Resolutions

 It's that time of year again when we look back over the year to see the goals we set for ourselves and how we did meeting them.

Here are the goals I set last year and how I fared at meeting them.

1) Return to a weekly walking schedule of 3-5 times a week on the treadmill. Umm.  Let's just say this one didn't go so well, but I will be adding it to my list again.

2) Find an agent to represent my polished Sleeping Handsome (when it is ready, of course!)  Another unresolved resolution.  Although, I am currently working on this very story, under the new(old) title of Quest of the Hart.

3) Finish The Ruby Dagger (my NaNo project) This was accomplished.  Yay!!!

4) Edit The Lost Princess to reflect the changes from Sleeping Handsome (and to reach my word count) Another accomplishment, although out of order.  I finished Sleeping Handsome and went back to work on Quest.  I don't know why, but it just needed to be done that way.

5) Begin drafting A Different Kind of Knight Another still in progress goal.

6) Begin outlining Daphne's story (no working title yet!) I guess I should have been more clear with this one as a year later, I don't recall what I meant.  Hmm.  I wonder if I jotted something done somewhere.

7) Spend lots of quality time with family and friends While I did spend much quality time with family and friends, I always look to spend more with them.

8) Keep active with my blog post Even though I cut back to two posts a week, I feel I met this goal.

So, now for 2012 (Can you believe it is only a few days away???)

1) Set and keep an exercise routine
2) Continue to write, edit, and complete the two series I have started (Quest of the Hart, Sleeping Handsome, and A Different Kind of Knight; The Ruby Dagger and The Silver Shroud)
3) Keep more balance in my life with work, life, writing, and reading

 How did you do with your goals in 2011?  What goals do you have for 2012?
 

Last Post Before Christmas!

Hope you are all ready to celebrate Christmas with your families and friends over the next few days.  For us, the season stretches into the New Year, giving us time to spend with everyone.

This year we are taking my folks with us to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  If you have never seen them, I highly recommend the concert.  Great music,and a light and pyrotechnic show that draws ages 8-80 together. 

Merry Christmas!  Joyeux Noel!  Feliz Navidad!  Happy Hanukkah!  And to all, a great day!!!

Christmas Cookies

Sorry I didn't post on Monday- the day got away from me quite quickly, and I never caught up.

Sunday the three of us and two of our neighbors got together to make cookies.

We chose to make Spritz,









Snowballs (and what my husband was calling "Dirty" Snowballs due to the cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar),

Dipped Pretzels

and Carmel Corn (I substituted molasses as I didn't have corn syrup, making it taste kind of like Cracker Jacks)

What happens when adults have left over Spritz dough and 11 year old Red Hots? (Yeah- they really were that old.  I thought they were only a few years, but nope.  They still taste OK, just a little softer and less spicy.)  You get these:

It was so much fun!  Hope your Cookie making is just as fun.

(Note:  Until sometime in the New Year, I will only be blogging on Thursdays.  So much to do and so little time to do it, and all that!)

First Snow

Last night we had our first measurable snowfall of the season.  Dear son woke up hoping for at least a delay, but the snow had stopped falling shortly after we sent him (begrudgingly) to bed, so no delays today.

I am feeling much more festive as I gaze out the window at the white carpet on the ground and the trees flocked with snow.  It has made me realize there are only 17 days until Christmas, and I have all my shopping yet to do!  Well, there is always the weekend and the internet!!

Hope you all have a great weekend, and that you are further ahead with your holiday plans than I am!

Changing things up

A few weeks ago, I read this post by Rachel Aaron on increasing your word count as you write.  I don't normally care if I write 2,000 words, 200 words, or 10,000 words when I sit down, but the article intrigued me.

See, I am mostly a pantster.  Sure I know where I am going to start and where I am going to end, but the middle is filled with winding paths, backtracking, and dead ends.

With NaNo ending, and my word count not where I wanted it to be, I thought I would give Rachel's ideas a try- it certainly couldn't hurt.  As you know, I didn't write anything the last week of NaNo, but that didn't mean I wasn't working on my WIP.  In fact, I spent most of my free time thinking about each chapter and how to move from one chapter to the next.  I created chapter synopses, even marking some dialogue I wanted the character to use, so I could jog my memory when I sat down to write the chapter out.

As of yesterday, I have all the unwritten chapters summarized, waiting for me to sit down and take them from a simple paragraph to a complete chapter.  Will my word count improve?  Probably, but that wasn't my sole reason for doing this.  I found those pesky plot issues that stump me while writing and was able to work through them, fix the illogical things before they happened, so when I sit down to write, I don't have to spend time arguing with myself that this character wouldn't do that, or why doesn't she just do this- it is the logical answer, after all.  Those issues have been dealt with, and I am free to create.

How about you?  What kind of planning do you do when you write?  Would you change it up at all?
 
My friend, and CP, Fiona Claire is having the opening of her NaNo project critiqued over at Dianne Salerni's blog today.  Stop by and let her know what you think.

NaNo wrap up

Happy December 1st!!!!  Can you believe the year is almost over?  Where did the time go???

The beginning of December brings with it the end of NaNo.  This year, my goal was 30,000 words, as I knew there was no way I was going to reach 50,000.  Life has become much busier since last year, and I needed to be realistic.

Well, I did not meet my goal, but I am OK with that.  If I hadn't been sick last week and most of this week, I probably would have reached it, and maybe surpassed it.

I am very happy to report that I had a word total of  20, 994.  I completed a MS (and prepped it for edits) and started a new WIP.

How did your NaNo go?