2011 goals: writing

Last year I feel like I made some good progress with my freelance “career.” I use quotes because I’m not persuing it full-time; right now I am just trying to keep my toes wet. With that said, however, I did land a couple new clients and that was very exciting. This year I want to take things up another level.

• Write an average of five articles per week for Demand Studios. I wrote many articles for them last year, but I got lazy.
• Continue writing interesting stories about Hudson Valley businesses and people. I currently write for both a local paper and an HV-focused online magazine and cover all aspects of life here, from finding Hudson Valley lighting boutiques to great real estate agents to reviewing local restaurants. I love writing about where I live and the people I meet.
• Write more informative posts on my blog. I’ve been writing this blog for 10 years now. It hasn’t changed much and last year I found myself in quite a rut. I think that approaching my posts as mini-articles will be beneficial for everyone. I’m excited about the changes and I hope you will be, too!
• Give myself the freedom to write fiction again. This is what I always thought I’d be doing. In fact, when I met Drew I was taking graduate-level classes at Emerson College, planning to earn an MFA in creative writing. Things change, of course, and also — fiction writing doesn’t pay so well. The editorial path I ultimately chose was much more lucrative. It’s hard to write fiction when I’ve been writing nothing but non-fiction for years now. But I’ve got some ideas brewing and I want to give myself the creative license to just let go and see what happens.

These will be the hardest goals to meet. My children are my priorities, so everything else (yes, including writing) has to fit into the pieces of free time I can squirrel away throughout the day. As Laura gets a little older, I think it will be easier to set a schedule for myself, but for now this is a start.