Soul Saturdays: Manifestival Year-Long Walkabout

Prompt via Manifestival2012: "Have you considered your year-long Walkabout Map? It's one of my favorite parts of beginning the process of change and evolution. You take a year-long calendar (or you look through your organizer at each full month of days). Give each month a theme, knowing that you can change and revise as you go through the year. For me, the theme of February is Health. I'm making appointments, I'm plugging in exercise, and I'm researching alternative therapies. I have goals connected to this theme--so I'm beginning them now, and then I'm plugging in "check in" dates throughout the year--so that I can monitor the long-term goal associated with this area of my life. I'm doing the same for each month--listing the theme, and then plugging in check-in dates for the rest of the year."
I really like how this prompt connects to a previous prompt asking us to reflect on what each month of 2011 represented or focused on. Honestly, 2011 was a completely wild ride for me, and I was just trying to hang on. 
This year, I can be more mindful of what I want to accomplish and focus on each month, and check-in with myself to make sure I am on track. I am so excited about 2012--more excited than I have ever been about a year, professionally. I finally feel like I am on the right path as a freelance writer and aspiring novelist. 
January: Invest (in myself and our future). 
Even though January has passed, I wanted to reflect on what I accomplished and pick out its "theme/topic." I went to the Writer's Digest conference (#wdc12) and perfected my pitch/query and as a result have three agents considering my book. Also while there, I bought the book 102 Ways to Earn Money Writing 1,500 Words or Less (click title to read review from yesterday). The entire experience really motivated me to make 2012 a wonderful, successful year. I also sat down and did an honest budget and we set up a plan to get ourselves out of the debt we have incurred since we both quit our 9-to-5s in order to be freelancers. 
February: Organize 
I am continually tweaking my writing routine and trying to be as efficient and productive as I possibly can be. The saying "time is money" definitely defines a freelance career. I'm also trying to do a better job of not working 12 hour days and taking more breaks. Having a to-do list with estimated times of how long each task will take me has helped. I also started a Hootsuite marketing strategy where before I was just going on daily and browsing my streams, commenting on peoples' posts, retweeting interesting/useful things, etc. Now, I will continue to do that each day because I love it, feel connected to others, and it's fun. BUT I am also adding another "layer" to my Twitter management by making sure that every week, I tweet about things that matter to me instead of just what happens to be going on in Twitterverse on any given day by scheduling tweets via Hootsuite with these key topics.
I also identified a list of topics that I want to write about and am focusing on pitching articles that revolve around my natural interests like travel, craft beer, arts and entertainment, small businesses, lifestyle, profiles, love, and relationships of all types. 
March: Create (ebooks and products)


I am blessed to have five steady income streams from regular writing and client marketing gigs. But, the fact is, any of these opportunities could disappear due to circumstances beyond my control (for example, one stream is writing travel descriptions, and the company in charge of these may lose their contract with the publisher). So, I'm going to take the plunge and commit to creating and selling ebook(s) in March. I need to create some income on my own, that just relies on me and my writing instead of companies and clients that have hired me (and could therefore fire me). I am going to research Kickstarter as a potential way to make this dream a reality. The two immediate items I want to create: 
1. How to Become a Burst Writer and Avoid Writer's Block, a book for writers about how to write a novel in 17 days or less and insert huge word count days of 10K and 12K (my personal best) into their writing routine. 
2. Lies of the American Dream, the book I've been working on for several months. It's about halfway finished, so I am going to commit the rest of February and most of March to finishing it, then put it out into the world!
April: Novel #3 (#2 of 2012, & education) 
I have set up a schedule for myself that I will write four books of fiction each year. I have over 50 (not exaggerating) book ideas scrawled on notecards in my "dream box," and math tells me that it will take me at least 13 years to get all of these books written (not to mention all the novel-length ideas that will hit me along the way!). And I'm happiest when I am working on a big project in conjunction with all my shorter articles. Oh, and the "education" part of this month is that my novel will be about my former life as a high school English teacher, and yes, I WILL be criticizing our education system :)
May: Expand (my reach and expertise)
So, this blog focuses on praising other writers and learning from their wisdom to provide inspiration to myself and you. I enjoy collecting useful resources and links, and I love writing about books, movies, blogs, articles, magazines--anything written really. It also allows me to share my writing with all of you. Plus, these Saturday posts force me to self-reflect each week to make sure I am on the right path and accomplishing what I need and want to be. 
But, for my fiction, I focus on relationships--friendship, sibling, parent, boss/employee--any human interaction that we encounter really that may involve love, hate, anger, sadness, and the mess of other emotions we put each other through. But I don't get to focus on all that much on this blog. SO, I want to create a blog that does. And, my husband will be co-writing some of the posts. It's going to be challenging but wonderful and help me connect with potential readers of my fiction even more. Also, this means focusing more on Goodreads and Google+ and maybe Pintrest, which I have been a slacker about so far. I plan to start all of this sooner, but May will be a great time to really focus on these other networking outlets.
June: Gratitude


