ieva melgalve

Everybody must have some resolution, right? Well, mine isn’t really a resolution, it’s a not-too-ambitious plan of what I could accomplish without driving myself nuts (either with burn-out or lazy-crap-writer syndrome that kicks in whenever I don’t write much).

1. Edit Vega to the final, query-able version. (That’ll be the hardest, but I believe that with How To Revise Your Novel course I’ll be able to do that. And I’ll start working on that very soon, very likely tomorrow.)
2. Edit at least 12 stories to the final, submittable versions. That’s roughly one story a month, and totally doable if I apply myself to that.
3. Write a new novel (the one code-named Virgin perhaps?). I think I’ll start writing right now because basically, I don’t get the real “feel” or the scope of the novel yet. Sounds upside-down? Well, no. I reckon that the most painless and reliable way to get the “feel” of the novel is to write a chapter or two. That feel will determine whether it’s primarily an action-based stuff with weird magic or is it a psychological piece, or a cozy dealing-with-sexuality story, or a horror that would make me stay awake at nights. Or, if the first chapters feel wrong, well, then I’ll know it’s wrong and try the opposite approach. It’s not the scientific way but it’s a way to make sure I enjoy writing something I will very likely *not* enjoy writing.
(By the way: why writing if I have so much to edit? I think it’s necessary for me to write. I re-started writing because I’m hooked on that; if my editing will mess with my writing, I’ll drop them both as I actually did two weeks ago. So I’ll do both, in a sorta accomplishment-reward vicious circle.)

What I believe I’ll also do: write a handful of new stories and, most likely, participate in NaNoWriMo again (with a subsequent burn-out in December again), but I’m not putting it in my plan because I don’t want to allow myself to fail at my first two resolutions and excuse it with “oh, but I did the stories and the NaNo”.

That’s it. May you (whoever is reading this) have plans so cool that making them come true feels great and, well, not easy, but tremendously rewarding.
All else is luck and gifts from above, and I believe that these things will come to you on their own accord and in their own time, when they’re most needed.