2009 Resolutions...Writerly and Otherwise

Seeing that I began this blog last January, in 2008, with a post about my writing resolutions and some general life resolutions, I find it fitting to continue on in that tradition. As such, I will begin an outline of some of the goals that I've been mulling over for the past few days, in the hopes that I can attain some of the ones that I failed to last year, as well as some of the new ones I'm adding.

First, let's begin with the writing goals (since this is a writing blog):

2009 Writing Resolutions

Small Goals:

-Writing at least 500 words a day, whether it's on one project or many. I may not have managed to do it every day this past year, what with having a baby and all that, but this goal did help me to accomplish more writing than I would have without it. So, I'm putting it down again.
-Write more short stories, so I can improve my ability to write something more compact than a novel length project. I've done it once, now let's see if lightning can strike twice...or several times, rather.
-Explore some new genres or areas of writing that I've never tried before, like Horror or Mystery. Barring my month long foray into science fiction for Nanowrimo 2008, I didn't do much with this goal last year, and I'd like to write more in different genres this year, just for a change of pace. So, up it goes again.
-Write more poetry. It's my weakest area of writing, hands down. Hopefully I can write more of it this year than I did last year. Maybe in improving my poetry, I can improve my writing overall.

Large goals:
-To finish the book I began for NaNoWriMo. Still haven't finished it, although I did add 10,000 or so more words to it during NaNoFiMo 2008, which I failed.
-To get a book published. See the above book. *sigh* To that end, I have joined NaNoPubYe and convinced some of my writerly friends to join me in that venture. Support is always a plus when you're trying to get published. Trust me, I know, seeing as how I've attempted in the past, before I had to take a hiatus from it because of my college work load.
-Keep up with this blog! Well, I was on and off again with it in 2008, but at least I was able to come back now and again to update. Life happens, especially with a baby to chase after. So while my updates won't be very regular sometimes, I'm confident that I will be able to continue posting every so often.


Non-Writing Goals:
-To get a regular job again! This has to be the number one thing on my list, other than maybe getting a book published. Of course, it PROBABLY should be number one, even over that, but, well...I'm a writer, and I'm biased, thank you very much! So of course I'd rather have a book published, but...well...the family needs to eat, too. *sigh*
-To help my daughter to sleep better again. Ever since she cut her first teeth, her sleeping's been a little screwed up, and she no longer sleeps a few hours at a time, like she used to. So, instead of her sleeping for only an hour or two before she wakes, I'm hoping to retrain her into sleeping for longer periods in her crib.
-To lose about 30 lbs (but I'll settle for 20). Still haven't lost the pregnancy weight. It's hard to find time to exercise on a regular basis, with a baby. And even if I have the time, I'm usually tired. But I will try to exercise for 10 minutes every day this year.

So, let's see how the year shapes up, shall we? Let's hope it brings success for all of us writers out there!