Sharp Words

Back on January 1st this year, I published my resolutions for 2009. And now, it’s time to review my goals, and set some new ones.

My 2009 goals:

• redesign this blog – FAIL; I need to get a decent header image that I can work from, but my artistic skills are fairly minimal
• write a poem every week – FAIL; I managed just 24 out of 52, although I do have another few ideas bubbling
• finish the first draft of The Secrets of the Library – FAIL; although deliberately so, since I swapped focus onto something else instead
• read at least 6 Booker or Orange prize winners – FAIL; I forgot about this one, although I did read a few more winners and nominees, just not enough
• submit poems or short stories to at least three magazines or competitions – WIN; although nothing much came of the entries, and it’s been months since I submitted anything
• read more poetry – WIN; this was a nice easy goal

I think my 2009 report card would basically say something like Must try harder and Does not live up to her potential. Sentiments that sound vaguely familiar, from back in the day…

Anyway, some things I managed and some I didn’t. And some of these goals are going to be carried through for this year, too, with certain amounts of tweaking for more realistic expectations.

My 2010 goals:

• write 36 poems, 3 each month
• write 75,000 words (excluding NaNoWriMo); more would be nice!
• try to finish at least 2 short stories (I have a couple half-written)
• redesign this damn blog!
• submit poems to at least 5 magazines or competitions
• blog at least once a week, preferably 3 or 4 times (I need to get my groove back), including at least 1 book review per month (January 2010’s will be Jim Murdoch’s Stranger Than Fiction (at last) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies)

I think these are achievable goals – possibly a few too many of them, but I’m going to strive anyway. I want to feel worthy of calling myself a writer.

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All statistics correct to the time of posting this – further hits and comments on December 31st not included.

Posts made: 74 (including this one) ; 170 in 2008 – I wrote 19 posts in January, but only managed about 1 a week after that.

Most popular posts:

1. Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (May 15th 2008) – 1712
2. Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (January 29th) – 964
3. Quote of the Day (26/11/08) – 950 – this got a lot of hits from search… it was a quote about adolescence and suffering, and a few notes from me there-on, and probably not what was being looked for

Comments posted: 309 (not including any on this post); 678 in 2008
Spam comments: 7759; nearly 15,000 in 2008, but I changed comment policies back in March to lock anything over a certain age

Books read: 188 + 12 re-reads
118 (63%) were first-time reads; 85 (45.2%) were borrowed from the library or friends; 21 (11.2%) were bought new and 10 (5.3%) bought used.

Book reviews written: 4 (not nearly enough)

Poems posted: 5 (again, not nearly enough, although I wrote a lot more)

Top 10 search terms used to find this blog:

• the book thief review – the book thief reviews is the 2nd most searched term, and the book thief and the book thief by markus zusak are also in the top 10, which explains my top-viewed post
• sharp words - other words for sharp is also in the top 10
• 26/11 quotes – quotes on 26/11 and 26 11 quotes are also in the top 10, which explains the popularity of that post
• misreading words
• affair poems – this is actually down at #12, since there was another search term for the book thief at #11!

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AKA Microfiction Monday over at Susan’s place.

This week’s photo & my very short story (which I admit isn’t all that good, but what do you expect from less than 140 characters?):

The day after their Christmas party, the other horsemen of the apocalypse wondered why Famine still had on his stupid-looking party hat.

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So, as previously mentioned, I made my 50,000 words. A day early, in fact, despite November having been my month of ‘Two Floods and a Funeral’ and many disruptions to all my plans, writing or otherwise.

I actually wrote some extra on the 30th, and finished with a grand total of 52,254, which I was pretty damn pleased with.

However, unlike previous years when I’ve usually just given up straight away (or last year, when I finished the actual story of the novel on November 30th), I need to keep writing. I’ve promised my husband that I’ll actually finish this novel, and get it ‘published’ using the CreateSpace offer that’s available to all NaNoWriMo winners – meaning that by next autumn, I will have an actual published book in my grabby little hands.

I’m near the end of the story, so finishing it off won’t be too much of a chore (and any words I write towards finishing it will get added to my year’s 50,000 word goal, up in the right-hand sidebar of this blog – 50,000 words which don’t include my NaNoWriMo ones). But I will need to do a fair bit of editing and a large number of general corrections; my timeline got completely muddled, for example, and I kept forgetting the name of various alien species or misspelling alien names. The plot could do with a bit of tidying-up and tightening too, so I’ll maybe sleep on that a couple more days (nights) until I figure out how to finish the story off neatly.

But this is my Pledge to (self-)Publish in 2010. I’ll get this novel finished off and in a form that my husband will be comfortable reading, and then I can be proud of myself.

And in the meantime, I’ll figure out what my proper goals for 2010 are: the ones that will actually help the progress of my writing ambitions. (Otherwise known as the ones that I never actually follow through on… oh well, if I don’t make plans, I wouldn’t even get started at all.)

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Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett. Own copy, re-read for 2009.
See my October reading list for my opinion of this.

Revelation, C J Sansom. Library book, first read.
I don’t think I liked this much as the previous books in the series. It seemed to be straying too much into modern crime territory, with its tale of a serial killer. Well-written, of course, and I’d still read another Shardlake tale if there is another one.

Alexandria, Lindsey Davis. Dad’s library book, first read.
Dad reckons this had a lot of padding, and I’m inclined to agree – there was a lot of exposition. I enjoyed it nonetheless, but it did feel pretty thin compared to most of her other novels.

Consider Phlebas, Iain M Banks. Borrowed from Dad, first read.
With Look to Windward, the best of Banks’ novels that I’ve read so far. Having read some of the later ones first, I found it fascinating to go back to this one and see the Culture from the outside.

The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood. Library book, first read.
Hmm. I know this was produced as part of a series rewriting classical tales and myths, but it just felt very light and self-indulgent, and repetitive in parts. An interesting idea, and well-written, but it felt lacking in something.

Between Planets and Podkayne of Mars, Robert Heinlein. Own copies.
I have a troubled relationship with Heinlein, as I may have previously mentioned. A re-read of Between Planets wasn’t too bad, although it was a very lightweight bit of pulp with too much reliance on a McGuffin. But I’d forgotten the ending of Podkayne of Mars – suffice it to say that I was left fuming at the way this sparky little girl was dismissed in the final sections.

For a Few Demons More, Kim Harrison. Library book, first read.
Finally, finally, I’m caught up with all the books in this series that I’d previously missed (and got to find out how some major events, mentioned in later books, happened).

The Dark Volume, G W Dahlquist. Library book, first read.
The sequel to The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, a steampunk fantasy, which I enjoyed a lot. I wasn’t so keen on this novel; it felt too much like the middle of a trilogy; it was very fast-paced and concentrated mainly on action rather than on character.

Succubus Blues, Richelle Mead. Own copy, re-read for 2009.
I needed something easy and fun to read while I was languishing with a bad cold. This fitted the bill nicely. (My original review)

Saturnalia, Lindsey Davis, Own copy.
After reading Alexandria earlier in the month, I found myself back-tracking to this. And apart from a few silly moments (the turnip costume amongst others), it’s a far superior novel.

Magic Strikes, Ilona Andrews. Borrowed from Marion, first read + re-read.
More urban fantasy, and a really good addition to this series. Hence me reading it twice in quick succession.

Total for November 2009: 10 + 3 re-reads

Ongoing total for 2009: 170 + 10 re-reads

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