!