MiG Goals, or How to Make 2012 an Incredible Year

We've come a long way this year at MigWriters. Car and Christy have agents now, Debbie's I'M BORED picture book will be releasing soon, and the rest of us have had our shoulders to the grindstone, too. The odds are strongly in favor of us having a great 2012. I hope you'll follow us at our new Facebook site, http://www.facebook.com/migwriters, and let's keep our conversations on writing going both ways.

Setting goals is a writing philosophy. Some writers are die-hard goal setters who draw up action items and timelines. Other writers think yearly goals change too fast and think in terms of months instead. But what is your real big ticket, huge priority for the year?

Here's where we MiGs are putting our energies in 2012:

Kate: I have many goals this year, including a goal to keep setting goals all year round. My main focus is to be POSITIVE--positive thoughts and positive actions. I want to focus on novel writing and not get distracted by short stories and contests. There's not enough time in the day to do it all, and being a novelist is what matters most to me. I have three novels I want to work on this year: one
revision, one rewrite, and one deep outline of something new.


Andrea: My goals this year haven't changed much from last year:  finish a revision (Novel #4), finish a rewrite (Novel #3) and start a brand new project (Novel #5). I don't let myself work on something new until the revisions are done and in a resting or submission phase, so I want to push myself to get to that new project, even if it's just a detailed outline. I've also posted about my goals on my blog, since I find that helps me stay accountable
(http://andrea-mack.blogspot.com/2012/01/goals-and-wishes-for-2012.html.) 


Car: My writer's goals for the year are very simple: Finish a draft of the book I'm working on and start revisions. OR - if the MG that's about to go out to editors is immediately snatched up and they want to offer me a two-book deal (hey, a girl can dream big, cant' she?!) - write that story's companion book. :-) 
I also plan to read a book a month.


Christy: This year I've decided to focus my goal around a single word. My word for the year is *STRENGTHEN*. Ways I intend to make this happen: 
1. *Read*- focusing on diversifying my reading choices and going beyond my standby favorites
2. *Attend conferences*-  to build my craft and network
3. *Finish revising my current WIP* and transforming it into a book that's even better than anything I've ever written yet.
4. *Write another book* (grin)- but for this one I'd like to try a genre that I haven't written in yet. I'm excited about this one too! 
I did a blog post over at my blog as well:
http://www.christinafarley.blogspot.com/2011/12/word-of-year.html 


Debbie: 
1. Minimize my online time during the mornings so I can get more creative work accomplished first thing in the day. I posted about this on my own blog ( http://inkygirl.com/inkygirl-main/2012/1/2/virtual-housekeeping-and-r... ). 
2. Finish and send out more book projects, including my YA novel, an illustrated chapter book and two picture books. 
3. Read more! Sounds weird, but I realize I need to actually schedule in reading time, else it takes a back burner to other stuff. 
4. Find fun & interesting ways to promote I'M BORED<https://www.facebook.com/boredbook> and
TOMO <http://tomoanthology.blogspot.com/>, both of which come out this year. 
5. Post more regularly in the MiG Writers blog! :-) 


What's your focus this year? Let us know in the comments what your priorities are so we can cheer each other on.


-- Kate