It’s a little early for New Year’s resolutions, so instead, I thought I’d ask you what you’re planning for 2010?

I know, so far this decade hasn’t been a good one for most people. For humanity as a whole the last nine years have downright sucked. There’s nothing that can turn back the clock and make those bad things go away, but I think we can at least put our efforts into pulling back 2010 as one good year.

Of course if your life has been golden for the last nine years, or even just this year, then keep doing what you’re doing. It’s working.

My plans for 2010 are some lofty, ambitious goals. Not resolutions, I always break those, but actual goals, which I tend to hit at least half the time. I’m only going to do three big ones, I’m sure other stuff will come up, but three seems like a good number of big goals.

Goal One: Finish The Downside of Being Dead

I’ve wasted a lot of time writing without a plan. At least 100,000 words down the drain. I learned a lot from those 100,000 words (that number looks ridiculously huge, but that’s how much I wrote this year if you take out the short stories.

Now I have the plan (subject to change).

So all that’s left to do is turn that plan into an 80-90,000 word book. I’m hoping it won’t take me all of 2010 to finish it, but I’m giving myself that much time to make it good. If I finish before then, I’ll start another book (or maybe cry).

Goal Two: Be consistent

In 2010 my goal isn’t so much making huge leaps, but maintaining consistency. In the past I’ve always been able to make huge, sometimes even improbable leaps along any goal path I’ve set.

But I have no follow through.*

So, in 2010 I intend to work more evenly throughout the year. That means writing a little every day instead of making 5000 word bursts on weekends. **

I also want to do some podcasting, but that’s going to be dependant on me getting my head around some particularly reticent audio software.

Goal Three: Don’t get so tied up with writing that I forget everything else

I get a little over involved with projects. One year I got it into my head I wanted to be a film maker and proceeded to learn everything I could about making films. Shortly after that I bored everyone around me to tears talking about it. I got so involved in my pet project that just about everything else in my life suffered for it.

This intensity of focus can be useful, but it’s not always good for me. In a way this comes back to being more consistent with what I’m doing. If I can maintain a consistent writing schedule, then I wonlt have to become so involved with it that I fail at everything else.

So what are you doing in 2010? Let me know in the comments about the big three goals you have for the year. They can be writing related, but they don’t have to be.