Looking back on 2008...

Okay...so I know I'm a little early but as I'm having a baby four weeks from today, thought I may be a little busy for pondering towards the end of the year. 

At the beginning of 2008, I wrote a list of the things (writing/reading-wise) I wanted to achieve this year. Here tis:

1)      Want to learn more about the craft of writing category romance – focusing heavily on Goal, Motivation and Conflict and enhancing Emotion between characters. To do this, I plan on spending some time doing writing exercises from Kate Walker’s 12-point Guide To Writing Romance and to study more and more about GMC before I start my next draft.  X

2)      Read at least one Classic (you know, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, the like…) per month. I’m an English teacher by trade and I think my reading in these areas is severely lacking. People expect me to know this stuff and I don’t! – this was gonna be a resolution but as I’m not making any others, it’ll do as a goal. X

3)      Write at least two more drafts of category novels. I’ve got the basic seeds of these in my head but will be praying for inspiration to fill in the gaps. $

4)      Polish up my 2007  NaNo novel and send it off to Mills and Boon. X

5)      Enter loads of contests and hopefully final again in some. $

6)      Hopefully attend the 2008 RWA conference in Melbourne! $

The ones with an X next to them, I sadly failed. 

I'm hoping to do the craft book thing better in the early part of 2009 when I may not be writing quite as much due to bringing up baby! I've read a few classics this year but they took so long in comparison to other things and let's face it, with two young boys, time was tight in my world. I'll try for another few in 2009. The reason I didn't send off my NaNo novel was that I didn't get any feedback for it in the IHeart Presents Instant Seduction contest early in the year and figured it wasn't really what Mod Heat were looking for. Perhaps in 2009, I'll see if I can revise it for another more suitable line?!

I did however write a one full category length novel (NBLSB) and have almost finished WWMM. I'm hoping this will be done by the end of 2009 - at least the first draft. I also began another category length novel and also one which is probably more ST. These began in June - my diabolical writing month - and were abandoned soon after, but I'll definately be going back to one of them in 2009.

I entered contests and finalled in two!!! 

And... as you know... I did attend the RWA conference in Melbourne. 

So... did you have goals for 2008 - things you'd like to achieve and have control over - and how'd you go?

Stay tuned for a post about my 2009 goals....