Because resolutions involve stuff like, "I'll join a gym and go until the end of January when I get burned out," and "I won't eat anymore chocolate until I go crazy and binge on it."
Plans are much more practical.
1) Move to NYC at the end of July
2) Pay off my credit card so I can put said moving-to-NYC costs on it
3) Find an apartment in NYC that costs less than the monthly income of an average two-person household (this is going to be tricky)
4) Buy a new computer under $1500 with a 3-year warranty (after paying off credit card? Because I'm currently word-processing on an ancient back-up laptop that wieghs 20 lbs, has a broken space bar, and can't connect to our wireless network)
5) Get a new job (in NYC) that pays me about as well as I get paid here
6) Apply to Viable Paradise, which I technically can't afford to pay for right now, but if I get accepted, I don't have to find the money until July. I need some new eyes to look over some of my work, and I need to hang out with other writers again. I'm starving for it.
7) Apply to Brooklyn College MFA Program (must be done this week. I put it off way too long and apps are due Feb 1)
8) Sell 3 short stories
9) Finish draft of God's War by March. Have revised and ready-to-hawk version by December.
10) Finish revised (for the bazillionth time) version of The Dragon's Wall and send to Agent by October
11) Get back to work on book two of the fantasy saga (Over Burning Cities) so I have a draft by June of 2007
12) Begin preliminary research and outline for my next stand-alone fantasy book about a feisty girl-turned-resistance-fighter and abused peace-pursuing man clawing out their own versions of an ideal country from the wreckage of a nation butchered by a Rwandan-like genocide. Currently untitled.
13) Finish reading the 20-odd books I'm currently in the middle of
14) Rescue the music stuck on all of my dead computers
15) Consolidate my student loans
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
What I Plan To Do This Year
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5 comments so far. What are your thoughts?
Re 8, my recommendation is not to make goals based on sales and writing. You don't really control that, the editors do. When you make goals or plans based on that, then you may get really frustrated when or if it doesn't happen. I speak from experience there.
My recommendation is that it's great to make writing goals as far as craft is concerned. That will naturally lead to the sales.
Posted by JeremyT
Glad you're back. Good luck with all the goals. Are you thinking about teaching? (I was wondering why the M.F.A.)
Posted by Ismone
Jeremy - yea, I guess a saner thing would be to say I'd like to have at least 10 stories "in the mail" at once. Statistically speaking, I'm better off with a goal like that. But... but... I really want to sell something.
Ismone - teach? Me? Yea, right. No, I just think an MFA would be fun, actually....
Posted by Kameron Hurley
I think fun is the best reason of all. Good for you.
Posted by Ismone
If you move to New York, the trick on apartments is to be openminded about the neighborhoods. Uptown Manhattan: Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood; Queens: Astoria and LI City; a million neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and almost anyplace in the Bronx. You'll break your heart trying to live in downtown Manhattan.
And from an NY lurker, welcome to the city -- you should like it here.
Posted by LizardBreath
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