2009, A Minion's Year...

Ok, so 2008 wasn't a fabulous year for my blogging. In fact, it was disastrous. I think this had a lot to do with my feeling stagnated in many aspects of my life (most notably creatively). Now that we are into the third week of a new year, I'm officially ready to make my 'resolutions' with the understanding that this year I'll be able to keep some of them.

However, the only way to go forward is to look back at what worked for me, and what didn't:

2008-- Personally
Outside of my creative life 2008 was a very difficult year for this minion. I lost a very beloved member of my family a courageous battle with cancer. This forced me to take a very harsh look at my life and make some very important decisions (more on those later).

2008-- Professionally
I decided towards the end of last year that it was time to move on to another stage of minionhood. I was very sad to leave my last position, but I knew it was time to go. With the current economic climate I managed to time my move perfectly and snag another job before many employers decided to place hiring freezes on their businesses. I am very happy in my new job. I'm learning new things, and I finally feel like my years of minionhood many be paying off. So, hurrah!

2008-- Creatively
Oddly enough, this year was incredible for me creatively. After years of moaning about not getting enough writing done and not feeling like a writer I finished the year with over 100,000 words in two different projects. I had a NaNo win (hurrah!) and a writing habit that seemed to produce results (and yet, was realistic). I was finally in a place creatively where I felt loved (thank you husband and my writing buddies!), supported, and capable of producing something. I also lowered my expectations on what I was writing. I allowed myself to write crap, I allowed myself to use clichés. I eliminated perfection and relegated excellence for something to aim for in revisions. In other words, I freed myself from all the things that were holding me back and was still surprised when I soared forwards. Wow.

2009 and beyond....

So, with all my lessons from last year, here are the resolutions I'll be committing to this year (yes, I know, 18 days later, but there you have it!):

1. I will write 130,000 words this year (that's only 2500 words each week, which was my goal for last year).
2. I will update this blog at least twice a month (but hopefully weekly on Monday/Tuesday). I am setting small goals as I know that I stick to small goals a lot better than big ones.
3. I will write more blogs about writing/reading and less about moaning/whinging.
4. I will beat my 'books read' record of last year (which was 41 books).


I think that's about all for the moment. I hope everyone is having a good January! Welcome to 2009!