Janus on a Roman coin (by dreamsdarkly at http://i966.photobucket.com /albums/ae141/dreamsdarkly /The%20Ancient%20World /Janus2.jpg)

In ancient Roman mythology, Janus is the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings, and time. He’s also the namesake for the month of January. So it seemed fitting to use him to represent the post where I look back over 2010 and forward into 2011.

Last January, I mapped out my writing plan and goals for the year. Some ended up being downright laughable, especially in a year where I was moving and doing a lot of traveling. Write and polish three manuscripts comes to mind. I revised and polished one, and wrote another.

My goal to write 1000 words per day, six days a week was not too tough when I was writing, but made me feel like a complete failure when I was in revision mode. This year, I'm going to track hours spent on writing tasks, not just word count.

My writing productivity measured by words per month looked like this in 2010. (Yes, I’m a total geek about tracking and graphing.)

Revisions, moving, and traipsing around Europe last summer, put a damper on my word counts.

While I can’t directly control whether I’ll land an agent or sign a publication contract, I can control the actions that make those things more likely. And based on last year’s experience, I’ve set goals that force me to stretch, but aren’t so unrealistic that I’ll be tempted to give up half way through.

Plan for 2011

• Spend three hours on writing, revisions, plotting/brainstorming, or research at least five days per week
• Post a blog entry three days/week, generally Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday
• Query ten agents for each completed MS
• Write two single title manuscripts, and get at least one fully polished
• Complete lesson plan for Scrivener course and set up delivery method, offering at least twice
• Enter one MS in the Daphne and Golden Heart contests
• Attend RWA National conference in NYC, and pitch to at least one agent or editor

So, what’s your plan for the new year? Whatever your goals, I hope 2011 is a wonderful year for you!