2015 is over! Hurrah for 2016!<\/p>\n
I made some goals for last year, so it’s time to check in with accountability. First of all, in 2015\u00a0I wrote 523,169 words\u00a0<\/strong>on manuscripts and blog posts. This year, I’m aiming for 600,000 words.<\/p>\n Now let’s check in on the resolutions I made last year, and whether or not I accomplished them:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0“By the end of 2015, I want to either have completed, or actively begun work on, a YA vampire novel.”\u00a0<\/strong>I have actively begun work on a vampire novel. The first draft of\u00a0Biter<\/em> is being released chapter by chapter for my Patreon patrons, but it will be available as a full novel once it’s written and edited. The only part of the resolution I didn’t keep is that it isn’t a YA, it’s an NA.<\/p>\n 2. “<\/b>I want to celebrate my return to running in 2015 by racing around the beautiful shores of Mackinac Island.”\u00a0<\/strong>Nope. I used to run with D-Rock, but once she moved to Washington, I stopped completely because I wasn’t accountable to anyone. I’m disappointed in dropping the ball on this one. I really enjoy running, and eight miles isn’t that far to run. I don’t have any excuse here, like that year I injured my tendon and gave myself a pass.<\/p>\n 3. “I\u2019d like to get a tattoo that\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0drew.”\u00a0<\/strong>I didn’t get a tattoo I drew. I designed a tattoo,\u00a0with help from the artist. Doesn’t count, though, because I didn’t draw it.<\/p>\n 4. “Legally change my name to Jenny Trout.\u00a0<\/strong>Do you have any idea how liberating it\u2019s going to be to go from eighteen letters to ten letters?” <\/strong>What an optimistic idiot I was. I did legally change my name. I pulled that one off (go me!) but my name still doesn’t fit on forms. Instead of eighteen letters, it’s now twenty-three. Still, I’m super pumped to be Jenny Gallifrey Joel Trout now.<\/p>\n So what are my goals for 2016?<\/p>\n 1. Reading Challenge<\/strong> Last year was a bad year for me, reading wise. I was in a total funk, and not just one of those “I devoured this book, now nothing else compares” funks. I just had a hard time picking a book and sticking with it. This year, in an attempt to combat that, I’m doing this reading challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Take Weekends Off\u00a0<\/strong>Toward the end of 2015, I got serious burnout. Burnout spirals me into depression. Depression makes me a person I don’t like. And when I don’t like myself, the burnout gets even worse. I made an effort to take the month of December off. I didn’t exactly stick to it. But this year, I’m making myself a strictly Monday through Friday gal. Weekends won’t be for work, but for just hanging out and Me Time. Hopefully this prevents further burnout.<\/p>\n 3. Write 600,000 Words\u00a0<\/strong>This might seem like it’s in direct contradiction to the whole “Take time off, don’t get burned out” thing, but I think that my new schedule will actually make me more productive, so this is probably totally do-able.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0Tag Things On This Blog<\/strong> The lack of tags infuriates some of you. I understand. I’m just not good at tagging. I’m going to make an effort to tag stuff now. I probably will not go through and retag all my old entries, as this blog was started in 2008 or something and I don’t have that kind of time to devote to it. But I’ll at least try.<\/p>\n Those are my goals for 2016. Nothing grandiose, but I’ve got to learn to stop sabotaging myself. Also, I’m going to knit and color more. Sometimes, without earning it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2015 is over! Hurrah for 2016! I made some goals for last year, so it’s time to check in with accountability. First of all, in…<\/p>\n