Let’s Break Our Resolutions

It’s inevitable that my New Year Resolutions are broken. It always happens. What have I broken?

Nothing yet. However, there are some personal goals I didn’t mention that I haven’t been able to do. This is what I wanted to do:

• Make two posts a day again. I actually went back to one a day and I even missed a day.
• Write a bit every day.
• Read a bit every day.
• Start my science videos in January.
• Do some book reviews in January.
• Keep up on comments.
• Keep up on social media.

Well, I failed all of those. Maybe February will be better. I’m going to push myself to do it!

Have you broken your resolutions yet?

2017 Resolutions

Although it’s now the second day of 2017, here are my “resolutions” for the year. Actually, I don’t do resolutions, just rough ideas I’d like to achieve. And they are:

• In terms of reading, read 24 books, or two per month.
• In terms of writing, finish Journey to Ariadne and start Knight of Ariadne.
• As for my booktube channel, continue to improve my editing and make a lot of videos.
• For my new science channel, make high quality educational videos that people find interesting and entertaining.
• Get a car.
• Work full time.
• Go on a trip to the west coast with my family.

I think they’re all pretty doable. Nothing extreme. What are your plans for 2017?

Back to Normal? Short and Long Term Goals

Now that we’re back from holiday, and I still have a couple days off from work, I can get back to work on everything. I’ve already written about plans for 2016, but I want to make some more specific things clear.

First of all, some immediate goals.

• Catch up on comments.
• Month in Review for December.
• Weekly Review for the end of December/beginning of January.
• A major project that will consist of only one post. It should come later today.

Now some long term goals.

• Authors Answer will continue weekly, despite my time away from computers and the internet in late March/early April. I’ll just have the posts scheduled.
• Quick Facts will be weekly, and maybe at some point bi-weekly.
• Put up the Taste of Japan videos regularly.
• Make Life in Japan videos based on the posts I’ve done on this blog.
• Write regularly after our move to Canada
• Read every day at home, and hopefully read 25 books this year.
• Regularly update my parenting blog this year.
• Get back to work on my Japan blog.
• Keep my official author’s site updated every month.
• Get a domain name for my official author’s site?
• Start on some major content for my official author’s site.
• Worldbuilding posts every week.
• Study French every day.
• Study Japanese every day.
• Study Spanish occasionally until I finish French on duolingo. Then every day.
• Get a car.
• Get a new job in Canada.
• Write multiple short stories and flash fiction.
• Enter a couple writing competitions.
• Join the recreation centre near our Canada home and try skating and swimming often.

Some specific aspects:

Worldbuilding – I’ve done so few posts on this, but I have so many to do. I’d like to work on writing these weekly. I have a list of topics to write about, and it’ll be extremely thorough.

Writing – Journey to Ariadne needs to be completed this year. I will also start on the first Ariadne novel and possibly the solar system novella series.

Languages – I will complete the test drives, and whenever any new language comes out, I’ll test drive that, as well. But for now, finish the course on duolingo for French while also doing Spanish at a slower pace. Once French is done, work on the reverse course and do Spanish every day while I study German at a slow pace. This pattern continues. Once I finish Spanish, German takes over, and I start Irish. Once German is finished, Irish is my focus, and I start on Norwegian. Then Russian, and so on.

Quick Facts – I’ll resume working on Astronomy Quick Facts, focusing on the moons of the solar system. I also want to get started on Geography, which will go through the countries of the world alphabetically. The other one I’d like to work on is Dinosaurs, also alphabetically.

At the beginning of the year, I feel ambitious. I just wonder if I can do all of this. These are just plans, so I can’t guarantee if they’ll all happen. I can hope.

Anything interesting catch your eye?

Authors Answer 61 – A Look at 2016

Happy New Year everyone! It is now 2016, and this is the first Authors Answer of the year. 2016 is a big year for me personally, and it should have some surprises in store from many of us. Let’s find out what we’re doing in 2016.

Question 61 – What are your goals for 2016?

S. R. Carrillo

My primary goals are to continue reading quality indie books, re-release the first two books of my debut series, travel a bunch, love, laugh, deep condition every week and drink lots of water… :D!

