found drama

An annual tradition here at F_D ¹, let’s kick-off the year with a full disclosure of goals.  Rather than set vague “resolutions” and lame half-promises to yourself, why not think of the new year as an opportunity for a little personal growth?  A couple of little benchmarks to set your aggressive little sights on throughout the year?  Here are mine:

1. Write ≥3 hours each week. Something of a re-hash of last year’s writing goal.  I can do this.  I need to do this.  If I’m going to have goal #2 (vide infra) mean anything at all, it’s going to be through diligence, perseverance, and practice-practice-practive…
2. Submit at least 2 short stories for publication. If I’ve had a writing goal every year, and if I’ve wanted to be a published author since I was five years old, then why did I go all of last year without sending out a single thing?  I had a flurry of submissions in 2008 but then went all “radio silence” last year.  I’ve got some good stuff, I just need to get it out in front of people.  (While we’re at it:  the first one went out last night.)
3. Revise at least one of my novels-in-progress. In case you haven’t been paying attention, I have several novels in progress and “completed” drafts of at least three ².  All of them are worthy stories that, with the right amount of polish, are publishable.  The goal here is to turn goal #2 (vide supra) into “submit at least one novel for publication” next year ³.
4. Read ≥36 books. This is totally a repeat of one of my 2009 goals.  I set the bar at 36 last year and came in at 25.  Why go for 36 again?  Because I read 49 books in 2008.  No reason not to.  And to up the ante a little bit, two sub-goals:  (1) I plan to finally finish Godel, Escher, Bach; and (2) I intend to read these twelve:
   1. Foucault’s Pendulum (carry-over from last year)
   2. Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel
   3. The Blind Assassin
   4. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
   5. The Pragmatic Programmer
   6. The Tao Of Physics, and then for contrast
   7. Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces
   8. Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law
   9. The Eleventh Draft: Craft and the Writing Life from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop
   10. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
   11. Blood Meridian, and the other McCarthy that has been recommended to me ten million times
   12. All the Pretty Horses
5. Exercise:  get my money’s worth at Bolton Valley. It’s my eighth winter in Vermont and I finally got around to getting a season pass ⁴.  This year I got a pass to Bolton Valley.  I worked it out that I need to go at least five times to get my money’s worth.
6. Exercise:  walk or run ≥1 mile ≥2 times/week. I got myself a treadmill for my birthday a couple years ago.  I don’t think I used it at all in ’09 ⁵.  And since I moved and can’t walk to work anymore, I’m thinking that I should try to get in one or two runs a week ⁶.  Perhaps I’ll even join the “barefoot runners” cult.
7. Exercise:  climb at least once each week. Third year running.  Much more than this probably isn’t terribly realistic.  Not for me.  Not until The Boy is a little older.
8. Restrict my “personal expenses” to $70/week. To be honest, this will actually be the fourth year that I’ve done this but the first year I’ll own up to it.  What constitutes “personal expenses”?  That’s money I spend directly on me:  coffee, lunch, my portion of the dinner bill, drinks, etc.  It’s a fun challenge.  And very revealing.

I almost feel like I ought to come up with two more to make it a nice round, metric ten.  And maybe I’ll add some later on in the year.  But these are as good a place as any to start.

Here’s to a happy and successful 2010!

1. Well, since 2007.[↩]
2. The three I have in mind are this thing (which I’ve been working on since roughly 2001), and my 2006 and 2009 NaNoWriMos.[↩]
3. That said:  I’ll give myself a little wiggle room on this goal if it means that I get yet another first draft written.  (But what good are three first drafts and a second-or-is-it-third draft?)[↩]
4. And seven of eight of those winters I even worked for a company that offers discounts on season passes as a benefit.  (Still work there.)[↩]
5. Although…  Well, at least Amy did.[↩]
6. I know the goal says “≥2 times/week” but… that’s what makes it a goal?[↩]

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