In January 2009, I started the year off very optimistically.  I had just been elected treasurer of the Eastside RWA Chapter and I was going to get involved and kick off my writing career.  In October 2008 while attending the ECWC in Bellevue, WA, I signed up for the Cherry Adair Finish The Damn Book Challenge. I planned to rise to the challenge and write a book before October 2009.  At the same conference, I was fortunate enough to win a 3 Chapter Critique from Marianne Stillings.  So, needless to say, I was all set for 2009 to be the year.

In May 2009, I found myself a part of the CherryPlotters.  A group of wonderful women inspired by Cherry Adair, who got together to plot our books together.  By the end of May, I had learned how to use a plotting board and a multitude of colored post-it notes.  I had all the major plot points of my book plotted out.  All, I needed to do was write the Damn Book and then have Marianne critique the first three chapters to see how I was doing.

Unfortunately, due to a thorough lack of determination and self-discipline as well as a (un)healthy dose of Fear of Failure, October 2009 rolled around and I had not written my book.  ECWC 2009 was a truly wonderful and inspirational conference.  Seeing all the people who were being recognized for completing their first books, making their first sales, meeting the Cherry Adair Challenge and knowing that I was not one of them was a very upsetting experience.  But as they say, it's okay to fail as long as you learn from it.  Then and there, I made the commitment to myself that one more year would not pass me by.  I would meet my goals and I would have a book completed by October 2010.

After that, things started to fall in place.  I signed up for the Cherry Adair Finish The Damn Book Challenge again.  The CherryPlotters group solidified its charter and we now meet every 1-2 months.  And other important thing happened, Marianne Stillings and her Critique Group had an opening and they invited me to join them.  Meeting with these women every two weeks, reading and discussing our works in progress has been very motivational for me.

In November, thanks to the urgings of some Eastside RWA friends, I signed up for the NaNoWriMo Challenge to write 50K words in 30 days.  When I began the challenge, I never dreamed of actually writing 50K words in 30 days.  It was more than I had ever written before.  But with the support and encouragement of the Nano Insanity Support Group, I did it.

In December, I decided to finish the draft I'd started in November.  And again, with the support and encouragement of my critique group as well as the Nano Insanity Support Group, I met my December goal.

Below is the full list of my 2009 goals and status.  The overall goal was to write a book by October 2010.  But once I got started, I fine tuned the goal to be write a draft of a book by December 31, 2009.

1. May: Learn how to plot a romance novel. 
    Status: I plotted Obsession with ladies from the CherryPlotters.

2. October: Attended the 2009 ECWC (Emerald City Writer's Conference) and signed up for the Cherry Adair Finish the Damn Book Challenge.  Need to write and polish a book by 10/1/2010.   
    Status: The book I chose to write for the Cherry Adair Challenge is Obsession .  I committed to finishing this book by 10/1/2010 with around 100K words.  I'm well on my way to meeting this goal.   In fact, I plan to have the book agent ready by April 2010. 

3. October: Find a critique group.  
    Status: in October, I joined TBCG (The Best Critique Group)

4. November: Participated in the NaNoWriMo Challenge to 50K words in 30 days.  
    Status: As published on my blog, this goal was met on 11/25/2009.

5. November: I had a vague goal of starting some self promotion.  
    Status: On November 12, 2009, I launched my website (http://kristinecayne.com/) and my blog (http://blog.kristinecayne.com).

6. December: Created a personal goal of writing 35K words by 12/31/2009. 
    Status: As published on my blog, this goal was met on 12/29/2009.

7. December: Occasionally, people have asked me for my business card.  
    Status: I created my very first Kristine Cayne business cards in December.  They turned out pretty nice.  When I get a chance, I'll scan one and post it.

8. Overall 2009: I  created a personal goal to finish the draft of Obsession with around 110K words. 
    Status: As published on my blog, this goal was met on 12/29/2009 with a total of 110,287 words.

By the way, to get (almost) daily updates, check out my website www.kristinecayne.com. On the home page, there is a Facebook badge containing my status updates.  I try to my progress daily so it's easier for all of you to follow along in this wonderful journey of mine.

For those of you who missed the First Annual Kristine Cayne Cookie [Recipe] Exchange, here are the links to the recipes from previous blog posts.

Previous Recipes
Sugar Cookies
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
Caden's Candy Cookies
Chocolate-Hazelnut Thumbprints
Double Layer Jelly Cookies
Cranberry and Chocolate Cookies

Celebrate!!!

Now that all the hard work is over (for this year!), have a very Happy New Year's Eve.  Celebrate your successes and accomplishments for 2009 no matter how small.  (If you don't, who will?!)



Tomorrow we'll be talking about New Year's Resolutions for 2010.

Happy Writing,
Kristine