2014: A Writer's Calendar

New Year's brings out all the goals and resolutions for the coming year (especially for bloggers).

I don't know how people do it.

I like goals to keep me on track, but the holidays (preceded by NaNoWriMo) are so crazy. I need time to ponder important decisions, like how I might spend a precious year of life.

I don't want to wait too late, though. In 2010 I didn't make goals until June! Last year, I wrote a retrospective of my writing year in April, my blogiversary and Wordsmith Studio's anniversary.

As I work on goals over the next few days, I'm considering all the writing events and opportunities coming up in 2014. This list might be useful for other writers, too. If you know of similar events (especially free ones and month-long challenges), please add a link and short description in the comments.

January

Robert Lee Brewer of Writer's Digest will help us kick off the year with daily ideas or prompts starting Jan. 1 at the Get Started Write Challenge. Look for the latest challenge here or follow @robertleebrewer or Twitter hashtag #gswc.

Joy Weese Moll encourages people to read books that will help them with their goals — writing or otherwise — in her New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge.

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) starts every month at BlogHer. Sign up by Jan. 5 to join this month's challenge. (See November for more.)

Cartoonist and encourager Debbie Ridpath Ohi hosts the 250-500-1000 Words A Day Challenge.  You choose your goal and start anytime during the year. Debbie has links to fun word-count widgets you can add to your blog.

February

I've always wanted to do The Month of Letters Challenge, hosted by author Mary Robinette Kowal. People love to get real letters in the mail. The challenge is simply to mail something — a letter, card, postcard — each of the 23 days that the mail runs.

Lynn Palermo hosts the Family History Writing Challenge throughout the month of February, a great nudge for those who've always wanted to put those stories or that research in writing.

April

Two Camp NaNoWriMos are planned this year, one in April and one in July. The camps, similar to NaNoWriMo (see November), match you up with a small group of fellow writers in your genre.

If you're more interested in poetry than noveling, Robert Lee Brewer also hosts the April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge at Poetic Asides.

May

I'm a member (and social media admin @quakerquip) for Quakers Uniting in Publications, an organization for writers and publishers. Their annual meeting is in New England this year, May 1-4, at Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center in Massachusetts.

July

Camp NaNoWriMo — see April.

September

Writers' Police Academy is not a free event, but I always participate and have an awesome time. Registration will open soon for the Sept. 4-7 event in North Carolina (fills up fast!).

October

For nonfiction inspiration, Jane Ann McLaughlin (@JaneAnMcLachlan) hosts the October Memoir and Back Story Blog Challenge. 

November

November means National Novel Writing Month! It's not just about writing 50,000 words in 30 days, it's the huge motivation from doing it with other writers cheering you on. We have an active group of local wrimos and love to meet up in person for that extra writer mojo.

For poets, Robert will encourage you to write a chapbook at the November PAD Chapbook Challenge.

November is peak time for NaBloPoMo — the challenge is to write a blog post every day. BlogHer provides optional prompts from the month's theme. One participant has a list of FAQs on an unofficial guide site.

December

Did you write a poem a day in November? Poets follow up by editing in December, then submitting their manuscripts!


Welcome to Wordsmith Studio's New Year's Bash Bloghop! Did you just arrive from Janice's Inspiring Quotes for 2014? Hop on over to MobyJoe Cafe for the... well... Jeannine's different perspective on New Year's Eve.

'Another closing year draws nigh' — To set goals or 'Just Hang in There'?

I'm a planner. I like to have goals. But this year was... well, rough. I only succeeded with one of my three goals for 2012. That one was awesome! I found my mysterious great-great-grandfather, through the grace of God and stubborn persistence.

Sometimes things feel out of control, especially when they involve other people, or the economy, or health. I'm inspired by this 1878 journal entry wherein a young man reflects on his rough year. He concludes that we learn valuable lessons, and that "all things work together for good for those who love God...." Rom. 8:28

“Another closing year draws nigh…” « Past is Present
pastispresent.org12/28/12
It is often hard to find diaries written by young men and boys. So today I'd like to highlight a great diary kept by a young man, Thomas Whitaker, of Waltham, Massachusetts. Thomas began recording daily entries in 1874, when ...