Gregory S. Close

Publish.  I’d been invited to contribute a short story to a small press anthology, and due to poor work and life circumstances this year, I wasn’t even able to complete it.  Really frustrating.  I need to figure out a writing schedule that will work so that I can get some closure on works in progress.  I’d like to finish Greyspace, and either publish traditionally (still being reviewed by a publisher – they haven’t said no yet) or Kickstart it if that fails.  Secondly, I need to get my first draft of The End of Dreams to my editor (sequel to In Siege of Daylight).  I would love to do both and build back some momentum for my writing!

Jean Davis

Write another batch of short stories that I can get into submissions and try to get another novel published.

Elizabeth Rhodes

My writing goal for 2016 is to get the first draft of a new novel down.  This is tricky, because right now I’m trying to figure out what that next novel will be.

I’m also planning to take a second crack at the 52 books reading challenge.  I’ve never been a fast reader, and reading one book a week will be hard for me.  On the other hand there are so many books on my shelves that I want to read and never got around to.  That changes in 2016.

Eric Wood

My goals for 2016 will be to be successful completing the goals I set in 2015. This will be a do over. Blog wise, I don’t really have any goals other than to keep on writing material others want to read. Healthy wise, I’m going to attempt my 1,000 mile challenge again. Perhaps this will be the year I write some children’s books. Or try to get into production the stories I’ve already written.

H. Anthe Davis

Finish and publish my fourth book, hopefully by mid-year, and get started on the fifth.  Well — get a good way through the fifth!  I’ve been trying to reduce my required writing time, but it’s a war between motivation and my desire to lay on the floor and do nothing now and then.  I should also get some short stories done, even though I hate short stories; there are certain side characters’ tales to either fill in or wrap up, so I have many ideas, I’m just not fond of the format.  Must push myself.  Beyond my writing-work, I really don’t have other goals…I just go along with my schedule.  I’m dull!  😀

Paul B. Spence

Survive? LOL… My writing goal is to finish the three books I’m working on right now. I’ll be happy if I finish one of them, to be honest.

Tracey Lynn Tobin

My main goal for 2016? To somehow get a handle on myself. 2015 seemed to fly by mainly because I seemed to be constantly head-to-the-wall busy at all times. Part of this was because of the nature of my job (which has me stuck on a work camp for 14 days at a time and thus unable to get much done during the shifts), and part of it is because I’ve been spreading myself a little thinner with all my YouTube videos and the like, but a good chunk is also just that I’m terrible at time management. I’m hoping to work on that.

But another big goal is to get the first book of “The Other World” set up for publication. I had intended to have it in the hands of my beta-reader several months ago, but I somehow managed to never actually finish the last two chapters, so things got put on hold. I’m hoping to have a completed (revised and edited) manuscript sometime within the first third or so of 2016, and I’m going to submit to a few traditional publishers as soon as I can. I’m really hoping to possibly publish in this manner, but if things aren’t looking good by the end of the year I’m going to go ahead and self-publish this one as well, because I don’t want to wait too long before having a second book available.

Finally, I’d like to work through the mess of half-stories that I created during NaNoWriMo this past year and try to get a few of my erotic fairy tales up for availability on Kindle, mostly as an experiment to see whether or not they would actually sell. I’m very interested in the results.

There are other things that I’d like to accomplish in 2016, but those are the major ones. 🙂

D. T. Nova

My biggest one is the goal I planned but didn’t accomplish for 2015: to publish my first novel.

Allen Tiffany

Historically I’ve never set goals on 1 Jan, but this year is going to be different. I’m feeling like there is too much to do regarding my writing, and my work life has gotten more complicated and demanding. So I’m going to prioritize and focus more than I ever have:

1) Though it may not sound like it is directly related to writing, workout at least 5 times a week again. I got religion on this about 4 years ago, and got into great shape by riding my roadbike more than 4K miles a year, but over the last year, I lost it… 😦 Time spent working out feels like a time suck (it is), but I just feel better and think better – to include all aspects of my writing – so I need to get back to it.

2) Publish Lonely Hunter. It has now been two years in the making. The last year has been tweaking and tuning as I’ve gone on to write the second book (Vicious Harvest) in the 5-book series and most of the third and important parts of the fourth and fifth. Working on all five has been distracting in one sense, but it has also been hugely helpful – I fully understand the entire story, where it is going, how the characters develop, etc. Knowing that informs the writing of LH down to very subtle details. But at some point I have to get on with it. I am putting it through an online workshop one more time (about 1/3rd of the way done with that), then I’m going to dig through it a few more times, and then hopefully send it off to my editor by ~end of March. She is going to need at least a month with it, if not two. So…all considered, I might get LH published in the June timeframe. …I hope.

