Friday, January 7, 2011

Accomplishments and Adventures

I'm back! I dropped off the face of the blogosphere for over a month, and I'm sorry that I haven't been posting or commenting on other people's blogs. I've been so busy lately that I had to let my blog hibernate for a while.

It is that time of year again! I've been working on my list of Big, Fun, Scary Adventures for 2011. (These are akin to New Year's Resolutions, but Bigger, Funner, and Scarier... and more Adventurous!) Last year, I had these four:

1. Attend my first writers conference
Last March, I went all the way down to Florida for the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and I had a great experience and learned a lot. You can read my summary of the trip HERE.

2. Get my driver's license 
I completed this one just in time! Just a few days after Christmas, I passed my driving exam and got my license. Unfortunately, I don't have a car, so it doesn't help me much.

3. Write a song every month
This is the one goal that kind of flopped. I wrote lots of pieces and parts of songs, but I didn't finish any of them. Oh well.

4. Start a photography blog
I did start a photography blog, which you can visit HERE.


My list of Adventures for 2011:

1. Write 250,000 words
2. Set up an Etsy shop and sell stuff
3. Make a short film with my brother
4. Go to college
5. Cut my hair

Every single one of those goals is Big, Fun, and Scary. At least, for me.

The first one, about writing all those words, may best be broken down into monthly goals. So I started a list of writing goals from January through May:

January
-Write Nanooks in Trench Coats (this is goofy, crazy, 4-day novel writing race to 50,000 words with my brother. I already won, by the way.)
-Type out Greenheart, my NaNoWriMo novel that I wrote mostly by hand
-Plan and outline my 2YN novel (an online writing course I'm doing)

February
-Start writing my 2YN novel, and get at least 40,000 words into it

March  (National Novel Editing Month!)
-Finish editing The Shadow of Rebellion, my sci-fi novel

April (Script Frenzy!)
-Finish writing my screenplay "The Twin Confessions of Melody & Harmony"
-Write a steampunk short film script (yes, this ties in with Adventure #3 above!)

May
-Finish my 2YN novel (it's a young adult novel, so it'll probably end up around 75-90,000 words)

I haven't decided what my writing goals will be from June forward, because I may have new story ideas by then.

I make goals like this and write them down so that I'll have something to work toward, and when I come to the end of the year, I can look back and see how far I've come. It's both a motivator and an encouragement.

What are some of the big, fun, and scary adventures that you will have in the year 2011?

12 comments:

T.D. said...

Sounds really awesome, Evergreena! :D

I have to ask: have you done anything in the filmmaking world before? I definitely wan to see the short after you make it!! :D :D :D

My plans for this year? Ah, well... finish my NaNovel (I hit 50k but my story isn't finished yet) and write a couple shorts (and shoot a few) and a full-length screenplay.

I love your blog, by the way :)

Rachel Kimberly said...

@ the Director - My family made a short film for a contest a couple of years ago, but that's all I've really done with filmmaking so far. You can view it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOOrFtsG3Zg

whisper said...

Great list of resolutions, Evergreena! And so many brave writing endeavors. o_O You are most definitely a far more diligent and accomplished writer than I. Heh, I go through month-long times of no writing (in fact, I'm in one of those right now and trying to jump out of it) and, when I do 'pick up the pen' again, it's only write bits and pieces, here and there, every now and then. Ah well. :) I wish you well in your writing quests! Nice blog you have, by the way. :)

DTH Rocket said...

I completely forgot to include the film in my BFS Adventures!

Galadriel said...

Sounds exciting!

T.D. said...

@Evergreena
WOw. That video was pretty neat. Gosh, what effects software do you use? What I wouldn't give to have that! *sighs wistfully*

Anyway, great job!

T.D. said...

Oh, I'm sorry, one more question: how old was the director of the short?

Rachel Kimberly said...

@The Director
Thanks! I'm glad you like it. :)
We used a really old version of adobe premier and a really old version of photoshop elements. We filmed the space scene with a green screen (and the floating library card was hanging from fishing line!), and then put the night sky behind it all. It was a lot of trial and error, but it was worth it, because we got an award for special FX!

The director was my brother. He's DTH Rocket, who commented above. At the time of filming, he was 17. It was really a family affair. :)

T.D. said...

Wow! Good to know... thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! :)

Once again, bravo! Your brother's not a bad director ;)

Paul Mulder said...

Hey, sometime I'd like to read your Shadow of Rebellion book.. and tell your sister that I sent her a friend request on facebook (Paul) and I guess the way she has it set, I can't attach a message with it..

Abigail Hastings said...

CUT YOUR HAIR?!?!?!? How come I never heard you are going to cut your hair? by the way, I am writing this from science class!! Have a good day sis!

DTH Rocket said...

Uh... Blog?