June marks the year anniversary of me deciding to quit my job as a high school English teacher and make a go of being a full-time writer. The journey has been amazing, and I want to spend this month being grateful for my decision and my career. I'd also like to spend this month thanking people that have helped me make it this far. 


July: Travel
July is our wedding anniversary month (happy #8 honey!), and ideally we will go on a fun trip somewhere (San Francisco is high on my list). However, I would also love to go to a travel writing workshop or take an online course because one of my 2012 goals is to do more travel writing. This month also marks me starting my next book, SOOO....I'd like to incorporate travel into it somehow. And although it's supposed to be a novel, I might just go with co-writing the travel+marriage book that my husband and I have been talking about for about a year--we even have the book proposal already finished!
August: Get Published in a New Format


One of my dreams is to write movie and/or book reviews. I consume these regularly and frequently, and one of my favorite things to do is have an epic conversation analyzing what the writer meant, the lessons we should learn, what it all means, etc. etc. Book talks were my favorite part of teaching. Anyway, I would like to get a review published this month (anytime this year would be nice!) and in 102 Ways to Make Money...Schecter talks about literary journals as being a potential review market. I'd also love to take a stab at writing greeting cards, board games, menus--anything that I haven't yet tackled. 
September: Craft beer


I feel like I'm cheating a bit because I would like to put this topic much earlier in my walkabout, but it got squeezed out until now. However, it's sort of perfect because the wonderful Savannah Craft Brew Fest is this month. Basically, I want to find more ways to write about craft beer and talk with more women that are doing cool things in the craft beer industry (guys too, but it IS a male-dominated industry already). I also want to attempt brewing my own beer this month, even if it is just from a silly little kit and will probably taste terrible :)
October: Savannah 
When 2012 started, I realized that it was practically too late to pitch national magazines about the wonderful things going on in Savannah in the spring, like St. Patrick's Day, Savannah Stopover, Savannah Tour of Homes, Savannah Music Festival. It's also a very romantic city perfect for a Valentine's Day getaway. So, October is going to be dedicated to pitching as much as I can about Savannah. I also want to refocus on a book idea I have about beautiful Savannah--originally a nonfiction concept, I am thinking about making it into a fiction effort instead. I'd also like to beef up my involvement with the community through volunteering and participating in more social groups. 
November: Plan
I am a planner by nature; I like having a daily, weekly, month, and yearly to-do list. I love this walkabout and other self-reflecting prompts like it (see my reflection on 2011 post, or all my Soul Saturdays posts). However, I'd like to use November as my planning month for 2013 (sounds creepy!). By planning ahead, it will also help me accomplish my December theme:
December: Relax


Last year, I realized that most editors and agents liked to use December to tie up loose ends, not consider new projects. So, last year I felt like I spun my wheels instead of just spending this time relaxing more and focusing more on my creative writing and craft. So, I will be throwing out my daily routine this month and working a lot less hours ideally. And in a dream world, I will spend a week (or four!) staying in a cabin on the mountains near a ski resort and ski every day. Come on, book advance!