to keep myself occupied from sad thoughts, i’m plunging ahead with planning projects for the remainder of this year and stuff i’ll be starting in january. i know it seems a bit premature to be thinking about next year, but there are some things i’d like to do that require some preparation if i’m going to start them on time.

first off, this website needs an overhaul. it looks way too much like a blog, even the portfolio-type entries are blog posts. while this is very convenient for me for organization, i just don’t like the look of it. it feels so boxed in. so i’m trying to do some layout-based organization before i even start thinking about how the thing will look.

along with that, i’m going to make sure that i have my whole blog backed up and cleaned out by the end of the year. heck, i’ll have it done by the end of the week if i just put my head down and do it. i’m also going to get all my outstanding posts up and out of the way. 99% of them are art and craft posts of projects long completed.

before i know it, i’m sure i’ll find myself hip-deep in nanowrimo, which is shaping up to be a bigger challenge than it was last year. that will be my sole focus for november and if i can find my way deep enough into the story, it will take me through december as well. i’m even more sure than i was before that i’m going to keep going until i have a full first draft completed of this story. i’ll then put it away for at least a month before pulling it out to begin editing. i’d love to have the whole thing ready for first readers by this time next year.

and that brings me to next year’s projects, which i am very excited about. i didn’t do so well on this year’s projects. i didn’t learn french, didn’t get through my crusades books (maybe next year?), didn’t finish my novel, and didn’t get the website done the way i wanted. to be fair to myself, i did do a bunch of other writing and i’ve relaxed about the novel, realizing that the story i want to tell is not ready yet. the crusades books will get read, just at a slower pace than i planned. and the french? well, it’s moved to the back burner. i have options for taking classes when i’m ready, until then i’ll just stick to mastering english.

the website is even more of a work in progress than i planned and so i’m not really counting that as a failure, but more of an evolutionary process. in fact, that’s how i’m viewing all of this year’s projects.

and yes, i know it’s only september, but life is so busy right now and then nanowrimo will start up, with the holidays hot on its heels. this is probably the last solid chance i’ll get to make this kind of assessment and do any planning before things get completely insane.

anyway, one of the things i’d really like to do next year is play with my art and make some project pages. wallpapers, icons, a nanowrimo page, my wee inquiries, and other little pages are going to get their own home, kind of like subsites off the main site. i also have this idea of taking some of my writing and making this little storybook sites with accompanying graphics and unique navigation systems, sort of like tiny illustrated novels or something. i don’t know if that description makes sense, but you’ll understand better once you see it.

i’d also like to make the next creative jump with my art. i’ve been plateaued for a year or two now. i’m not unhappy with what i’m able to do, visually, but i haven’t learned any new tricks and my style has been kind of stagnant for a while now. i’m hoping that getting CS3 in the spring will give me that push i need.

so next year’s goals are probably as follows:

1 read crusades books
2 redesign website
3 finish nano novel
4 push visuals in a new direction

just like this year, that’s four major goals. a few minor ones are:

1 keep up with herb garden
2 learn to draw again
3 learn new software (CS3)
4 read one fiction book a month (at least)

okay. i’m off to play in nanoland before they take the forums down!