At the start of 2012, inspired by David Bishop (and the fact that the year had the number 12 in it) I set myself twelve targets for my writing work in the form of New Year's resolutions. Some were to be on-going, some would be one-offs I wanted to achieve relatively quickly, and in the best tradition of New Year's resolutions, some were going to be nigh-on unachievable!
I gave an update back in May, but now that we're at year's end, how did I get on overall?
1) Read more books
Pass! This one I managed - but only just. But at the end of the day I definitely read more books in 2012 than I had in 2011.
2) Buy fewer books
Pass! I still bought books in 2012, but less than in previous years, which means I've started to get to work on my 'To Read' bookcase.
3) Complete 12 projects
Pass! This was going to be 'Write 12 short stories' (in part inspired by a conversation I had with World Fantasy Author Winner Lavie Tidhar) but I thought it might be a better idea to make it 12 writing projects (whether that be novels, magazine articles or whatever), seeing as I have a fair number of commissions to fulfil this year already. However, as things worked out, I actually managed to write 13 short stories and complete 28 pieces of work overall! (The only downside to this is that I'm going to want to achieve even more next year.)
In Progress! I've started writing it, and the Tin Man has blogged about it, but it's not finished yet.
5) Get another Hammer and Bolter commission
Pass! I was commissioned to write a new short story for Black Library's Hammer and Bolter magazine, but then Black Library stopped producing the digital mag before my story could see print. As a result Sticks and Stones should be released next year as part of BL's 'A New Short Story Every Monday Initiative' (or whatever it's going to be called).
6) Get a comics commission
Fail! I did write up one proposal but it was rejected. I think if this was a school report my teacher would write here 'Could try harder'. However, although I didn't write a new comic strip, I did write about an iconic comic book character in 2012.
7) Work up a new YA project
Fail! I've got the ideas, I know of publishers who've said they'll take a look at anything I send them... but I still haven't found the time (or made the time) to work them up into a saleable submission.
8) Reach 100 followers on this blog
Pass! As of writing this, the total stands at 116. :-)
9) Try to get an agent
Fail! I've discovered a new agency to try, but I still need to write-up something to send them.
10, 11 and 12) Use social media less (Facebook, Blogger and Twitter)
Fail! Fail! And Fail! And that's in part because I've been working hard on promoting myself as an author and because I've decided to run my first Kickstarter project this year. If you've not heard about YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, firstly, where have you been? And secondly, pledge your support today by following this link.
6 Fails, 5 Passes and 1 In Progress (which for the purposes of this blog I'm going to call Pass, so that's a hit rate of 50% which, for New Year's Resolutions isn't too bad in my book.
I've got plenty of exciting projects lined up for 2013 already so, until next year...
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