A New Year's Hopes

Well, here we are. A week into 2016. So far, I think I've done fairly well at not writing the year as 2015 when I date things, but then again, I haven't had to write the date much.

2015 was definitely a very eventful year. In the space of 12 months, I:

• Completed two of the three WIPs I had at the beginning of the year.
• Took the SAT for the first and last time.
• Found out I was moving.
• Participated in Camp NaNoWriMo.
• Participated in another Camp NaNoWriMo.
• Spent two weeks on WSS Support Staff.
• Packed up my life and moved to New York state.
• Took an online dual-enrollment course through Cedarville University.
• Edited and submitted Once Upon a Dream for the Rooglewood Press Five Magic Spindles contest.
• Participated in NaNoWriMo.
• Read 116 books.

I hope this year will be less difficult than last year was. And it might be. But I know there's changes still coming- one in particular. You can all probably guess what it is . . . but it's half a year away, and so I'm trying not to stress about it too much. And maybe I'll be fortunate; maybe that'll be the only really big change I face this year. Maybe, with the exception of that one thing, 2016 will be an easy year. Maybe.

(I probably just made my chances of this year being easy a whole lot slimmer . . .)

But however hard or easy 2016 proves to be, there are some things I want to accomplish, both in the creative realm and the life-in-general realm.

• I want to finish Monster in the Castle. This is looking fairly likely. I know pretty well where I'm going with the rest of the story, and as long as I stay motivated and write a solid amount every day, I should be able to get it done. I'm feeling pretty excited about the story right now, so that's a huge improvement from where I was most of last year.
• I want to write more short stories. For the last two years, I've been focused pretty exclusively on novels and the occasional shorter project. And I love novels; there's so much room for plotting and character development and just having fun. However, they're also time-consuming and require a great deal of editing before I can show them to anyone. So while I'll probably still write novels for at least one of the NaNo events, I do want to focus more on novellas and short stories.
• I want to do both Camp NaNoWriMos. I don't know yet if I'll do the full NaNo in November, mostly because of that big change I mentioned earlier. I want to. But I also want to not go crazy from stress. I figure that I can decide in September or October. But because of that uncertainty, I do want to make sure I get in both Camp NaNos, even if I have to take a smaller goal than the full 50K.
• I want to do more editing and maybe, just maybe, have something ready to submit to publishers by the end of the year. I have two different novels that I think are unique enough to make good potential debuts: Between Two Worlds and The Way of the Pen. Both still need a good bit of polishing and rewriting, but if I'm focusing more on writing short stories than novels, it should be doable. (For the record, I do plan to pursue traditional publishing over self-publishing. I may or may not make a post about it sometime, if anyone wants to know my reasons.)
• I want to do WSS Support Staff again. The two weeks I spent on Support Staff were two of the best weeks of my entire 2015. I don't know if the second time will be as powerful- I'm hoping it will; I'm hoping that I won't fall into the trap of expecting it to be just like the first and get disappointed when it isn't- but I want to go.
• I want to survive the major change I keep mentioning with minimal emotional turmoil. I . . . do not know how that will go. There are a lot of people involved. And a lot of being a long way from home with no chance of going back anytime soon. And a lot of a very different environment than I'm used to. But I will, hopefully, be with at least one of my friends from VA, and whatever happens, I am never alone. (I also want to figure out how to pay for this change . . . something which I'm working on now. I have no idea if it's going well or not. I'm trying not to get stressed out about it, and actually doing a fairly good job.)
• I want to do more photography . . . which I say every year and rarely do very successfully. I managed for about half of last year . . . but then moving happened. So I have an excuse there. Hopefully I'll manage better this year, but it's hard to say- New York may be pretty, but so far, January seems too cold to go out and take pictures. (Hmm . . . maybe I can try to scrounge up items for my own personal macro workshop or something . . .)
• I want to reread more. I've read a lot of new books over the last two years. And I have reread a fair bit, but not as much as I would've liked. Which is sad, because there's some series I really want to revisit, but I don't because there's always something new and exciting and ooh, shiny. But, honestly, as long as I am indeed reading, I'm not complaining.
• I want to try tabletop-style RPGs. I've heard a lot about these, and they sound really fun- I mean, it's basically like online roleplaying, right? Except with fancy combat systems and dice and actual talking to people instead of typing on the computer. And online roleplaying is basically my favorite thing to do on the internet. So it should be really fun. The problem is finding someone to do it with.

I have no idea how many of these goals I'll succeed in- or if I'll succeed in any. But whatever happens, I know my Author has a plan, and it'll be better than anything I come up with. I just have to remember that.

What are your hopes for 2016? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
 -Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)