Goals for 2012

I like to start every year with goals.  Not resolutions because those always fail.  But goals can be fluid and change as necessary (as anybody who follows my writing challenge, A Round of Words In 80 Days, knows).  So here we go:

  1. I would like to increase my number of days written by 50%.  During 2011, I wrote on 172 days out of 365.  That is slightly less than half the year spent writing.  Now I’ve learned by now that it is not feasible for me to write every day.  Some of that time is spent in planning, sometimes it’s just too busy with too much going on.  But I feel very strongly that I can write on more days.  Increasing days written by 50% puts me writing 258 days, which works out to about 36 weeks of writing time, leaving a solid 107 days for planning, rest, or whatever (the whatever, hopefully, being moving because we sell our house).
  2. I would like to aim to increase my daily minimum words to 850.  Last year I shot for 750 and managed 735, up from about 640 the year before that.  They’re small, incremental steps that add up over the course of the year.  I’d rather keep that goal minimum conservative and outstrip it than to jump for 1,000 and fail.
  3. I’d like to finish 2 novels and at least 1 short story or novella.  In 2011 I released both Blindsight and Red.  I was nowhere near completing a second novel or novella, but by increasing my daily words and number of days written, I shouldn’t have too much trouble managing this, barring disaster.  I make absolutely no promises as to WHICH books those might be.
  4. On a G.I.T. front, I aim to get down to 23% body fat.  I currently have quite a ways to go.  Not sure exactly how much, as my scale this morning made it abundantly clear that I’m retaining mass quantities of water (and utterly depressed me considering how hard I’ve been working out), so I’m not going to weigh again until the end of the week, after I’ve had a few days for my body to reset from all the rich food.  But either way, I’m far more interested in getting to a healthy body composition than in a specific number on a scale.
  5. I want to finish reading James Scott Bell’s Plot and StructureI started this one a month or two ago and then had to set it aside in another of the clean sweep for a house showing.  I’d like to get back to it.  I didn’t do much reading for craft in 2011.
  6. I want to go through my house, room by room, AGAIN, and keep getting rid of stuff I don’t need.  I did this in 2011 and made a dent but more always needs doing.

And all that ought to do me for goals.  There are other things that I hope to accomplish–like selling my house.  But a lot of them are not really under my control, so they don’t go under goals.

5 thoughts on “Goals for 2012

  1. Nice goals, I never do resolutions and always have lots of goals, but my favourite thing is to have a list of ‘new things to try’ for each year – I’m currently trying to come up with my list for 2012, any suggestions would be welcome (I’m starting to struggle having tried so many things! lol) although I tend to avoid things related to heights and water as I’m not good with those things! lol

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