I don’t set New Year’s resolutions. I prefer to think of things in terms of guidelines rather than rules, and saying something like “In 2016 I will finally organize the storage closet in the garage!” feels more like a burden than something to look forward to. (And it’s not even that cluttered of a closet.)

That said, I am very detail-oriented, and I can’t stop myself from tracking some things. So rather than set goals for 2016, I’m looking back at what I accomplished in 2015. I have to confess I’m doing this mostly because I just updated my (many) writing spreadsheets for 2016, which some people might question more than making resolutions. But hey, who doesn’t love colorful spreadsheets?

• more words written than in any other year!!!!!
• 25.5% more words written than my previous high
• completed solid drafts of 10 short stories
• completed a solid draft of 1 novelette or novella
• started a new novel (it was supposed to be a short story) and wrote just over 19,000 words
• revised the current, unnamed novel
• took 4 writing classes
• wrote 30 blog posts
• had 1 guest blog post (I wrote the intro)

By ‘solid’ draft I mean a draft that’s more polished than a rough draft. I tend to write sparse first drafts, then add more description and sensory details in subsequent drafts.

And if you’re wondering how many words I wrote in 2015, you’re just going to have to guess. 🙂 I am immensely pleased that I wrote so much, but it’s still far short of where I’d like to be. (That’s a goal, not a resolution.) So until I get to a level of productivity I’m happier with I’m going to keep the actual numbers quiet because I want to feel encouraged, not discouraged.

The start of 2016 is going to be very, very busy. I’m working hard on the unnamed novel (only 2 more weeks to come up with a title!!!). It feels like it’s never going to end, but I know it will. (I think.) Tomorrow I get assignment #3 for the anthology workshop, and I’ll write 4 short stories for that workshop in January. Once I finish the novel and hand it off for editing and beta reading, I’ll get back to the novelette or novella and figure out how long it’s really supposed to be. And then I’ll have rounds of editing. I believe the novel is on track for publication in April, but I’ve learned that my estimates for how much work is involved in finalizing something are vastly under what they should be, so we’ll see how this goes. Then once the novel has been published I’ll move on to the next novel.

It’s going to be a busy year!!! 🙂