I have set goals in the past but I rarely do resolutions since most people break them by valentine's day anyway.
So my resolution was simply this: to write more.
When I was a kid and all through high school I wrote all the time, and when I went to college I planned to major in English and become a writer. Life happened, however and with that, I stopped writing. I went through a solid five year writing drought where the only things I wrote were for assignments.
I missed it though, and I decided 2014 was the year of Alley, since 14 has always been my favorite number.
I wrote in January, started Reed, and eventually finished it in early February. When I realized what I was capable of, I decided to better define my resolution to "write more."
I joined a small facebook group collaboration called 30 in 30, whose goal is to write 30k words in 30 days, three times a year. This is similar to the goal of Nanowrimo to write 50k words in the month of November. Instead of only doing it a few months out of the year, though, I decided to really push myself and try to do 30 in 30 every month of 2014.
This is month six, and, in case you are wondering, blog posts don't count. If I am successful, I will write 360,000 words this year. Keep in mind, 30k is only the minimum quota for the month, and if I finish early, I keep writing. I ended off May with a whopping 56,333.
So why am I telling you all of this? Because, my friends, I need your encouragement. I know there will be moments when I lose steam or feel like giving up, and I have the sinking feeling about 3 days out of the month that I am complete and utter rubbish, wanting to scrap everything I have ever written and taking Reed off the market.
I need encouragers, you see.
The second reason is, I need Beta Readers! I am averaging a novel every 2-3 months and need people to read, proofread, and give me constructive feed back!
If you would be interested in helping in this capacity, contact me via Twitter @AlleySaltz or on G+
I know I am not the best writer, but I want to continue to grow and get better, and the more I write, the more I get sucked into the magical worlds I can create with my words.
Thank you for reading.
Alley
