Jan. 2017 Fly-By Status Report – My Favorite Time of the Year

Merry Christmas and Happy 2017! I’m still over here celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, doing a lot of nothing, and baking ^_^

But it’s that time again to think about all the things I want to do next year that I didn’t do this year. I’m pretty enthused for a fresh start!

Last year about this time, I wrote my 2016 New Years resolutions on a red Starbucks cup.

Lots of good intentions, but the ones that really, truly happened and stuck were landing my perfect job situation, as well as taking significant and progressive steps to getting more physically and spiritually healthy <3 Of course, there’s always more to learn and do, and there’s great stuff I did that wasn’t written on the cup, so I’m happy to say that I’m still going forwards, and not backwards ^_^

And what a better way to ring in 2017 than with another 4-month Fly-By status report!

Here’s my Fwinter (yes, Fall/Winter) Agenda 2016 plans from my home page. If it’s crossed out, it means it’s finished, or I’ve edited the original plan, and colored text next to it are my comments:

Long Term

• Doing some hardcore outlining and continuing to edit my YA fantasy novel Sign of the Sparrow Redwing in preparation for an editor agent* to look it over. I ended up taking a big break because I was super overwhelmed with so many things (like the holidays). But the new plan is to sit down for at least 1-2 hours a day and work on my book. Read through some drafts, decide what’s good as is and clean it up. Basically just finish this next draft quickly so I can send it to an editor agent*, and get professional feedback before I pick it to death. So this will DEFINITELY be happening in the new year. I have all kinds of plans for it!
• Outlining the entire series that follows “Redwing.” Happening after I finish the draft and send it out to an editor agent* 😛 Small steps!
• Finish a new round of research for my series. This will definitely be rolled into planning the rest of the series. I really love doing story research, it’s so rewarding, but I’ll try to limit my world-building research and note organizing til Draft 6 is done.

Short Term

• Implement a new work/writing schedule. Didn’t happen this go round, but it’s happening now!
• Rewrite “Redwing” in its new style during NaNoWriMo 2016. Haaaaaaaa, noooo. Rewriting Draft 6 from scratch was not a good plan, it just ground me to a halt.
• Organize my art studio An ongoing process, but I’ve been hard at work!
• Publish my first original crochet pattern Check it out! That was REALLY rewarding and cool ^_^
• Do at least one Paint Love event I did 3 events this year! YAAAAY!
• Finish a crochet filet piece for Intown Coffee House. I’ll finish it when I finish it 😛 But it will be in my portfolio once I do, and you’ll get to see it!
• Finish my steampunk armband. See above 😛

I’ll be updating the home page with my new plans, but here are my writing schedule plans so I can refer back to them here.

The writing plan is to work on this next draft, and then other writing projects, every evening (or when the mood strikes) for a few hours. Agent submissions will still happen this year, probably while I’m getting the book edited, so that might not even be a thing til summer. It all depends on how fast I get this draft finished. Or I could set a day aside where I write to agents as well, or have it be a day for publishing research and agent hunting.

I’ve been trying so many strategies to get it wedged into my schedule, so if the afternoon doesn’t work, I’ll try something else! And I just have to not think too hard about everything else I need to do, like getting back to a healthier lifestyle, and get back on the house management wagon. Adulting, am I right? Another thing I’m working on is mindfulness and baby steps, to keep everything in perspective and hopefully succeed while making it all less stressful. I’m not going to lie, right now I am terrified of failing. I just have to keep staying mindful and positive. I know, “just” is such a deceptive and hand-wavey word sometimes. I can’t keep shoving myself into rigid structure boxes because I know I’ll climb out, but I still need some structure or I’ll never meet my goals. But I know this works: if I break it all down into small enough pieces, hopefully I’ll have manageable goals that don’t stress me out, so I can continue to work hard, play hard and enjoy this new year! So, advice to me and you (and future Christina), keep taking those baby steps, and hold onto your goals determinedly but loosely, so you still control them, and not the other way around. It worked with weight loss, it will work for anything. Wish me luck, and good luck with all of your goals as well!

There will be another Fly-By report in May, aka THE SUPER MONTH OF BUSY-NESS, and hopefully by then I will have achieved my goals without the weight of my intentions burying me 😛 Castles in the sky need miles and miles of foundation work!

And so, once more, dear friends, out of vacation mode, back to reality! We who are about to adult, salute you!

———————————-

* 1/10/17 – After talking with my editor friend, she encouraged me to go right for the agents to get professional help, as one will guide me towards ultimate publishing even more than an editor. Hence the changes and strikeouts 😛