Happy New Year! And Now, the Plan for 2012

Happy New Year everyone! There’s something invigorating about a clean slate isn’t there? A defined day to start anything we feel like, and it’s okay. So, here are my 2012 goals:

The Writing Goals 

Get the new YA polished and off to my agent and editor
Chance of success: 100%. Note there are no dates on when this will occur. This novel has proven to me that it’ll get done when it’s done, but it’s almost there. Crits come back in a few weeks and I’ll be ready to dive in and polish that sucker up.

Write at least one of the new MG reluctant reader series I have planned
Chance of success: 80%. I want to say 100% here, but until I know how the YA pans out I won’t know what my schedule will be. I assume I’ll have several months to work on a new project while agent/editor reads the YA, but you never know how these things go. Good news, these books will be short, and I plan to outline the snot out of them, so they should go quickly once I start. (Famous last words. Watch, these will be harder than Blue Fire was)

Write another YA novel
Chance of success: 50%. A lot of this will depend on whether or not I sell the current YA project. (I hope so, and things look good for it, but you never know) The project could be a series, so if it sells as one, I’ll jump on book two. If it doesn’t, I’ll probably focus more on the reluctant reader project before I do anything else. All this can change of course if my agent has a better suggestion on where I should focus if it comes to that. Career planning and whatnot.

Go to a few of the big conferences
Chance of success: 50%. I’ll attend a few smaller and local ones for sure, but I’d love to do a national SCBWI or RWA this year. And go back to Surrey. Not sure it’ll be in the budget though, as these things can be pricey.

The Blogging Goals

Grow the blog
Chance of success: 100%. Well, 100% that I’ll do stuff to grow it. Whether or not it grows is out of my hands. But I plan to try several things, like:

• Tweak the design to make it even more user-friendly
• Write those dang e-books and get them out there
• Write and submit articles to writing magazines
• Do more guest posts and introduce myself to new readers

The Marketing Goals
New category! Marketing takes up time and is its own beast, so I think it deserves its own set of goals.

Be more active on social network sites in a way that doesn’t steal all my time
Chance of success: 50%. Yeah, I have doubts about this, as I haven’t been real successful here so far. But I miss commenting on sites like Absolute Write and keeping up with blogs and comments, and my poor Facebook page has been silent for far too long. There’s got to be a way I can do this and still get my writing, blogging, working and life stuff done.

Do more events
Chance of success: 50%. This is really out of my hands, so I guess the better goal is “submit proposals to more events.” That I can do. But I’d like to get out there more and meet folks over the year. Both at writer’s conferences and reader festivals. Oh, and workshops. Those are always fun.

The Personal Goals

Re-do my office
Chance of success: 100%. My office was originally created for my day job, but that has slowed down while the writing has picked up, so I now need a better setup. I want to move some furniture around, shift files, put up more shelves, etc.

Eat better
Chance of success: 60%. I’m a junk food junkie, always have been, but this whole getting older nonsense makes it harder to eat like that and stay alive. Luckily, I like veggies and whatnot. I just gotta buy them more often, and then remember to eat them. And plan meals instead of hitting dinnertime and deciding it’s easier to eat junk than cook.

Exercise more
Chance of success: 60%. If I can get back on a regular routine, this will be easier. Typically, as soon as something throws me off, exercising goes right out the window. Maybe if I move the Wii into my office. That way I can at least do the Wii-Fit yoga stuff in the afternoons when I need a break and need a pick me up. I have fun doing that.

Have more fun
Chance of success: 80%. The last few years have been pretty hectic and crazy, and in 2011 I tried to take more time for myself. I did okay, and it’s time to carve out a little more me time. Except that me time is always the first thing to go when I get busy. (If you see me and I desperately need a haircut, you know I’m swamped). The hubby will help here though, which will increase my chance of success. He already has fun stuffed planned for us.

Read more
Chance of success: 75%. I think I’m going to try to do one of those reading challenges, and read a book a week if I can. This will fit well with the more me time goal. Spending Sunday mornings curled up with a book is both fun and easy to do for me. If I can just keep myself from getting on the computer. I also enjoy reading before bed, so I need to keep a book on the nightstand as well. Different books most likely. I’ve found nighttime reading is better with lighter books. They’re easier to put down when you get sleepy.

Things I’d like to do but probably won’t

Start a vegetable garden.
I’ve wanted to do this for a year, but I think it’s just a recipe for dead plants. I want to go out every day and play in the garden, but actually doing it is another story.

Be more active on the author site blog
Right now, the blog part of my author site is more for displaying news, but I’d really love to make that a weekly post so I can connect to my readers more. Something like the Sunday Social I tried (and failed) to do here. I think I might be able to do a weekly “here’s what I did” type post, as long as there’s something interesting to talk about.

And that’s it. Not as heavy as last year, and I think a lot more doable.

So what about you guys? What are your goals for 2012?