New Years Post Because It's What You Do

Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again where I post my resolutions that I won’t do. But this year, I’m gonna try. As opposed to the other years, when I also tried.

Please don’t kill me.

Resolutions to be Broken or Not, by Yours Truly:

1.       Read the Bible more. I do this one every year, but I feel like it’s important. I feel like you can always read the Bible more. So I keep resolving to do so.

2.       Be a better wife, and as a result, a better mom. I feel like the last three months were jam packed with hard life lessons, and I’d like to apply them better in this new year and have a peaceful home, so that as Henry is getting older and starting to understand more, he doesn’t pick up on bad habits that I have, like talking disrespectfully to his dad, or getting angry first, etc.

3.       Stop eating sugar. This will probably be the hardest, but I have to do it. I’ve gotten down right chubby since having Henry. I was in pretty good shape after college, and then when I got my desk job I put on a few pounds, but nothing terrible. Then after Henry I lost almost all of the baby weight except about six pounds. Well, that six, plus what I gained from not working outside is quite enough and I’m sick of it. Last year, my sisters and dad didn’t eat any sugar other than once at thanksgiving and once at Christmas. None. They ate natural sugar like fruit, and they still ate ketchup even though it has sugar in it, but no candy, pop, bakes stuff, etc. And my sisters lots tons of weight. They’re by no means underweight, but they look great, and without a bit of exercise or cutting portions. I thought they were trim to begin with, so if they can lose weight at it, I definitely can.

4.       Keep writing. I finished 2017 strong, and I want to carry that momentum into this year. I want to

write new stories. And I want to write them well. I read a blog post the other day that said pantsers (which I am, I don’t plan stories out real well, just barely) tend to hate the editing process. Oh we don’t mind going through and fixing typo’s etc, but we don’t have the patience to sit and do a whole rewrite on a story that has loveable characters, but was wrote crappy because we thought we’d fix it later. Crappy stories stay crappy because I don’t have the energy to try and fix them. I don’t want to add any more crappy stories to my crappy story folder. So I want to write well the first time. It wont be perfect, but I want to do better.

5.       Rewrite those crappy stories. There are too many to do them all in one year. Not if I want to write new stories and stay sane. But I could get some done. And I want to. Because I love those characters, and I love their stories. I just didn’t know how to write them. Now I do.

6.       Query. I want to clean up my Guns story so it sparkles. I know it needs some work, but not a whole rewrite. I can get it shiny. And then I want to start querying agents. I’ve never done that before. I always said I was gonna. Thank God I didn’t, because it would have been for one of those crappy stories from the past, and I would have got rejected and would have been devastated and never written again.

7.       Self-publish. I submitted two stories to Rooglewood Press for their contest. In April we find out who won. If neither of them, or one of them, whichever, doesn’t win, I want to polish it up a bit, format it properly and upload it to Kindle. I’ve been researching a lot on kindle publishing, and while I would never publish a full length novel on kindle, but would rather try for traditional publishing, I don’t mind the idea of publishing novella and short story sized books on there, and just seeing if I can make a little at it. If I can make enough to pay for my paints, and the occasional candy bar, that’s all I’m asking for.

8.       Research Etsy and decide if I want to sell things on it. I’ve been toying with the idea, but haven’t really studied it out and decided what I would sell. Kinda gotta have merchandise if you want to have a store. It’s only logical.

9.       Tear apart lots of things, and build lots of things out of the tore apart stuff. Go thrifting. Go junking. Upcycle, and recycle, and refurbish, and learn how to do it all really well so it doesn’t look like a preschooler painted it.

10.   Cook lots of delicious new recipes instead of just pinning hundreds of them and making the same old meals.

So, that’s it! That’s my big plan! What’s yours? Do tell.