I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. I do like to take each new year to look back, check out last year’s goals, and set some new ones. “Goals,” for me, work better than “resolutions.” Yes, semantics, but hey, whatever works.
One goal for the new year involves this blog. I’m changing things up a little here. It’s not going to be so exclusively writing-related. My favorite writer blogs these days are the ones where the writer talks about all the different things happening in his or her life, not just writing stuff. So, since that’s what I like to read, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not turning this into a personal journal, but I will broaden my outlook. Homeschooling, thoughts on various shows I watch, book reviews, recipes I really love, ideas I passionately engage with, quotes that inspire me … it’ll be much more of a hodgepodge. But hopefully a fun one. And yes, I will still write about writing too.
Speaking of books … I have an odd book-related goal for 2014. My goal is to read fewer books. Bizarre, right? Except not, for me. I read approximately 200 books in 2013. Around 130-150 of those were books I’d never read before. Of that number, I remember about a dozen. Of that dozen, I loved maybe five.
So, my goal is to read less, but retain better and love more what I read. If I start to read a book and really don’t care for it after a bit, I’ll stop. I won’t force myself to finish just because it feels like quitting to, well, quit. I will try not to plow through so many books so quickly that they all blur together after a bit, but to actually savor them. And I’m going to try to read longer, more thoughtful books as well as the fun, light, easy reads I gravitate toward so naturally.
Writing goals? Well, that’s easy. Finish Wings of Song and start Magic in Disguise. Figure out a better marketing plan. Write for at least 30 minutes every day.
I want to sew more, to improve my skills as well as my speed, so that a supposedly one-hour project doesn’t take me one month, and will actually look tailored instead of homemade at the end.
And, in general, I want to eat better, exercise more (at all, really. Since moving and not taking ice dance lessons anymore, I’ve fallen into very slothful habits), engage with people more. In real life, not just through the internet. Be less boring. Have more fun! Stress less, always.
I know the goals will shift and change as the year progresses. They always do. But this is where I’m at right now, at the start of 2014.
What are your goals or resolutions for the new year?
I agree, “goals” works better than “resolutions”. I do have goals for this year, things I expect to happen. The biggest one being the finish line of my degree, but also, I have some writerly goals which I would like to see come to fruition by this time next year.
LOL on the “reading less”. You know how I feel about quitting an unenjoyable book – go to it!
And I think it’s a great idea to make your blog more about “you” and less about writing. I read several writers’ blogs, and the ones I keep reading even though I don’t read the person’s books are personal. I feel I got to know them as a person through their blog, and so I’m interested in what they’re doing. The only “writerly” blogs I read are ones by writers I really admire, like Patricia C. Wrede and Gail Carson Levine, and even those I often just skim for useful information. Personal blogs are the only ones I’m really interested in. And I bet I’m not the only reader like that.
Happy New Year to you, and may you reach many of your goals and a few others besides that you didn’t think to set yourself!
Woo-hoo for the goal of finishing your degree! (And then you get to start the next one, right?)
Goals are far better than resolutions! I’m looking to engage more with people in real life as well, a little. Happy New Year, my friend!
The same to you! It’s hard to come out of our introvert caves (as a friend of mine described it) and interact with really-truly-live people, isn’t it?
Good luck with all of your goals this year! Happy New Year!
Thank you! And Happy New Year to you as well!
I read approximately 200 books in 2013.
HOW…?? *boggles*
Yeah– time management might be a useful goal for me.
I am a ridiculously fast reader. Which might contribute to my inability to retain much of what I read, honestly. My mom suggested reading a book two or three times in a row this year, in order to take it in better, because I do miss a lot the first time around due to reading so quickly.