Read my lips, "no new projects!"
I have a hard time saying no and curbing my enthusiasm for new projects. The consequence of that has been a pileup of projects that I have started and not finished. With each project that I start and then set aside for one reason or another my guilt grows. Too much guilt then paralyzes me. No matter which project I start working on I feel guilty that I'm not working on the rest.
So, enough I say! I am going to make every effort to not take on any new projects in 2008. With that in mind, my new year's resolutions are as follows:
1. Get something published.
That's it. That's my one and only new year's resolution. I have started so many things that remain unfinished… I've written two novels for NaNoWriMo (both historical fiction with my ancestors as the main characters) neither of which has been edited or rewritten. At one time or another I started writing up the family history for each of my four grandparents' lines but none of those are anywhere near finished. Last year I started a family cookbook but that project got sidelined when my mom died in April. I've been collecting information on my maternal grandparents' parish church for some time now but I just haven't created the website to put it all together. I've been working on a database of the cemetery records and funeral records for Sweetest Heart of Mary Church on and off for a couple years now, I'm not done with that either. I've scanned somewhere between 6-10 complete parish jubilee books but I haven't done anything else with them. I've written up all of my Christmas memories and photographed my entire collection of Christmas ornaments including the ones I recently inherited from my mother. I'd really like to put that all together in a book. I've started scrapbooking my mother's life decade by decade but I'm not done with that either. And then there are all those photographs that need to be scanned… that's not a publishing project but it's an import ongoing project nonetheless.
At this point I've made no decisions about which projects I will tackle or in what order. Obviously some will require more time and effort than others to complete. I would dearly love to see something I've written (besides journal articles) in print. I will be satisfied if at the end of 2008 I have a published copy of anything.
Happy New Year 2008!
