And We Begin At The Beginning

It's that time of year again. New Year's Resolutions, Goals, Plans...and ROW80 Round 1. 2012 was a "meh" sort of year. I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it either. I wish it was better, but I know it could have been worse. I also know, after the medicore of 2012, I want to have a way better 2013. I'm determined. And here's one of the reasons why:

I'm going to be 35 this year.

*shudders*  I don't even like to say it, let alone see it in print. I'm going to be "that" age and yet here I sit, still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. 

Scratch that. I do know what I want to be. I want to be a published author  But instead, I'm a family court attorney who teaches writing and literature classes part time, and does freelance work on the side. While doing all this, I write in my "spare" time. That's a lot of hats to wear and my neck is starting to hurt from it all. 

Because of this, I want to make 2013 a transition year for me. I want to get myself together and get more of my stuff out there. I've got so much written. Much of it done, or nearly done. And starting with Round 1, along with my plan for 2013, now is the time for the next steps to reach that goal. 

In order to accomplish this, I've decided to split my ROW80 goals into two categories and add in a year long plan. The first set listed below is my broader year plan which I hope to inch towards as I go through the ROW80 rounds this year.  The second category will my end of Round 1 goals and/or goals that have a specific deadline.  The last set are shorter, weekly goals that I will try to meet each week and will change depending on how the upcoming week looks. I likely won't mention much about my 2013 plan or the end of round goals in my update posts unless I accomplish something or hit a snag, and instead focus on my weekly goals. But the longer term goals and the plan will be there, lurking in the background, for me to work towards.

So starting with the broadest of goals, here is my plan for 2013. (I may add more later, or as the year moves along!) I got the idea from Juliana Haygart so thank you Juliana for the inspiration!! This should keep me on track--a sort of reminder of what I am working towards in the long term:

• Send out Finding Home to the three publishers I chose. I already picked them, I just need to finish these edits and I can have this done.  If I don't hear anything back from publishers, self pub it is!
• By the mid-2013, send out Wanted to publisher(s). 
• Organize my WIPs and get a plan together so I can FINISH them. I have at least 10 WIPs that have quite a bit done (either half finished, or some are done but need major revisions. Others are still somewhere in the first act...you get the idea!).  This doesn't include the numerous outlines I have for WIPs. My first task will be listing the unfinished drafts and outlines in terms of priority, and then focusing on that one WIP until it is ready for edits. Some of these are already approaching 50K words.  I just need to focus, re-read, and then finish them, instead of letting them languish in my WIP long term care facility.
• Finish the Goodreads Reading Challenge by December 31st, 2013. This year I am shooting for 150 books, double what I read last year. I hope I can do this!

Moving on from my year goals, here are my goals for the end of ROW80 (or those with a specific deadline):

• Make writing every day a habit. I got out of this habit with the holidays and need to nail this down again.
• Finish edits on Finding Home by January 22rd. I set this date since it is the day before I start teaching Intro to Lit classes at the local community college. Things will get crazy at that point, and if this is out of the way, I will feel much better about things!
• Revise Wanted, my NaNo novel.  I haven't looked at this since NaNo ended. I am sure I will have a lot of work to do, but my goal is to have this novel ready for final edits by the end of Round 1.

And lastly, these are this week's specific goals:

• Write 3000 quality words per week. This was the goal I was working towards before I changed it to do NaNo in November. Whether these words are on one of my other WIPs or written during revisions of Wanted, I won't be all too picky. I just want to hit that number (or get as close as I can) every week. 
• Review a minimum of one book per week. Either I will review it on Goodreads or review it here on the blog and link to my blog via the GR review. Where I post it will probably depend on how much I have to say about the book itself, but either way I want to get in the habit of writing more reviews. 
• Comment on a minimum of 5 ROW80 updates. 
• Respond to all blog comments for the week.
• Review lessons plans for classes I am teaching this semester and make a list of what I am missing (if anything).
• Exercise 3 times this week

Looking over these goals and my 2013 plan, I see that I have a lot going on here. But hopefully by breaking it all down as I have, I can stay on track and have a successful ROW80 and a productive 2013! *keeps fingers and toes crossed* Wishing you all luck as we start the ROW80 journey together and see you around the ROW!!