I didn't finish my novel because of low motivation and high distractions, including running the bookshop and an obsession with blogging. While building an author platform is important, actually finishing the book to sell should take precedence. Cindy R. Wilson of The Writers Alley is following God's leading to set some of the "small stuff" aside and focus on what's important.

God's Christmas Blessings in Unconventional Packages
thewritersalleys.blogspot.com12/28/12
I can't believe it's already a new year! Like many of you, I'm very excited about the great blessings God gave me last year and I'm looking forward to everything He has for me this year. Our lovely Alley Cats have been posting ...

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner goes deeper to discover what's behind the goals we make. Often the underlying motive is to be a better person, to do better than last year.

Approaching the New Year
http://www.booksandsuch.biz  12/27/12
Every year at this time I blog about New Year’s Resolutions – whether to do them, how to do them, and my thoughts on how to ...

I'm excited about 2013. I know the coming year will be better! However, with big changes (including cuts) in my part-time jobs during the next two months, I feel like things are too beyond my control to set any big plans. I know Who's in charge, though, and I need to hand things over to Him.

North Carolina Yearly Meeting (my denomination's state-wide organization) is calling for 21 days of fasting and prayer (a downloadable pdf guide is on the right side of their page) to start in mid-January. Now, for somebody who's marginally hypoglycemic, fasting is not my favourite thing. I'm still pondering the no-food part. Yet it's a great opportunity to set aside some time with God, with encouragement from other participants. At the very least, I'm going to give up some internet time. When I traveled to Mexico earlier this month, I went completely unplugged for a long weekend. I came back with more focus (brainpower) than I've had in a long time.

Meanwhile, my short-term goals involve writing and maintenance. Writing, as in plugging away at my historical, genealogy-based novel, and maybe throwing in some nonfiction work to boost my sense of accomplishment. Maintenance, as in calling repairmen and setting doctor's appointments. And calling friends I haven't talked to in a while. Being a better steward of the blessings I have.

How about you? Are you setting goals for 2013?

Eureka! Goals for 2012

I was so busy in 2010, I didn't write down my goals until June. Last year, I didn't write down any at all; 2011 was like riding a tidal wave. That's not to say I didn't accomplish anything. I opened a bookstore, started a new job as assistant archivist in the Friends Historical Collection, went to England, researched my ancestors in South Carolina, and wrote 50,000 words in a month during nanowrimo. I also hurt my back, which still slows me down, lost two members of my extended family and have two more in and out of the hospital. The year was full of trials and blessings.

My main goal for 2012 was to have goals, so I can focus. I like Robert Lee Brewer's 2012 list, which includes both writing and personal goals. I sat down with pen and notebook, intent on making my own list.

And I was overwhelmed.

I've been pulled so many different directions — work, volunteering (too much), family, health — I knew my list could be too long to be helpful.

I turned the page to a blank one and thought: What if I could do anything I wanted in the coming year? I jotted down three things. I looked at those three things and had a light-bulb moment. That was my list! I felt as if a burden had been lifted off me.

Path at Woodbrooke in England

1. Finish my novel.
2. Reconcile with an estranged friend.
3. Find our Maness ancestor.

Work, survival, family crises — the "shoulds" in my life will happen. I'll do the things I have to do. Part of me said, I should work on my relationship with God, I should pay off bills, I should spend more time with family. Well, my little list is simple, and it's not.

I consider that novel my ministry and writing my gift, which makes it important. Reconciling is what God tells us to do. And that missing ancestor? That's a project I work on with my uncle, who is very sick. Time is running out.

Accomplishing those three things would not only make me happy, but also fit into the bigger picture.

2010 wrap-up

It seems like everybody is making their goals for 2011, but I need a few days — or months — to recover from the ones I made in 2010. I just finished number 4 on Dec. 31, after burning the midnight oil all week. Here's how I did:

2010 Goals (highest priorities in blue)
1. Finish novel. Not finished. I worked pretty consistently on this the first half of the year, thanks to some friends from NaNoWriMo who met for weekly write-ins all year long! But last summer I hit a mental wall with my story and hurt my shoulder so bad I couldn't type, so I had to take a break. I just started working on it again two weeks ago.

