Friday, January 7, 2011

Conquered Lands, Lands Yet to Conquer













In 2010 I …




1) Earned my MFA, completing a thesis-length novel



2) Held a teaching job at a private nursing college over the summer and was offered employment there for fall.



3) Was offered and accepted a full-time postdoctoral teaching fellowship at LSU



4) At LSU Press helped in the editorial process for several books, such as Ledgers of History, Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren: Backward Glances and New Visions, 1969-1979,and Abbot Awaits.



4) Gained the interest of an agent in my fiction



5) Completed a semester of full-time college teaching



6) Maintained friendships with a large circle of people



7) Kept two cats healthy and happy



8) Practiced making pizza, chicken kiev, and a few other things



9) Prepared house for sale



10 Won the graduate playwriting award



11) Planted pansies



12) Made a lot of pies and cheesecakes



13) Continued helping judge the book contests at Carolina Wren Press






2011 Goals






1) Revise my novel to the point that I want to resubmit it to the agent



2) Write several first drafts of plays



3) Continue revising and submitting poems to magazines



4) Submit plays to contests



5) Sell house



6) Continue the gainful employment at LSU



7) Seek gainful employment in North Carolina upon relocating



8) Learn to make bistro-style lamb and pork dishes



9) Pursue exercise I enjoy










above cartoon from http://www.nataliedee.com/

3 comments:

jd said...

this is a good post. i need to do this every year and stick it on my wall so i can stop feeling like a worthless loser who should just go die somewhere.

Anonymous said...

this is a good post. i need to do this every year and stick it on my wall so i can stop feeling like a worthless loser who should just go die somewhere.

-jane

SK-S said...

Well, it's good to recognize that part of the goal process is not fulfilling some of them and instead doing other things, at least for me. It's almost December-- let's see how I've done:

1) Revise my novel to the point that I want to resubmit it to the agent

Um...... I've done some work on novels but I'm not there yet, sadly. I could be soon if I use my winter break very well.

2) Write several first drafts of plays

No. I haven't done this.

3) Continue revising and submitting poems to magazines

Instead I mostly revised stories and submitted them. I have successfully published one story! I feel good about my modification of 3 and will return to the original purpose and have already because of the urging of friends, not just magazines who don't know who I am.

4) Submit plays to contests

No, I haven't done this because I haven't done 2.

5) Sell house

Yes, I did this!


6) Continue the gainful employment at LSU

Yes, I did this!


7) Seek gainful employment in North Carolina upon relocating

Working on this. Feeling hopeful. But if it doesn't happen immediately, family will help me and I'll get to concentrate on my writing goals some.

8) Learn to make bistro-style lamb and pork dishes

Yes, I did some of this. Not a lot, but enough to know I could do it.

9) Pursue exercise I enjoy

Yes, I did this for 9 weeks. I then fell out of my routine because of teaching but I know I can do it now.

So, that's 5.5 out of 9 goals satisfied to my satisfaction, and I'm okay with that. I can still work on the others.