Welcome to 2020!  As with every new year, I have great hopes.  For 2020, I hope that the world rights itself and that this age of despotism ends.  I also hope to finally get my house organized and to post more on this blog.

Writing Life Wednesday will return next week, but I wanted to post today about my goals for the year, at least in terms of reading and writing.  In years past, I’ve been ambitious or lax, detailed or general.  This year, I think I’ll fall in the middle.

I’ll start with my writing.

My first goal is to do the pre-work on my novel.  This includes my character sketches and a detailed outline.  My hope is to have this done by October 31 so I can start my true first draft (as opposed to my shitty first draft currently sitting on my laptop) with the next Nanowrimo.

I’m also hoping to form some sort of writing schedule.  As it stands now, I write now and then but nothing beyond that.  I’ll be discussing this in future Writing Life Wednesday Posts.

As for blog writing, I’m hoping to start more recurring topics.  I’ll be continuing with Saturday Snapshot, as well as going forward with Writing Life Wednesday and Television Tuesday (both I started before the holidays and then, well, holidays happen).  I’m thinking I may also start a Top 5 Friday and some sort of podcast post.  We’ll have to see how those work out.

Now, onto reading.  I’ll admit that I am not a challenge person.  The only challenge I’ve done that I felt enriched my reading was the first Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.  And, while I’m glad I did it, I like to keep my writing unencumbered.  So, I’m limiting my challenges to only the Goodreads Challenge, where I’ve set my goal as 75 books this year.

Now, my other goal is a bit…different.  I will admit that I am a book polygamist.  At one point this year, I had eight books going at once!  I also battled with a number of reading slumps this year and I realized that the two were related.  So my goal for 2020 is to have no more than 3 books going at once.

Wait…that still sounds like book polygamy, right?  Well, yeah, but here’s the deal.  One of those books will be the one that I’m reading, one will be an audiobook, and one will be a book of poetry.  No, I am not one of those people who thinks listening to audiobooks is not reading, but I do think that the experience is different.  I can listen to an audiobook while I work out, but reading (with  my eyes) is a uni-tasking activity.  As for poetry…I read it on the toilet.  It’s easy to pick up and put down and I’m (usually) not distracted.  And, yes, I know that’s all TMI.

Now, finally, I’ve decided to participate in Sheila at Book Journey’s First Book of the Year.  I have a number of library books out and choosing the right one was difficult, but I finally settled on:

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

I had heard a number of bloggers rave about this one and it won the Best Romance award in the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards.  I also finally received my holds, with a long line of other behind me, so I thought I’d better read this one while I had it.  So, voila!  My first book of the year!