It’s traditional to make a list of resolutions for the new year both personal and professional.

Personal:

• Finalize the divorce
• Get out of debt
• Be happy

Pretty simple plans for the next year. There are endings and new beginnings. Take care of my finances and embraces the things that make me happy.

Writing:

• Write 12 new short stories
• Revise and polish 12 stories
• Submit 12 stories for publication
• Submit a story to the Writers of the Future contest quarterly

Writing my first drafts longhand has turned out to be very productive. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to produce one first draft a month. I should also be able to revise one story a month. After that, submitting the polished piece is easy. I’d also like to go back to CSSF again and I would love to go to Viable Paradise but I’ll have to play it by ear as the year progresses.

Work:

• Finish migrating out of my hands-on role to more of a managerial one
• Successfully manage and complete all planned projects
• Come up with brilliant new projects for people to work on
• Grow the company

Perhaps the most challenging of tasks for me but ultimately the most rewarding, as it means more time for my personal and writing time. I’m in the process of letting go of what I’ve spent the last several years crafting and building and letting others take control of it. It frees up my time to work on larger tasks that have a bigger impact on the success of the business.

As each year dwindles to an end, I like to take a few moments to reflect on the previous twelve months. 2007 has been a year of reflection and change. All in all, it was a good year, filled with challenges, decisions, and growth.

Personally, I made the decision to pursue my dreams in the face of those that were content to maintain the status quo. I had to make some hard, life-altering choices. Choices for the better, for sure, although there are short-term consequences. It’s the price to pay for happiness, however. Life is too short and too fragile to spend it in the wrong situation or with the wrong person. Onward to a brighter future and better days.

Writing-wise, I attended the CSSF Science Fiction Writers Workshop in Lawrence, Kansas over the summer. I met many fine people there and my skills as a writer improved greatly as a result of the workshop. I submitted a few stories and collected a handful of rejections, including one “near miss” postscript.

Professionally, I’ve begun the transition from day-to-day operations to management, which basically means I let others do my work for me while I come up with creative new ways to keep them busy. It’s a challenge letting others take control of the things I’ve spent the last three years building. It also means that I’ll be able to spend more time writing and enjoying the company of those I love.

Life is full of regrets, over things that we should have done sooner, would have done differently, and wish we’d never done. Regrets are a part of who we are, but they don’t define us. What defines us is how we handle those regrets. We can either wallow in our guilt or we can learn from those mistakes, better ourselves, and move forward. Here’s to 2008, which is already shaping up to be a spectacular year.

I started out writing everything longhand in a notebook and typing it up on a computer when it was finished. Eventually, I skipped directly to computer input because, computer geek that I am, I thought that would be more efficient. I had some inspiration to try writing longhand again recently. I sat down with my little moleskin notebook that I usually use for ideas and started to write. In a few days, I had finished the first draft of a story that had been rattling around in my head since last summer’s short story workshop. That has since been typed up, edging in just over the 1,500 word count. A sweet spot for this particular story. I’m already several pages of scrawl into the next story.

Obviously everyone is different and you go with what works for you. I’m curious as to what the rest of you do when you’re writing a first draft.