As this year winds to a close, everyone starts to go a little retrospective.  What did we do?  Where did we go?  What will we do again and what will we avoid like the plague?  What did we learn?  What did we forget? (and if we forgot, how do we know?)

It’s important to do this periodically…even if only on the cusp of the new year (or even the new decade).  But it is also important to keep moving forward.  You can look in the rear view and see where you’ve been, but you’ve also got to keep rolling down the highway and looking out for the obstacles ahead. 

So…my 2009 Retrospective:

• I participated in the National Novel Writing Month festivities and “won”.  This was a great experience that I intend to repeat in the next year.
• I contributed to a new online RPG supplement publisher called Nevermet Press.  This, too, was an excellent experience that I want to continue with.  They’ve recently published their first .pdf product and the structure of the online contributions may be changing.  In the new year I need to keep up with this group and throw my words in more often.
• I’ve blogged more than ever before.  Most of my blogs are either ramblings about writing or tips I’ve found on the in-ter-nets or reviews of stuff I’ve been reading or watching.  Mentally I tend to class this as separate from my “writing”…but I shouldn’t.  I think I’ve done some fine work in my reviews…and have made some mistakes.  Strangely, I find it easier to sit down and write a review than to sit down and write my original fiction.  I wonder what this says about me as a writer and about the paths I should pursue.
• I attended several great writing workshops and conferences.  One was ConDFW where the panels that I attended still influence and inspire me.  I also attended local writing workshops here in Denton, sponsored by the Denton Public Library.

Some thoughts for the upcoming year:

• I need to continue to play with my NaNo-Novel (“Better Angels”).  I think there is some good stuff there that can be cultivated.  Unfortunately, like real-life cultivation, I’m going to have to dive into the fertilizer to coax the good stuff to life. 
• I need to set a “production schedule” for the serial fiction that this blog was originally created to support.  The NaNoWriMo experience taught me that a deadline is helpful for me to work. 
• I want to attend the DFW Writer’s Conference this year.  I think it will be a great experience.  I also want to return to ConDFW and perhaps attend other available workshops. 
• I also intend to produce a short story for the North Central Texas College short story contest in March.  I entered in 2008 and won third prize.  I missed the deadline for 2009 but would really like to participate…and who knows, even make a showing…this time around. 

I tend not to make New Year’s resolutions…they usually look really good on January 1 and then fade away pretty soon after.  But if I can commit to my look-ahead as listed above, maybe I can move forward toward my goal of being a better writer in the next year.

Good luck in your endeavors for the New Year!