Birthday recap and writing resolution

Had a great birthday yesterday. Did our traditional year-end giving bonanza to our favorite tax deductible charities: The Humane Society, ASPCA, Atlanta Humane Society, and PETA. (The ACLU is also on our list of favorites, but they’re not tax deductible so tend to get money from us during months other than December.)

And on the receiving side, I opened many prezzies. Matthew got me many pretty things to wear, and this fabulous corset purse:

This is now my official “convention” accessory. dude_the gave me a giant Flu bug (Orthomyoxvirus) to go with the giant Bread & Beer Yeast microbe:

And teflaime gave me Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee. A book on plotting! That’s exactly what I need. Plot is my weakness.

Ate a lot of cake and then went to see The Incredibles again. I love that movie. We’re definitely getting it when it comes out on DVD. Got to wear my new skunk earrings from Matthew:

And now I’m lounging around in my new jammies wearing my toe puppet socks:

A very good end of 2004.


Writing Stuff:

Writing Resolution:

I was pretty happy with the amount I accomplished this year. I want to focus on productivity more for 2005 so, my resolution:

– Write 500 words a day, every day, barring weekends and holidays, to total 115K words (or more) for the year.

That’s it. I decided not to worry about the number of stories I finish, as I’ve been writing longer works of late. I’d like to focus on word count and establishing a daily writing habit.

Looking back, my resolutions from 2004:

– Write and finish at least fifteen short stories.
Check. I actually completed seventeen.

– Finish the novel.
I didn’t, but I did write and complete a novella-length middle-grade book which is currently on my Cricket editor’s desk.

– Make more pro-level sales.
I did quite well here, making sales to Realms of Fantasy (2), The Third Alternative, H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, and Cricket (4) this year.

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12 Responses to Birthday recap and writing resolution

  1. 500 words or two pages a day is my goal too. Not a lot but it gets the job done.

    ~Maggie 🙂

  2. reudaly says:

    Congrats on sticking with the progress this year. I wish you luck on the resolution for next year. I like idea of word count rather than completion – seems like it helps with ability to actually achieve the goal.

  3. fever_dreams says:

    I got the ROF with your story in it yesterday!

    And I shrieked in joy!

    Thought you should know.

    Congratulations!

    (Purse! Earrings! Too cool!)

  4. mtfay says:

    Glad the present got there in time. While it says it’s a screenwriting book, it’s really about story and the expectations of story structure, and much of it can be applied to fiction as well as screenplays…Also, if you want another book on plot, Ansen Dibble’s Plot has been the standard in the instruction of plot since I was in college.

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