Resolutions and Writing

I came up with a few New Year's resolutions, all based around writing as a goal. The advice I have heard many times is that resolutions should be small, achievable goals. Resolutions to "lose weight," "work out more," or "write more" all tend to fail because they are too vague to accomplish. So in trying to come up with goals for 2011, I wanted to avoid anything along the lines of "write more" because I would never really feel that I had accomplished it.

I also had to address some of my anxiety about publishing my writing. I tend to worry about letting other people see what I write, which keeps me from A) getting advice that might help me grow as a writer and B) getting anything I have written published. But the more I thought about it, I actually write a lot of material that is published, at least in the sense of being made publicly available. I write letters--actual ink-on-paper letters, not e-mail--to friends and family, I write finding aids and MARC records at work, and in the past I had a job as a technical writer, where not only did I write every day, I was actually being paid to write. When I give myself that much credit, I can acknowledge that I already write on a daily basis, almost always for the consumption of at least one other person, and now and in the past as a significant part of my jobs. Sure, no one is buying a paperback copy of finding aids I have written for films at the Wisconsin Historical Society, but I still have an audience in mind, and I know records I have written are read and used by other people.

With that in mind, my resolutions:
1. This year, I will write at least two works, outside of my job as an archivist, for publication. I have to try to find a publisher for them, by submitting them to magazines or sites for web fiction. I do not have to be paid a specific amount, nor do I have to win any awards (both of these are issues more or less out of my control at this point), I just have to get something that I have written out there for other people to read and criticize, and twice.
2. I will try to write for my own projects at least 3 times a week, for at least one hour at a time. This is a "baby step" in the process of making writing a part of my normal routine, but it is realistic. So far this year I have had two successful weeks and one unsuccessful week. But I have a few nights each week to myself, and these are perfect times to turn off the TV and the radio, disconnect from Facebook, and just sit and write.
3. To help make writing an integral part of my life, I will keep up written correspondence and I will start keeping a blog. I have been writing letters to people since last fall, and I find this an immensely satisfying activity. As opposed to writing short stories or essays--which can be frustrating more often than rewarding--writing to other people comes easily and gives me a lot of happiness. The purpose of the blog is to give me a venue that requires me to write regularly--and for an audience--but that does not require the sort of revision and editing that goes into my other writing. Hopefully this will not be an excuse for me to keep a dull, ungrammatical, or overly rambling blog!

Bonus goal: If at all possible, get paid for at least one work in which a murder occurs, such as a mystery story. In talking about economic woes with friends I have joked about this and suggested that if I can draw even a modest return on a story in which someone is murdered, I can boast that I "killed someone for money" in 2011.