Tales from the Raven

Every year for it seems like an eon I’ve come up with new goals sometime in early January.  Sometimes even on the first.  And I’ve noticed a pattern.

Some of my goals will be met over the course of the year, but often the goals for the year change as the year progresses–which is a nice way to say I don’t meet my goals, but do get other stuff done.  This was true of my writing goals in 2007 and again in 2008.  In 2009 I set these goals:

• Re-write Shadow Dance
• Write the first Keela novel (this will include a lot of world developing)
• Write queries for both novels above, and start subbing SD
• Write four non-flash short stories
• Stay alive in the SF&F world, including my blog, LJ, FB and attendance at cons.

Those seemed simple enough and I was sure that I had a handle on what the year would bring.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Not only has this year been full of wild U-turns and hidden trap doors, I also drastically changed what I wanted writing-wise from the year.  I didn’t attend any SFF cons, but instead I attended RWA and OSC’s bootcamp.  I did about half the re-write on Shadow Dance (now known as 13 Demon Days), then spent the rest of my fiction writing time on The Popcorn Potion.  I got a few queries sent, then decided that the story needed an overhaul even worse that the query, and reigned them both in to be worked on.  I also finished roughly the equivalant of a novel’s length in my freelance writing, which translates to bread and butter on the family’s table.  Oh, and unless it’s slipped my mind, I didn’t write a single short story this year.

So, what does this add up to for 2010 goals?  One could ask why I even bother, since I obviously can’t predict what the year will bring.  But I find that in spite the above batting average, I’m a goal setter at heart and like to have my plan for progress outlined ahead of time.

Which still leaves me with a problem because I know that performance goals are highly preferable to outcome goals, but what I really, really want this year is to aquire an agent (they can rep Popcorn, 13 DD, whatever) for my fantasy work, and get some nice solid contracts for the freelance/write-for-hire stuff.  But I have a plan that will take care of everything.  I’m hereby commiting to:

• Rewrite Popcorn
• Send out thirty queries for Popcorn

If that hasn’t produced requests for pages and/or an agent:

• Finish the rewrite on 13 DD, and
• send out more queries, on both 13DD and Popcorn

Also:

• Spend a min. of three hours each day producing content for bread and butter writing gigs
• Attend NASFiC, and maybe even help in some way
• Oh, and take care of anything else which comes up and seems like a good idea.

See, isn’t that brilliant?  I wrote out goals that are concrete and performance oriented and almost hide the fact that I’m really all about outcome goals this year.  I also gave myself a loophole to throw all the goals out and do something entirely different if I decide to.  I just may be getting the hang of this.

Until next year, of course.