Getting a Fresh Eye On It.

Ugh, what year is it again?

Well, well, well. It's 2011! Did Santa bring you everything you wanted this year? New dice? Pathfinder books? A trip to the Mojave Wasteland, perhaps? It was a very nerdy Christmas at our house, with a lot of Ugly Dolls and plush Companion Cubes and giant squishy dice under the tree for The Kid, and new games and hardware for The Wife and I. There was a lot of eating and drinking between Christmas and New Years, including a White Elephant party we threw wherein I got a bacon scented car air freshener that smells like bac-os that were stored in an old boot for a year. Now it's the first day of the first week of the new year and, well, it's time to get a fresh eye on things.

I'm not going to do one of those "year in review" kind of posts today, mainly because every other good 'blog has done so and I just can't be arsed. I will say that '10 was a pretty good year all told. I became a dad (being a dad is totally rad by the way), I wrote a lot of words (not enough), blogged a lot (not nearly enough), grew my brand as it were, made new friends and contacts within the industry, and generally had a good time. No, what I want to talk about today is going forward, things I want to do in the coming year. These are sorta new year's resolutions, but not really. Not in the sense that they're things I came up with while super drunk at three in the morning and that I'll forget about in a week. These are things that fall squarely in the shit that needs doing category.

1. Write More - This kind of goes without saying. I need to write more words. I need to write every day with no excuses, and trust me gentle readers, I'm a goddamn excuse making machine when I want to be. If I'm going to call myself a writer, which is fair since I do write books from time to time, then I better goddamn well write every day. This means that there will be more stuff here (yay!), more of my own projects that I've talked about over the past year, and (hopefully) more paying work from a whole raft of companies I haven't written for yet. 
2. Leveraging Media - I get the feeling that I'm not using MCGW to its fullest potential. I want more traffic and more followers. To that end, I'd like to incorporate things like game reviews and podcasts over the coming year, as well as more shameless self-promotion through this 'blog, my Facebook fan page, and Twitter. We'll see what happens with this.
3. Go to More Conventions - I will definitely be doing Origins and GenCon again, but I need to get my ass out to more cons and really get the message out. I wouldn't mind checking out DragonCon, but that's a hell of a hike from Detroit. I also definitely need to go to PAX East this year since I missed last year's show for obvious reasons. I need to get out there with my business cards and see people a few times a year face to face to really get more work. Apparently I need to be seen to be seen, if you know what I mean.
4. Work Smarter - Well, as smart as I can at any rate. I need to get better at time management. I need to get more organized. I need to, well, be better at everything required for being a good journeyman writer. I'll probably be investing in a shitload of books like these, 'cause Lord knows I need the help.
5. Lose 25 pounds by April - Okay, this is one of those that I made while super drunk at three in the morning. I need it, though. Gotta get down to fightin' weight for con season.

That's a pretty good list, right? I think so at any rate. I think I did okay in 2010, but there's a lot of room for improvement and I want to get right to the improving. So that's what I'm going to do, time to take a lesson from these guys and get my ass to work.