Happy New Year!

As so many of us are busy setting goals for the New Year, be sure to check back in on my blog mid-January! On January 24 at my local SCBWI Schmooze, I'll be leading a goal workshop. During the workshop, I'll guide everyone through a process to help set realistic short-term and long-term writing goals for the new year. These goals will include getting published in 2008 as well as working on that manuscript you love. After the workshop, I'll post notes from the Schmooze and provide short tips to set your own goals. Until then--Happy New Year! May the year ahead truly be a NEW year for you as a writer, and not just another year of the same old same old.

The Top Ten
The results are in! And thanks, Catherine, for sending in your most important goals. For last week’s Top Ten, here’s the list that was chosen from the suggestions that came in:

The Top Ten goals you want to make for 2008.
1. Start a blog.
2. Make an official writing space to sit down and write.
3. Start a brand new manuscript and actually finish it.
4. Join a critique group.
5. Read a writer’s how-to book.
6. Learn how to self-edit my manuscripts and take the time to do it.
7. Set up my website(s).
8. Keep a journal and write it in often.
9. Keep a month-by-month calendar of writing goals to track my progress.
10. Get published on a regular basis by writing for no-pay or low-pay publications.

Do you want to have some fun? Whenever I post a topic for The Top Ten, send me your suggestion(s) by posting a comment! Your comment will automatically land in my e-mail box and won't actually appear on the blog itself. The way it works is people each send me one or two suggestions for each Top Ten topic. Then I choose the ten most fun suggestions and post the results within a week. (You can submit as many suggestions as you want.) If you want me to list your name as the contributor (if your suggestion is chosen), please include your first name and/or city along with your suggestion(s). Also, if you have an idea for a Top Ten topic, please send it my way.

This week’s topic is:
The Top Ten mysteries you’d want to solve if you were Nancy Drew.