Journey to Greatness: Week 1, The Starting Line

{ Original image by Andi Sidwell. Remix by Lynn Daue. }
{ Available for use under CC BY-SA 2.0 }

Over the last two years, I've undertaken a Journey to Greatness, as inspired by Shannon and Andrea at ThoseGirlsAreWild.com. I've failed both years.

The first year, 2010, I set my overarching goal to Get Published. I worked hard that year, doing everything from interviews to submitting queries for an anthology that a friend of mine and I compiled. I got far on this goal--we even got to the point that we had a couple of interested agents. And then, for some reason (probably because we stopped pushing so hard), things fell through. So unless you count online content managers, I still haven't attained the goal of getting published.

In 2011, I set my goal to Establish My Business. For so many reasons, I failed hard at this. I gave up after about two months, and now even my part-time, for fun Etsy store has become defunct. And I have SO MANY BEADS hanging out in my basement now. It's ridiculous. On the upside, I probably don't have to buy costume jewelry for a very long time.

I'm not entirely sure what to do this year. The purpose of the exercise is to do Something Great. Something that brings you personal fulfillment. Something that you devote an entire year to doing.

I could try to stabilize my weight, but really, that's no fun.

I could try to run a marathon, but I'm already dreading a measly 5K in April. (Yes, that's still on and yes, I'm still up for people joining me.)

I could try to see more of the U.S., but 'Merica is DAMN BIG, and that's a little cost prohibitive.

Ultimately, I have to go with something writing-related. In Week 6 last year, I came to the conclusion that I missed writing. I don't want to miss writing again this year. I already set up a kick-ass schedule for writing, which includes magazine articles and queries, polishing my novel, and blogging. I intend to stick to this schedule, and I don't think that I can do so if I'm chasing some other pipe dream. Not to mention the barely-touched list of things to do before I turn 30. Geez.

Under the great big writing umbrella, there are a lot of smaller goals. I could go for trying to make money writing. I could go for finishing my novel. I could go for winning a competition or grant. I could go for selling a manuscript. I can choose almost anything.

The thing is, I technically do make money writing. Not that I've seen a red cent of it because I haven't hit my payable threshold (sad), but having articles on content manager sites does generate some revenue, albeit unseen. I've already finished novels, crappy as they may be. I can't really control winning a competition or grant; I can certainly try, but I know that I don't have the funds to support that indefinitely. What I can try to do, however, is sell a manuscript.

It can be a novel, short story, creative non-fiction piece, or magazine article. It can have national circulation or just in our neighborhood. Frankly, it doesn't even have to be published (although that IS the ultimate goal). It just has to be accepted to a real publication, and I can't have given it away.

Does this mean that I'm also going to making money writing? Well, yes and no. Yes, in the sense that I'm not going to give something for nothing, but no, in the sense of cold, hard cash. Complimentary writer's copies will totally count as "payment."

So, here goes, my Journey to Selling a Manuscript. Let's hope I can keep it up.

Do you have a Big Goal for 2012? What is it?

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