2010 After Action

This picture pleases me.

You're Welcome.

I want a flaming maelstrom in my room! Perhaps this shows you a little too much about my personality. Oops?

But at any rate, I have asked you here so I can talk at you about what I accomplished this year. I suppose this should be the part where I refer back to my resolutions from last year, but I'd prefer to, er, not do that. They say you should start the New Year as you intend to go on, so inflicting pain and shame on myself with a list of what I didn't do? Let's move away from that. *beam* *shuffles away*

On the other hand, the list of what I DID do pleases me! I shall now run through it.

• Reading
• I did the 2010 YA Debut Challenge!
• Which was AWESOME. I discovered so many authors I wouldn't have dreamed of going after, since I live in a small town in a rural area. Our library obviously caters to whatever will be read most, and my reading habits are, well, not all about romance or vampires. Or girls with dragon tattoos. Though I do like dragon tattoos! *muses about this* Anyways, this challenge pleases me greatly, and I intend to continue next year, as well as stalking the authors I've discovered.
• I did Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon!
• Oh my gosh, this was amazing on so many levels. I raised money for charity, my family supported me spending 24 consecutive hours with my nose in a series of books, I drank so much tea- it was a good thing.
• Writing
• I finished the first draft of Karma Police.
• It's so broken. But I know how to fix it!
• And I like Ewan, and Ethan, so much. 
• *hugs Nanami*
• I started the 52 Year.
• An indifferent short story every week.
• They're indifferent.
• I did NaNoWriMo!
• It was a learning experience.
• I learned that I am really not ready to pursue publication.
• I firmly believe that some day, my stories will shine in their own little dust jackets on shelves, with my name on the spine. But this is not that day. This is so not that day. I'm just not READY. Writing professionally is about ideas, yes, but more than that it is about skills, and WORK.
•  I don't have the nitty gritty how-does-it-all-work skills! I am learning so much about how stories work and what I'm trying to do, and most  of it just shows the massive gap in between what I'm aiming for and what I'm at.
• But more than that, the work scares me. And it's not just that I'm lazy, though that is a factor. ;) Also, I don't take criticism well. Especially from people I trust. It just destroys me that I failed in writing a story so badly that everyone can see the glaring errors and/or is left confused about what I was going for. 
• Obviously this reaction is not that helpful, and it doesn't make people prone to offer me criticism, if they have to keep holding my hand for the next day while I alternate despair with hating myself, the world, my mind, them, and the world. 
• So I have to work on being able to take criticism without imploding, because I DONT want my stories to fail. I just also don't want to spend days in self-hatred and despair, so I'm wary of asking for crits. 
• This doesn't mean that I'll stop writing, just don't expect to see my name on a shelf anytime SOON. :D 
• Reviewing
• I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked to. Some of my favourite books of the year never got reviewed, and that's criminal!

So what's ahead for the next year? Let's do another list again, I like lists.

• I am so doing the 2011 Debut Challenge. With the books I've already preordered I may as well get a pretty badge to go along with it! I shall put up another official post about it soon, but consider this the pre-warning.
• And Contempts are all nice and all, but I'm thinking they have their crowd, and I have mine, and they have angst, and mine has angst and jet packs. I LIKE jet packs. (And angst.)
• I will review more. 
• See above note about favourite books and how they didn't make it up. LET'S NOT LET THAT THAT HAPPEN AGAIN.
• And on a note related to reviewing, I will not be posting reviews of books will two or less stars. 
• This is part of my longstanding life goal to not be a jerk.  
• You see, if I thought honestly that I was an objective reviewer, I could say that something only deserved two stars, and then go on, peaceful. But I know that I am NOT objective. I read emotionally, and more than that, it barely takes anything to set me off and then I'm shouting at the book because there was one scene with a stupid soldier. I KNOW I take things the wrong way, but then i cannot get my head to the proper place again. I buy in too deep to the first read, which is also why I don't read Horror or depressing fiction (willingly.)
• This will be the year to focus on REVISION. 
• By which, I mean of course, ReWRITING. It's time to whip my boys into shape. And girls, but mostly the boys. Exiling sloppy vetchers, lounging around my stories that way. Curse them all. ^_^ (I'm out of practice with the "tough" swearing. Can you tell?)
• And see above about not melting down when people tell me I'm not flawless.

Tune in next time, when I'll tell you what my favourite books of the year, both reviewed and un-reviewed, actually were, and what I'm looking forward to for next year!