Happy New Year: 2017 Goals

A new year. A clean slate. I have one goal, one hope for 2017: to be better.

I squeaked in under the wire for last year with a story submission, which meant that my number of submissions for 2016 beat 2015. Two to 2015’s one, but still a win. In 2017, I’m making it my goal to at least equal last year’s submission count of two. Because low bars can be healthy things and my track record shows that could still be a stretch.

I will finish the novel draft that occupied so much of last year. I will polish the short stories I have in hopes of publication and I will craft new ones. Also, I want to revive my practice of tallying non-writing days, allowing myself 52 days off in the year (and hoping I won’t need them all).

In theatre, audition for more shows and try to expand outside my comfort zone. The more theatre I do, the bigger that grows, so the harder I have to work at challenging myself.

I want to do my best to be a safe space for those who need them – and I think a lot of us will need them.

For years, I’ve wanted to get into more of a photo taking habit. Twitter and Facebook each has problems as a photo-sharing platform, so I guess it’s finally time I try Instagram. Step one: create my own account. We’ll see how it goes before I start setting expectations.

And my personal blog could use some revamping. It underwent another three month hiatus last year, so I’m setting a goal or one or two posts a month. I’d rather have at least one post a week, but that has proven unsustainable over and over.

Without plans, I’ve decided not to set travel goals just yet. Except for one: get out. I have to escape Maine at least a couple times.

I expect this new year to have a crazy amount of quirks. A lot of them will be negative. But we can do better.

Art makes the world a better place. Successfully accomplishing all the goals I’ve laid out will be a tricky balancing act, but it all primarily boils down to: make more art.

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