2012 Writing Resolutions

This year will be different. No, really. I made a list and everything. This post is part of my commitment to transparency¹ and accountability. Below are five writing resolutions I er...resolved to follow. Read on for inspiration or to find out how you can help.

Resolution 1: Hide the bottles. Rather than wheeling around my dropbox like a drunkard, I have moved all the projects that are slated for 2012 completion into one folder. Other projects and half-finished (read: barely started) stories are now in folders I won’t ever need to look in. The ones I’m prioritizing are the first ones I see.

Resolution 2: Well begun is half-done. The projects I chose to work on aren’t necessarily the ones I’m most excited about, or even the ones I think I can write the fastest. They are the ones that make the most sense to complete, edit, and publish at this time. I spent too many years sketching turrets when I should have been building foundations. 2012 is the year of foundations.

Resolution 3: Keep it short and sweet. The list for 2012 is...wait for it…three items long. That is, I will only work on three fiction stories at a time. Two are short, one is longer. Until they achieve “completed first draft” status, I will not add anything else.

Resolution 4: Embrace disassociation. I tend to get caught up in details. The perfect title. What should the cover look like? What will the sequel feature? This, when the first draft is not yet ready for alpha readers. That is not helpful. So I have assigned each project a code name, as if it were a military operation. The abstractness of the working name will help me avoid getting caught up in the identity of the piece. Create first, embellish later.

Resolution 5: My friends are my bosses. I will publicly announce progress on each story. Their code names are TATTER, CORNER, and SILVER. If anyone asks me what I’m working on and I don’t supply one of the proper code names, that person has permission to kick my ass.² Ass-kicking can be actual, or can take the form of Twitter, G+, and FB hazing. Ask early, ask often.

The Projects:

TATTER: Short fairy tale. The Princess and the Pea by way of the psych ward and the seminary.

CORNER: Short fairy tale. Enchanted rose hedges in Riverwest.

SILVER: Novel in stories. Post-zombie apocalypse in a fantasy world. Low magic, high body count.

Let me know what you think about these projects or my resolutions. Am I doing the right thing?

^{2. The exception to this is if I’m working on posts for Team Blood or other blogs. Or if I’m editing. Seriously though, anything else, go ahead and kick me. ↩}