2016 is here, and looking at my schedule and list of projects on proposal and in development, this year is looking like a big one.

For the year, I’m going to divide things into Resolutions, Goals, and Ambitions. Resolutions are personal principles I’m going to try to keep in mind to help make a happier, more productive year. Goals are achievable actions and projects under my control. Ambitions are Cool Things I would like to see happen this year that require other people’s/company’s buy-in.

Resolutions

Here are some principles I’m going to try to keep in mind for the year:

1. Focus on Joy, and share that joy. Spend more of my free time on things that make me happy. Celebrate colleagues and creators that inspire me – from talking up things I’m enjoying, recommending books and movies and shows and music, and so on. Use my platform to spotlight awesomeness.
2. Elevate marginalized voices. This means signal-boosting people of color, women, LGBTQIA/QUILTBAG persons, and other people marginalized across various social axes. This lets me put my Privilege Yahtzee to good use and helps me continue to learn how to be a better-informed and more empathetic person.
3. When I read an opinion about media that I deeply disagree with: just walk away (unless it’s actively bigoted, in which case, I can allow myself to throw down for great justice). This will hopefully keep me from wasting as much time arguing about things on the internet.
4. Do writing work every weekday and one weekend day wherever possible. Optimally, this means drafting, revising, and/or promotion work. Writer admin (website, accounting, etc.) comes after drafting/revising/promotion. I’ve noticed that I get antsy if I spend too long without working on drafting or revising, so I want to be more consistent in working on that part of writing.
5. Do what I can to reach out to people in more substantive ways. I love Twitter, but it’s become a very large part of my social life, and I want to mix in more Skype and in-person socializing.

Goals

These are mostly writer and career things. I’ll note that these are things totally under my control, rather than things which require other people’s buy in (those are ambitions, they’ll follow below).

1. Revise Genrenauts Episodes 3-6. (Winter-Spring).
2. Promote Genrenauts: The Absconded Ambassador.
3. Publish Genrenauts Episodes 3-6 with Tor.com or myself.
4. Finish, revise, and submit the Cool Space Opera WIP.
5. Plot and start writing Genrenauts Season 2.
6. Proceed with Sekret Project #1.
7. Finish revising Beacons and pitch it.
8. Write more Business of Publishing Essays and pitch them to major markets.
9. Pick one new way to earn readers.
10. Do it.

A lot of these are penciled in due to the fact that I have three different submissions/proposals active right now, and my plans for 2016 will be largely dependent on what happens with those. I really want to get all of Genrenauts Season 1 out this year, so that’s pretty solid. And Beacons is, I think, pretty close to being ready to take the next step. And the Business of Publishing Essays thing can fit well with many of the other things. But if more than one of those submissions/proposals comes back with a buy/offer, I’ll need to make a lot of writing time for them.

Ambitions

1. Sell a novel to a Big Five SF/F house for wide print & ebook distribution.
2. Sell a TV option for Genrenauts to a reputable production company/creator.
3. Sell Beacons and/or get a work-for-hire job writing for a major comics company.
4. Have one of my works/projects nominated for a major SFF award (either a book or one of the podcasts I work on).

The New Year is here, now let’s make it a great one.