I find this amusing. Here’s what I wrote on December 31, 2008, revealing what my “resolutions” would be for the year 2009:
I was going to make a list. You know, do it up right. Use bullet points. Set target dates. I was going to set out viable, approachable writing goals for myself. No goals like “sign with a literary agent,” because I have absolutely no control over whether I can get myself an agent in 2009 and I don’t want to measure myself by outside forces; I have no power over what someone else will or will not love. So my goal is not to get an agent. I have a book coming out in September 2009, but my goals will not include aspiring to any kind of Amazon ranking, or selling enough copies to earn out my advance, or getting stars on reviews, or getting reviews at all, or even having some readers like it (though, believe me, I really really really really really am sitting here hoping some readers will like it). Again, all that: outside forces, relying on others, out of my control. My writing resolution is simply something I can make myself do before the year is over:
I will finish my new novel in 2009.
That’s it.
Happy New Year!
So, looking back on the year 2009, the book did come out, it got reviewed, it got read, some people did like it, so… success? I think it went well.
But it’s especially amusing when I said that in 2009 “my goal is not to get an agent.” I now see how the universe works. I get it. So when you outright say that you are NOT trying to do something, only then does the universe decide you are allowed to have it.
Tricky.
Also, many other enormous things happened to me in 2009, and I was absolutely not expecting any of them. (Except the bad things; I await bad news with cookies, that’s how I am.) But the good? Never in a million years. So maybe another way the universe works is to surprise you when you are absolutely least expecting it and didn’t even know to ask?
Hm. Like I said, tricky.
I’m going to have to think really long and hard about the things I don’t want for 2010, that’s for sure!
Oh, and that little goal from last year saying I will finish my new novel in 2009? Curious about that one? We’re down to the wire, we’re racing ahead, we may die trying… but, yeah, I think there’s a good chance that might actually be met! If you’re flexible on what you’d call “finish,” that is.
Did anyone else’s resolutions come true—or not come true—from 2009?
