When you read this, it’ll officially be the last day of 2008 (yes, I’m posting ahead because I’m *going on holidays*, but I didn’t want to abandon my readers completely). Since I’m pretty sure that said holiday will mean I don’t achieve any more goals between now and the end of 2008 (a week away as I type), I think it’s safe to look back at my 2008 writing resolutions and see how I went.

• Edit my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel and submit it

Check! I did edit it, and I submitted it to two novel contests. Luckily I didn’t define what “submit” meant (because I would have liked to put it out further than just those two contests) but technically, I achieved this resolution. Having said that, I’m now one third of the way through another major edit of this novel and I’d like to do some “heavy duty” submitting of it next year.

• Plan and write my second novel idea – plan during the year and write in NaNoWriMo 2008

Half done. I did plan my second novel idea out quite well, and I’ve written about a quarter of it, and still like it and would like to continue. Then as NaNoWriMo approached I changed tack and started writing my third novel idea in November instead, but as you’ll remember, I didn’t become a NaNo winner so what I have there is a draft of about a third of a novel, and again, something I hope to continue next year.

• Write more short stories: submit to at least 20 contests

Partially achieved … in a small way. I wrote (to completion) five short stories this year and submitted them each to one contest. I would like to revisit these in the future and get more regular about writing short fiction for contests, both because it’s great writing practice and because I think it’s also good “PR” to win a few contests sometime … I mean, it should help a little bit when I start looking for agents and publishers for novels. Well, I hope it helps, and it would make me feel a little bit more confident anyway.

• Increase blogging work and freelance travel writing income by 50% (my real goal list has the figure, but that’s a secret!)

Tick! Fully achieved. However, I should let you in on a secret – part of that came from increasing my workload a little; part of it came from getting pay rises for consistent and (I guess) good work – and part of it came from a massive fall in value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar, and since most of my work is in the US, I’ve ended up with more in my bank account. In any case, I’m pleased with the outcome here.

• Monetise my Ballerina blog. I think. I’m still not sure if that’s where I want to go with this one – but let’s say, at least consider the issue carefully

Partially achieved, but not with Ballerina. I ended up switching this Becoming A Fiction Writer blog to its own domain during the year and increasing readership is something I want to focus on in 2009.

During my holidays I’m going to be thinking hard about my 2009 goals. Each year I get older and I hope, a little bit wiser, and I my drive to achieve things seems to increase – so next year I’m hoping to have a real killer writing year!

Happy New Year to all of you and let me know in the comments how you went with achieving what you wanted in 2008.