3) Get Vicious Harvest through CritiqueCircle and to my editor by the end of the year. You can see an excerpt of VH at http://www.allentiffany.com/end-war-scifi-novel-excerpts/end-war-book-2-vicious-harvest/. Though it has been through 4 beta readers already, it is really exciting to get this one in front of objective, thoughtful reviewers.

Linda G. Hill

My main goal – in fact, my only resolution – for 2016 is to get a novel published, whether traditionally or self-published. I started my major epic, The Great Dagmaru, as my NaNoWriMo project in 2011, though it took me 18 months to finish the first draft. Since then I’ve been editing it. I’d like to get it out there before I edit it to death.

Jay Dee Archer

This is a huge year for me. I think the biggest thing is moving back to Canada with my family. There is so much to do between now and then, I’ll have no time for writing. I’ll keep reading, though. After arriving in Canada, I’ll be busy with getting all the various IDs, addresses, bank accounts, etc, set up, as well as finding a job, if I haven’t done so already. Also, get a car.

On the writing front, once everything’s settled, I’ll be focusing a lot of Journey To Ariadne, while also working on the first book of Ariadne. I’m going to do some work on short stories and flash fiction, as well.

As for reading, I’ll probably continue as usual for the first three months, then after moving, I may have more time to read. 2015 was a slow year for reading, so I hope 2016 is far better.

How about you?

What are your plans for 2016? Share what’s in store for you in the comments below.

Authors Answer 8 – A Look at 2015

2014 is coming to an end in less than a week, and we have a lot to look forward to.  New Year’s Day is the biggest holiday in Japan.  Nearly everything is closed, families get together and have a traditional meal, and many people spend some time praying at the local (or a famous) shrine or temple to wish for a good year.  The picture below was taken in my wife’s grandmother’s house.  You’ll see these everywhere in Japan.

So, what are our authors doing for the new year?  Many people try to set goals for the year with New Year’s Resolutions, but for authors, these are more like deadlines, not just mere desires.

Question 8: The New Year is coming soon. What are your plans for 2015 in terms of writing?

Michael J. Sullivan

I always have a lot of projects going on, so let’s see…I’ve spent the last few years working on my new epic fantasy, The First Empire, and it’s nearing completion.  Yes, I’m a crazy person who writes all the books before publishing any of them.  This series contains five novels, the first four of which are already written. I’ve outlined and started the final volume. Currently, I’m implementing beta feedback for, Rhune, the first book, and hoping to have the fifth book completed in March or April 2015.  In this series, a group of ordinary people play a pivotal role in important events that occurred in the distant past of Elan (the fictional world which is the setting of my Riyria stories). The deeds of this group are lost to history as others usurp the successes for themselves. All this takes place 3,000 years in Elan’s past and tells the “real” story behind much of Riyria’s mythology. No prior experience with Riyria is required to enjoy this series to the fullest. That being said, veteran readers will discover I wasn’t 100% honest about much of the history I’ve told so far. For me, one of the coolest aspects of this series is the ability to explore the differences between myth and reality.

Next up is the third novel in my Riyria Chronicle series. I outlined this some time ago, but work on The First Empire has delayed its progress.  The chronicles are continuing adventures with my two main protagonists Royce and Hadrian.  Unlike The First Empire and The Riyria Revelations, these stories are standalones rather than part of an overarching storyline.  As such, they can be read individually and out of order.  I’m being cautious about having the Riyria duo overstay their welcome, so my plan has been to release a book and then gather feedback to determine if more should be written. With the release of The Rose and Thorn, it became evident people still want more of the pair, and I’m more than willing to oblige. Writing that book should take me through July or August.

That gives me enough time to write one more book in 2015; I might not get it completed, but it will certainly be well on its way by year’s end. I’m still trying to decide which project I’ll do.  One choice is a standalone fantasy I outlined two years ago, which has been pushed back several times because of other projects.  The other option is a sequel to Hollow World (my science fiction novel). When I wrote that book, I had five or six “follow on” stories in mind, and again, the feedback has let me know people want more about these characters.

Elizabeth Rhodes

My main goal for 2015 is to have a completed Jasper manuscript ready to sell.  I haven’t decided yet if I’ll enter it in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Contest, but that’s a definite possibility.  I also want to start on Jasper’s Legacy, the sequel to Jasper.  This will likely be my next NaNoWriMo project.  But mostly, I think I’d like to step away from the writing and read more books for most of the year.  It’s been too long since I’ve finished a book.

