With Chinese New Year just beginning, it seems an appropriate time for me think about resolutions again, just to check I’m on track. February’s arrived frighteningly fast and that means I should have made progress – one twelfth of my resolutions should be done.

Let’s see: again to Resolution 3, to submit to 20 short story contests. This week I’ve entered my second, by writing two flash fiction stories (150 words in length) for the Binnacle Ultra-Short Competition. It was fun to try to get a story across in such a short length, and definitely good training. So that’s 2 contests so far, 2 out of 20 is 10% … that’s more than a twelfth, so I’m doing well!

As for the other resolutions: they’re all still at the front of my mind and I’m making small steps of progress. I’m about ready to sit down with my NaNoWriMo novel draft and plan how it needs to be restructured. And I’m keen to do that soon because I want to rewrite the first chapter to submit to a contest – my favourite writing podcast, the Writing Show, is having a First Chapter Makeover Series contest and to enter I need to get my first chapter to them by March 31. Deadlines, goals, more deadlines: these are the things that help me write. So happy Year of the Rat to you all!