This time for sure! Well, two out of six, at least.

Weekend Assignment 145: Make at least one resolution for 2007.

Extra credit: Did you keep your resolutions for 2006?

Let me tell you first what The Plan was. 2006 was the year I was going to sell Heirs of Mâvarin, finish work on Mages of Mâvarin, and (of course) lose some weight. Then in 2007 I was supposed to study for the CPA exam. But ten months after sending my three chapters and synopsis to Tor, I have yet to hear back from them, and in my extreme diffidence I keep putting off the follow-up letter. Meanwhile, my writing output has mostly been online and for free: blogging, fiction on Messages from Mâvarin, and more and more since April 2006, non-fiction on Wikipedia. That last outlet is so addictive that I've let the LiveJournal and the fiction blog falter in recent months, after two years of weekly fiction entries. Then again, that's not the only reason for the neglect: I think I'm just not ready to write about Lore yet, not with Mages still up in the air. And whatever I have to say about the non-fiction writing process for Wikipedia I tend to say either here or on Wikipedia itself.

Still, as much fun as I've been having, it doesn't get the Mages book (or trilogy, or whatever it is) done, and people keep telling me to take better care of myself and get more sleep, that they worry about me. So the resolutions to make are obvious:

1. Get to bed by 2 AM at the very latest, which gives me a minimum of six hours of sleep (almost six and a half if I hit the snooze bar three times, but if I do I'm pushing my luck on getting to work at 9 AM). Try for 1 AM at least part of the time. All-nighters and near all-nighters will henceforth be allowed only if I can then sleep past noon.
2. Finally write to Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, briefly and politely, about the status of my submission.
3. Finish Mages of Mâvarin, this time for sure.
4. Stop eating utter crap. Even when I'm not dieting, I don't have to eat candy on the slimmest of excuses. Sleeping more should help me resist buying snacks as a sleep substitute.
5. Get back to the gym.
6. Post something in Messages, at least biweekly, even if it's stuff already written.

No, this isn't really what I'll say in the letter.

I predict that I'll actually do some of these things, at least part of the time. #2 and #3 are certainly doable. The habits of a lifetime resolutions, well, those are a bit harder.

Karen

Tags: Weekend Assignment, 2007, resolutions, John Scalzi has entirely too much fun making up long, funny and ultimately useless tags, Writing, Tor