Caren Rich

Just to keep at it.  Through NaNoWriMo I found out that I can find time to write and that I can be very productive in just an hour a day.  I want to take that and apply it to my daily routine.  Granted very little housework occured during the month of November and I can’t do that on a regular basis, the natives will revolt.  But I can be productive in small bits of time.  I also plan on stop hiding in my hobbit hole and send out queries like a good little writer.

Jean Davis

I have high hopes for 2015 to be much more productive than this past year was on the writing front. After settling into my writing room that is currently waiting for paint and trim, I need to finish up edits on a fantasy romance novel and several short stories. Then it’s off into submissions with those projects and possibly self-publishing one of the two novels I do currently have completed. I will again be participating in A Story a Day In May, which is when I do most of my short story writing, edit those over the summer and get them out into submissions in the fall. Which brings me to NaNoWriMo in November and whatever new project I happen to come up with by then.

D. T. Nova

I hope to have my first novel published, and after that there are some ideas that have been kicking around in my head for years that I might finally get to writing.

Amy Morris-Jones

Wow, this is a tough one. So many possibilities… I think my primary goal is to finish the novel I’m working on currently. I’m about 45,000 words in, and it’s time to call this one finished. I also need to submit more of my short fiction. I started to do that a bit this year, but I need to keep sending things out into the world.

Tracey Lynn Tobin

Things can always change, but I have a broad idea of what I want to accomplish for 2015. I want to complete the first draft of all four books of the YA fantasy series that I’m writing, first and foremost. Then I want to work on editing book one, which I hope will take significantly less time than it took me to edit my first novel, and if all of the stars and planets align properly I would like to have that book available for sale by the end of the year. Ambition!

Paul B. Spence

My plans for 2015 are 1) seeing my third Tebrey novel, The Madness Engine, published early in the year and 2) putting the final polish on the first book of another series.

H. Anthe Davis

I’m currently editing my third book, with a release goal of February.  Once that’s out (or before, if I have to wait on the cover), I’ll get started on the rough draft of book four, which I would also like to have out in 2015 if the size of it permits, but which otherwise I’ll probably be writing and rewriting all year.  Since there’s a bit of a paradigm-shift between books 3 and 4, I’m also considering writing some short stories to bridge the gap, but while I have some ideas, I’ve never been great at short stories.  So we’ll see.

S. R. Carrillo

I wanna release the sequel to my debut novel, The Soul, early in the year and hopefully towards the latter half of the year get to publish another project – doesn’t matter what – but, if not, then at least finish up the first draft of my sci-fi/dystopian co-authored title Pride.

Linda G. Hill

Looking forward to January answers from Linda.

Jay Dee Archer

I often begin the year with a lot of lofty goals.  My goals are just as lofty for 2015.  However, I think I’ve devised a way to manage my time.  I plan to write for at least 15 minutes a day, whether that’s on Journey to Ariadne, flash fiction, or short stories.  With that said, I hope to have all of Journey to Ariadne written in 2015.  That doesn’t mean publication, though.  I need to flesh everything out, and that’ll take time.  While I’m doing that, I’ll also begin writing my short story science fiction series featuring a dying man and his desire to explore the planets.

I would also say that blogging is included in writing.  I’ll maintain a post a day for 2015, as well.  I’ve managed it extremely well since March this year, and haven’t missed a day.  Some of those posts will include flash fiction, as well as some of my dreams written out as short stories.  That should be fun.

In the new year, I’ll have a big post outlining 2015, not just for writing.

How about you?

What are your plans for 2015? What are you writing?  If you’re not writing, do you have any other plans? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michael J. Sullivan for participating this month.  He had some wonderful answers, and I’m definitely going to keep my eye out for Moleskine notebooks in the future.  Thank you very much!

Resolutions, and It’s not New Year’s Day

Who cares that it’s not January 1st?  I’m going to make some resolutions now.

