Resolutions

2012 is coming. I better get some stuff done before the world ends. (John Hodgman says it will and I find his books to be totally credible. In fact they are pretty much my most trusted sources of information, ever.)

Last year I went insane with monthly checklists (you can easily find them in the archives) and all kinds of related self-flagellation. This resulted in a hardcore burnout period, especially after I got my second part time job and said goodbye to a good amount of my free time.

I've transitioned into a kinder "do what you can" philosophy since then. I try not to stress about the things I'm not getting done because that list is infinitely long and contemplating it too deeply will make me go insane. Instead I might as well try to enjoy life and feel good about myself from time to time.

Still, there are some things I'd like to get done in 2012. Here are some of them.

• I would like to finish the first draft of my second novel. Right now it's about half done, and I think if I make it a priority for a few months it will materialize.
  
• I would like to produce another Doomsday Cabaret show.
  
• I would like to get in better shape. If possible I would like to be able to run a ten minute mile. (That may not sound too fast, but, let me tell you, it would be an improvement over the current situation.)
  
• I'd like to write a few more short stories and it would be great if I could get a short story published.
  
• I want to spend less time on Facebook and more time reading.
  
• I'd like to make at least one more bellydance costume.
  
• I want to feel good about what I perform at TribalCon, which will mean preparing well.
  
• I'd like to teach some workshops out of town (although I don't have much control over whether or not that comes to pass).
  
• I'd like to write an article about bellydance and publish it somewhere.
  
• I want to save more money and eat more fruits and vegetables. (Exciting!!)
  

And of course, I wish and hope that I will find a good agent for my book, and I'm going to try my best, but in the end it's not up to me. If I haven't found an agent by the end of 2012 I will probably go ahead and self-publish on Amazon, and I'm excited that possibility for its own reasons.

What are your resolutions?

Chapter Two Draft Two done

At this rate, I may be able to edit more than 5 chapters in August, but I am not going to kill myself to make that happen. I would rather spend more time with each chapter--although not too much time with each chapter. I have learned that there is absolutely such a thing as too much editing. There seems to be a critical threshold which, once I pass it, I start looking at the words and they no longer make sense and then I think that everything I have done so far has been a colossal waste of time.
I am my own worst hater.
So far I have managed to delete a little over 1400 words from my manuscript, so I am hoping I won't have too much of a problem meeting my goal of 5000 words deleted from the book as a whole.
It makes me happier than it probably should to delete stuff from the manuscript. It's really not difficult to find things to delete, either. It seems I am a big fan of adverbs, especially those tacked onto speaker attributions. I used them to excess in the first draft and most of them so far have gone right into the trash because they read really badly. I am also a fan of stating the same thing twice or three times in different words-- basically I am the literary equivalent of Mojo Jojo-- which is to say that I like to rephrase my main idea several times to get my point across-- and, again, it reads really badly. Delete key happens as a result.
So far I have sent the first chapter out to four test readers. Oh man, it's nerve wracking!! I want to think that I will be able to take it when, inevitably, one of them gets back to me and tells me they think the chapter is crap, but only time will tell whether or not this is the case. If you want to be a test reader, it is totally not too late! You can always email me at skbeaman (at) gmail (dot) com for info.
In other news, I have started reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. HOLY DAMN. It is extremely weird so far-- and extremely entertaining. Maybe I will try to put my thoughts about it together in some coherent fashion later, but for now I am just going to enjoy its spastic, unintentionally hilarious charms.