New Year's Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR,Writers. May your year be filled with publications, signings, writing and all of your desires.

When planning your writer's New Year's resolutions, be reasonable. Remember that you want to have some success with your goals. Set them high, but not too high. For instance, last year I set a goal of submitting something every week. I may not have succeeded at every week but I did make 52 submissions. That may not sound like many in the light of the fact some writers have that many submissions circulating at all times! Actually, I exceeded that number by 10. Of course, not all were accepted - in fact, only 37 acceptances and most of those were for free. I write an every-other-week column for the Lyons Recorder in exchange for the editor's husband developing and maintaining my website and personal domain email.

My acceptances did include one book contract, which, as I've said many times before, comes out February 15th. So this year my resolutions will concern promotions for the book as well as writing.

Some resolution suggestions:
1. Write every day
2. Submit a reasonable number of articles, stories or books
3. Build a better writing portfolio
4. Add to or develop a platform
5. Keep better records
6. Promote better

Good luck. If you have resolution suggestions, make a comment. 

End of year

As the end of the year approaches, I begin to analyze what publications printed my works in 2010. Course, my husband gets on my case to print it all out for our taxes.

That said, what is your method of record keeping?

Some record keeping programs make the job easy. However, after trying one, I decided my spreadsheet works fine. I set up a spreadsheet with a submission listing - publication, article title, date, email or snail, what was sent (query, book proposal, whole article, etc.), acceptance/rejection, follow-up, editor, address, promised pay, expense and actual pay. Below all that, I list what expenses I accumulate as they happen.

Unfortunately, I'm a book junky. Instead of borrowing all my resource materials, I tend to purchase them from amazon.com or wherever I find them. If the books are out of print and expensive, I borrow them. My shelves are loaded. Many books have sticky notes along the edges. I'm not good at note taking but everything is marked in each book.

With the approach of the New Year, I'm considering what writing goals/resolutions I can make. The first will be better note keeping - footnotes particularly. If anyone questions a statement or fact, I'll have instant access to the source rather than spending time going through sticky notes.

What 2011 goals are you setting?

I think I'm pretty much finished with my website. Check it out. Let me know if you have suggestions.

Writing Ideas

Every year about this time I think about all the articles I should have written, or those I've written but failed to submit in time.

I promise myself year after year to write stories during the Holiday Season and then place them in a folder for submitting in about June. It's a good idea but I have yet to fulfill that promise to myself. Life gets in the way.

So, start now and write down the ideas as they happen. Then, put them in a folder of things to write immediately. Maybe you have a better process. If so, share it.

Next, set aside time on your calendar to write. Even during this hectic time of year, don't get out of the writing habit. It only takes a few minutes to jot down the basics of an article. You can embellish it in January.

Look through magazines now for ideas from articles printed this year. What holes can you fill next year? Remember, new generations need the knowledge you may take for granted that everyone already knows. There aren't many new ideas, just repeats of old ones.

With this said, I promise to dig out all the Holiday articles and put them in a folder ready to submit. I'll do it after I put up the tree!!!

Miscellaneous

I'm a day late and a dollar short this week with my posts. The last week was filled with volunteering and the annual St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Craft Fair. I'm a tole painter as well as flower arranger and decorator of special projects. Last year the fair raised $21,000 so we aren't the typical "little old lady" group. This year's inventory amounted to less than last year so the profit won't be as much. However, it took up three of my days. Tomorrow we'll culminate the event and donate leftovers to nursing homes and other craft sales.

To catch you up on book progress, the Charles Russell book should be in route to the printer soon. I've been working on a Frederic Remington book. Today I emailed the Amon Carter Museum with a list of paintings/sculptures I want to use. Should have done it before writing the manuscript. Actually, I did check their website and found the pieces I wanted to use. Today was a different story. We'll see if they still own them.

My advice is to check before writing. I may discover I've included some items the museum no longer owns and will have to start all over or at least delete some pictures and add others. Hopefully they'll get back to me quickly.

Even though the week provided little writing time, I managed to write two pages of the manuscript and an article for a small town paper on Sunday. The month is almost over - YEA! I'll have more time in November provided our two trips don't interfere. I'll babysit my twin grandsons November 3rd through 6th. Visit a Dixieland Jazz Festival in Clearwater, Florida, Thanksgiving week. Should have an article idea after we visit the Circus Museum and see my husband's father's picture with the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Band.

In the meantime I'll get a head start on Christmas decorating and baking. Since my husband has knee surgery on December 21st and comes home on the 24th, I should have plenty of writing time at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.

When I counted up my submission for 2010 last week, I discovered I'd met my goal of one a week. I know many other people submit much more, but that was my goal. Not all received acceptances, however, one included a book. Guess my time was well spent.

What writing goals do you make? Be reasonable. Don't expect miracles. But keep plugging along.