Sometimes, I feel like I have to do some refocusing on what I need to do to be more successful at what I do.  I need to cut what’s unnecessary and devote more resources to what’s important.  So, here are my New Month’s Resolutions:

• Devote at least 30 minutes a day reading.  I do read around 40-90 minutes already, but I don’t read on my days off.  I need to remedy that.
• Devote at least 30 minutes a day writing.  I’ve been bad at this.  I need to write, whether it’s for Journey to Ariadne, flash fiction, or something else.
• Work on Journey to Ariadne at least 3 days a week.  If I do this, I could get more parts out faster.
• Do at least 2 videos a week, preferably one on books and writing, and the other on Japan.  I’ve been doing a decent job of Japan videos, though.
• Post comments on other blogs every day.  I just must do this.
• Reblog a great post at least once a week.  It’s great to promote others’ blogs.
• Try to post on average 2 posts per day.  1 post is flash fiction, the other is something else.  More if I can.
• Write flash fiction every day.  It’ll help me improve my writing skills and will expose people to my writing.
• Write a rather personal blog post, one which I hope will be inspirational to others.
• Engage people on Twitter daily.  I tend to respond a day or two late.  I can’t continue doing that.
• Use more images on my blog posts.  Something simple is fine.
• Try to do one worldbuilding post a month.  This is an important subject to me.

That’s a lot of resolutions, but I think they’re all achievable.  They aren’t extreme, and I have the ability to do them all.  I just need to dedicate myself to doing this.

Anyone else have any 58.3% of the Year’s Resolutions?

Looking Ahead to 2014

It may be a bit early for a look at the next year, but I will be on holiday at the end of the year and unable to do any blogging.  So, here is what to look forward to next year.

Reading

Even if I don’t make my target of 25 books this year (I’ll give it a try, though!), I’m going to set a new target of 30 books for 2014.  I think I can manage my time better than I have this year.  I also have some challenges I’ve started and won’t finish at all in the near future.  They’re long term challenges.  You can see them here. I will continue as always, trying to cut down my big pile of books.

Writing

If I can time things right, I hope to actually finish Journey to Ariadne, which I started this year and only managed to get 2 parts done due to too many things happening.  Again, I’m working on time management, and plan to do some writing during my break at work, as well as late at night and any time I’m at home alone or when everyone else is sleeping.

Blogging

Last month’s post a day worked very well, and this month, I’ve been posting nearly every day.  Not only that, I’ve been posting more this month than last month, up to 3 times a day.  This has had a very direct effect on my motivation, as well as seeing the visitor numbers going way up.  I’m getting more interactions with others, as well.  I’ll continue posting on this blog next year, and you may end up seeing more than 400 posts.

Studying

As I mentioned earlier today, I’m going to start doing some free online university courses at Coursera.  I may do more, depending on time, and if they don’t take too much of my time.  The courses I chose don’t consume much time at all.  I should also work on my Japanese.

More Ariadne

I’ll be doing a lot of work on my official author’s website in regards to the Ariadne Encyclopedia.  I’ll also be working on some artwork for my books (not cover art, but sketches), and if I can figure out how to get them online without a scanner, I’ll do that.

Early in 2014, I’ll do a retrospective of 2013.  WordPress always does up a page with stats for each blog, so you should be seeing that, too.

Goals for 2013

I refuse to make resolutions.  Instead, I’m setting some realistic goals for myself.  Although I guess those are resolutions.  I’m just not calling them that.

I’ll keep this list nice and simple.

Write everyday

Even if it’s only 15 minutes, I’d like to work on my book everyday.  I want to make good progress on it.  Hopefully, I can even publish it this year.

Blog frequently

My goal is at least 5 times a week on this blog.  On my Japan blog, I’ll be posting at least once a week, probably 2 or 3 times a week.  On my baby blog, I post whenever there’s something to post.

Read a lot

On Goodreads, I set my goal to 25 books this year.  I read 14 last year.  We’ll see how I do.

Visit a new place every month

For my Japan blog, I used to explore a new neighbourhood a couple times a month (although I don’t have the blog posts done), but since having a baby, it’s been impossible to do that.  However, we like to walk, so I hope we can visit someplace new every month.  I already did yesterday.  January is done.

A new weekly series for my Japan blog

I successfully finished a year of weekly photos for the second time, but I’d like to change it up with something new and informative.  I’ll be making a weekly post about a different prefecture in Japan with basic information, some photos (public domain photos, not mine), and places I’d like to see and food I’d like to try.

Study Japanese

I think I say this every year.  However, I think I may actually work on getting real Japanese lessons.  My goal is to speak business level (probably won’t happen this year!).

I hope I can achieve all of these goals this year.