New Year’s Resolutions 2017
That January 1st lands on a Sunday this
year is a very good sign to me. Looking back over the last two years’
resolutions, I find that I was fairly successful at completing most of 2015’s
resolutions in 2016, but 2016’s seem a little dull, so I’m not even going to attempt
it.
I’m still going to try and read all of Stephen
King’s books in order of publication, but that proves harder than I thought.
Turns out, I only like some of his books. Also turns out, having seemingly unsurmountable
goals causes problems—there’s other novels I’d like to be reading in the
interim.
So, it’s not a goal for 2017, more like a goal for
life. Perhaps I’ll switch back and forth or something. I don’t know. Right now
I’m more interested in going through the history of science-fiction novels and
seeing how they evolved over time; that might take my priority.
This last year, stress shot out my memory, and in
some ways I almost had a reset. Things have changed, for once. I’ve learned
more about why I don’t do the things I didn’t do before my resolutions, and I’ve
been granted permission by my violin teacher to bite my nails. In fact, I find
my nails grow annoyingly fast, having to be cut nearly every day. I don’t even
chew them enough.
So, without further ado, here are my goals for
2017:
1. Travel
somewhere I’ve never been before.
My cousin and I missed a concert by violinist Lindsay
Stirling before she went across the country on her tour. We decided catching
her in Dublin in April is the best option. Since my mom wanted to go to Ireland
for the past year or so, this seems like a good bet. If not, I’ll have to make
a trip to Niagara Falls December 31st in order to meet my quota.
2. Submit
to at least 50 agents before retiring the manuscript.
I’m proud of my book, so much so that if I can’t
sell it, I can put it aside in dignity. I believe in it, though I recognize
some of the weaker points of its marketability (its genre oversaturated the market
two years ago). I’ve done all I can with it—many, many drafts, many, many
readers—so unless someone gives me an unexpected epiphany, my decision is to
really dedicate myself to publishing it before change my focus to publishing
other manuscripts. Fifty is a low-ball, but I decided to cut myself some slack.
3. Go
somewhere new in the city twice a month.
Trying to get out every week is too much of an
effort, not enough time for creating. But I moved to New York to live it, so
that is what I will do.
4. Read one
book a month.
Sometimes I read more, sometimes I read far less,
but this seems like a manageable goal considering all the books I really need
to get through.
5. Fix up
the navigation on my website.
The mobile is always slightly off, and the comic
and Stories of the Wyrd archives have
grown large enough that it’s really not the best way to present them. I’ve been
thinking long and hard about how to organize them, and the truth is, I don’t
know!
Last but
most important! Finally cross out everything on my long term to-do list.
Two years ago, I bought a little notebook to put
my to-do list in. I wrote out a series of things I wanted to get done, and slowly
but surely I have been crossing them off. There are only three things left. I’ve
kept that notebook all this time, got in the largest argument ever with my
then-boyfriend when he left it somewhere until he found it, and so, this year,
I will finally cross that list off.
You know, so I can make another one.
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