I have never been a big believer of writing New Year’s resolutions, mainly because I know that I am made up of 10% ambition and 90% lazy. Well, at least when it comes to things unrelated to writing. You know the “I’m going to work out and eat better this year.” Yes, I would love for that to be actually plausible but let’s face it. I hate working out and I love to eat food that isn’t green. It is true that I will still probably subject myself to the treadmill and “salad only” phases throughout the year but I can promise you that it will not be consistent and it will not be fun.

I have never made a writerly resolution list though, and I think that making one and trying to follow it actually will be fun. Of course, there will still be times when I want to throw my WIP across the room and then set it on fire while my three cats pee on it simultaneously…but, I digress. The overall fun-ness level should stay relatively high.

Here are the resolutions I came up with this year for 2013 as it concerns my writing goals. I have first listed the goal and then in parenthesis the “ambitious” version of the goal. Really, the ambitious version is my actual goal but, as I said before, when you realize that you are made up of 90% lazy, you have to make yourself feel good when you exceed expectations.  If I reach some of my “ambitious” versions of my goals, I will be thoroughly impressed and may reward myself with a cookie…or ten.

• Read 35 Books, at least 5 being classics (Ambitious: 50 Books)
• Write 12 Short Stories (Ambitious: 24 stories)
• Enter 5 Writing contests (Ambitious: 10 contests)
• Blog three times a week which equals 144 posts for the year (Ambitious: 150 posts)
• Finish The Beholder First Draft (Ambitious: Finish it by March 1st)
• Edit The Beholder and solicit Beta readers (Ambitious: Have feedback from all Beta readers by June 1st)
• Write Query/Synopsis and send out to agents for The Beholder (Ambitious: Send out to first batch of agents by July 15th)
• Complete first draft of Elements, Book 1 of Spectrum Series (Ambitious: By October 8th)
• Start draft of Fallen (tentative title) (Ambitious: Have up to 20,000 words on it)
• Research and be on the lookout to attend a writer’s conference by end of year or early 2014 if I have not landed an agent (Ambitious: Attend a writer’s conference either way!)
• Consider self-publishing The Beholder if no agent prospects by the end of the year (Ambitious: I don’t need an ambitious alternative because an agent will be found for it)

I hope every one of you has a nice and relaxing New Years and that 2013 is looking up for you! If anyone cares to share their New Year’s resolutions or how they trick themselves into actually doing them, please share in the comments! See you in 2013!