Insecure in the New Year

WELCOME INSECURE WRITERS!! 

(find the list of participants on the Great and Wonderful Alex J Cavanaugh's website - HERE)

Hello my dearies and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

I hope you've all survived the holidays with nerves (and heads and bank accounts) more or less in tact and are ready to face 2013 head on.

Well, I'm not sure I'm ready, but here it is, anyway.

2013. Yikes.

So... as I do most years, I've sat down during the last weeks of December and tried to decide what I want to accomplish in my own personal 2013. Then I went and did the absolutely wrong thing - I decided to compare that list with the one I made last year.

Guess what.

Things repeat.

Most things don't, that's true, too - but the things I HAVE in fact accomplished last year pale in my mind's eye when compared to those all-important points that I did not accomplish - most of which, and this pains me most, have to do with my writing.

Last year, I wanted to finish the short stories I was working on, and at least try to submit maybe half of those.

This year, I'm still going to be working on them - yes, even though they're supposed to be SHORT stories, it's taking me ages. I don't think I'm made for short anything.

Last year, I wanted to choose one of my many many ideas and work on that until it at least resembles a novel.

This year, I still need to decide on one that I'll work on, because my Mr Muse suffers from serious SADD (Story Attention Deficit Disorder, in case you're wondering).

Last year, I wanted to sort out my blogging - adhere to some sort of schedule, stop forgetting about things. Turns out I was MISERABLE at that last year.

This year, I still need to sort out my blog.

How about you, my dearest fellow insecurists? What goals are you working towards, and do your lists find repeats, too?

Not much longer now...

I miss you guys, and it's all my own fault.

Life has kept me busy lately, so busy that keeping up my blog took too much energy. It's the middle of the holidays now, almost time to ring in the new year, and I'm just plain tired. There's so much going on right now, so many plans, so many things that need doing, blogging has been far down on my list of priorities.

I hope you forgive me, and I'm not even going to promise to do better next year. That was one of my resolutions last year, and I failed, so maybe if I make no plans it will work out.

See me crossing my fingers? See me? Well I am.

Because I really do miss you guys, miss the feedback, the idle chatter, seeing what others are up to in terms of writing, and I hope to get back into the swing of things in the new year.


So, I hope you celebrate properly and show the new year that it's welcome - I plan on doing just that!

Have fun,

Yours,

10 Things I plan to do in 2012

10 Things Tuesday + Beginning of the Year = A List of Writerly Resolutions...

1. This year, I've signed up for three Reading Challenges (see tab above) and I plan on completing them all (they do overlap somewhat, as Alex pointed out yesterday, so that should be doable) 
2. I will be blogging at least three times a week
3. I want to be more proactive in commenting on other people's blogs - I've seriously been slagging off in that respect - Sorry guys. 
4. I've almost signed up for the Write One Sub One thingy, but then didn't because knowing myself I will just plain fail at it and I resolve not to set myself up for failure this year. Challenges, yes. Failure, no. Know your limits, I say. 
5. I want to finish/edit/submit the three short stories that have been hibernating on my hard drive for most of last year. Two of them are horror/suspense stories, one is a fantasy/romance thingymajig. And I want to do this before I start a new one. 
6. I will make notes of all Shiny New Ideas in my journal, but will not pursue them until I have time to give them the attention they deserve. By this I mean no more half-written stories if I can at all help it. 
7. My writing desk will no longer resemble the illegitimate offspring of a fleamarket and a tornado-stricken library. No, really. 
8. I will participate in NaNoWriMo again in November, but will NOT take part in any other NaNo-like challenges because quite frankly I have to do some paying work, too. That way I can really have fun in November and not just groan at the effort/time it takes. 
9. I will seriously consider what to write for a thesis. I'm close to that point in my academic career, and it pays to have an idea of what you want to do before the time comes to find an appropriate supervisor. 
10. That said, I will finish all other coursework/paperwork asap, so I can truly get on with it. 

There, that's 10 doable things for 2012! I have a couple of less realistic ones, too, but I want to stick with these for now. 

How about you? What are your writerly resolutions, or are you anti-resolution?