2011 was the best writing year I have ever had.
Actually, the second half of the year was the best, the first half was one of the slower periods of my writing thus far.
The first half of 2011 was devoted to the same thing as 2010, revising my novel. Revision can be a bear. There are times you wonder if you are really making things better or worse. After a while your mind gets to a point where you want to change everything just to create something new.
Sometimes these impulses are good; they can send your story in a completely new direction you’d never thought of before and it can make your work all the richer for it. Other times, it will take the good parts of your book and replace them with gimmicky or tired plot-lines that just look fresh to you since you’ve been staring at the same words for a while.
I needed to feel creative again.
I’m a pretty simple guy. Complicated plans are not the most effective way for me to get things done. For the second half of 2011 my goal was simple: “Write every day”. Actually, write 1000 words or more a day (the goal increasing by 200 words every 30 days).
After 107 straight days the only thing that stopped me was surgery. By the end of the year I had a finished rough draft and had also completed NaNoWriMo for the first time on another project.
And now here we are.
I want 2012 to be even better than 2011. I started the way most people do, I made goals. I made checklists. I tried to think of everything.
It’s been a week. I’m already revising my plan.
I have a first book to get through “final” revisions and shop around, I have a second that needs to go through its first revision, and I need an audience. Between the three books I have drafted I have written more than 500K words (a short Wheel of Time book), but only a few others have read them.
That needs to change.
What has the last year brought for you? How has what you have or have not accomplished changed your goals for this year?
[BTW] : Ben Trube, Writer 