2. Declutter. Not finished. One step forward and two steps back. I made a little progress, then left my day job and moved all my newspaper files home. I've also been acquiring books, as if I'm going to open up a bookstore or something...

3. Get published in a magazine. Not accomplished. I sent one query and never followed up. But this was a lower priority item.

4. Make a Storybook for a relative who had a big birthday this fall. Done! This involved scanning Daddy's negatives from the 1950s and getting names and information. After my injury, a broken scanner, and then a new scanner that wouldn't work, most of this was done in the past few weeks.

5. Make a Storybook of my trip to Ireland. Done. I finished this last summer, thanks to the deadline of a prepaid coupon.

6. Index the 18th-century church records from the meeting in Ireland. Not finished. But I made good progress on this the first half of the year, with 321 pages of handwritten documents indexed so far.

7. Run in a 5K. Done. I was so busy I suddenly had two weeks to go with no training, so I had to walk quite a bit, but I finished! Hopefully this year I will walk less.

8. Go on a mission trip. Done. In March I went with the Friends Disaster Service to help build a house in Jean Lafitte, Louisiana. People there are still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

9. Most of my minor goals fell by the wayside, partly because I focused on the major goals, which is good, and possibly because they weren't specific enough. I did blog and network more than last year and I'm starting to get a better handle on the time it takes to do that. I did not market my first book, work very well on my direct sales business or scrapbook the past few years. I did manage to visit some of my older relatives, something that's very important but often gets pushed to the back burner.

I was distracted by some new goals that popped up, such as traveling to New York and Florida and looking for a job. Thankfully, I'll be starting two part-time jobs this week, and I'm excited about both of them. I also wrote a draft memoir (56,000 words!) for NaNoWriMo in November.

I know I will want to focus on my novel, and there may be a major trip this spring... But I plan to see what the new work routine is like and "let the dust settle" before I plan out 2011.

2010 Goals - How are we doing?

Last year started off so hectic I didn't even write down goals until June. This year, I started thinking about them in January, but tweaked them for a month. And the tweaking continues.

Things I want to do in 2010 (priorities are in blue)
1. Finish novel: write missing scenes, fix timeline and facts, add descriptions and background, and revise and edit.
Thanks to my nanowrimo friends, I work on this at least once a week. I've added lots of the missing scenes, but I feel overwhelmed at all the other things I still need to do before I even let anybody read it.

2. Declutter. Hah! Ahem, well...
3. Get published in a magazine.
I sent out my first query in years, but forgot to follow-up when I didn't get a reply.

4. Make a Storybook for a relative who has a big birthday this fall. That includes scanning Daddy's negatives from the 50s and getting names and information.
I haven't even started on this! But I still have months to go.

5. Make a Storybook of my trip to Ireland.
I labeled the photos and made some notes. The good thing is, I have a June deadline to get one of these books done because I have a prepaid certificate. Deadlines are good for me.

6. Index the 18th-century church records from the meeting in Ireland.
I made good progress on this until the past month, about 160 pages done. This also helps with my novel, which is based on the people in the records.

7. Run in a 5K.
This got dropped for schedule conflicts, but now it's back on - in two weeks!

8. Go on a mission trip.
I got to do this in March. We went to Jean Lafitte, Louisiana to build a house for a family still in a FEMA trailer from Hurricane Katrina.

9. Other items: Blog and network (I've done this, but it's very time consuming). Market and sell my first book (Got a review, but haven't done much). Scrapbook back to 2004 (haven't).

I love alliterative goals (inspired by FlyLady). I tried Monday minutes (indexing church records - this went well until last month)
Tuesday tweets (fell by wayside)
Tuesday taxes (very useful. The rest of year, this means business paperwork)
Wednesday walking (in full force)
Wednesday weed-out (decluttering - forgotten)
Friday finances, Freelance Friday and Saturday sales (business) mostly fell by the wayside.
An early "Nine-o'clock Novel" turned into the Morning Write, 1 to 3 days a week.
Sunday scrapbooking/scanning/see people (made progress on visiting older relatives)

Some of these went well, like Monday Minutes, until my work schedule changed, I went away on a trip and then I had meetings every night for three weeks. Hopefully I can get back to my own goals and routines now.

It's Sunday. I'd better start scanning. How are your goals coming along?