Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Have you ever kept any?
If you answered yes, and yes, then kudos to you! Most people make them and then don’t keep them. Personally, I gave up making New Year’s resolutions years ago. If I want to lose weight, start going to the gym or change my diet for the better, I don’t feel the need to wait until the new year to start doing that.
Now, while I don’t make annual resolutions, I do take a
moment to stop and think about what I want to achieve in the coming year. I do this by list three goals, three hopes, and three dreams.
As you’d think, a goal is something I’m striving to attain, something that’s possible. A hope is a little harder. I’ve got to really work at it in order to get those. And a dream, well, one can only hope that someday we attain
our dreams. 
Every year I look back at my goals, hopes, and dreams from the year before to see how I did (not too bad! This past year I attained all of my goals, and even some of my hopes!) and I write out what I need to work on in
this coming year.
Sadly, a recurring goal/hope is to get better at marketing. It was on my list last year, and, yep, it’s going on my list again this year. Last year I also wrote down that I wanted to improve my writing craft. I think that’s such a great idea, I’m going to include it again this year. I’m also hoping to write more books this coming year than I did last year. We’ll see how that goes. Life is going to get very busy for me in the coming year and that always has a major effect on how much I get to write.
One short-term goal I have for the coming year is to start a series of blogs on writing craft—what do you wish you’d known when you first started out? What do you wish you knew now?
I’ve asked friends for suggestions on Facebook and got some really great topics: plotting method, organization, GMC, descriptions and five senses, and a number more. If there’s anything that you’d like me to write about, please don’t hesitate to comment and tell me and I’ll do my best to cover the topic in the next few weeks.
I’m also going to take a break on the last weekend of the year and enjoy a little R&R. I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing holiday and I’ll talk to you again in the new year!