Horoscope-Inspired Goals for 2012

If there was one horoscope for a wanna-be professional author to read on the First of January, this one (from Shine from Yahoo) is pretty ideal:

Year 2012 Career
You're in stellar standing in 2012, especially during the first half of the year. You'll definitely feel like the 'It' sign, with Mars and Jupiter doing your bidding. Your creativity is off the charts with the action planet, Mars, running an extended six-month stint in your sector of self-expression. Mars will be retrograde during the first quarter, which could create the illusion that not much is moving forward - and yet you've never felt more creative and inspired. Trust that all your inner preparation will meet with great rewards and forward motion.

Neptune had been causing some confusion about your professional identity over the past few years, but now that it will be leaving your career sector for good in February, clarity - if not a major epiphany - is coming. Write everything down, because breakthrough ideas will come like flashes of lightning and will be as easily forgotten as fast as they come. It's time to translate all the gifts of inspired creativity and vision that Neptune brought you over the past several years into flourishing future plans. The tragedy would be to keep all of these gifts locked up as mere potential.

When the big eclipse points hit your money and talent sector this summer, you'll see another huge wave of changes unfolding over the latter half of 2012. And since you can be the most stubborn of all signs when it comes to embracing the new, you may actually welcome this colossal cosmic push. There is no going back, Taurus - you're destined for bigger and more glamorous things (with many of them likely involving extensive travel). La Dolce Vita, baby!

Wow, huh? I wonder if I can sue Shine if I'm not on book tours by the end of the year. :D *Flips hair* *Resolves to never forget the little people* *Wishes she believed in horoscopes*

In any event, my goals from last year were very simple:

1. Edit and query WIP #1. (Hopefully by the end of April.)
2. Write WIP#2--the whole thing.

For #1, I actually accomplished it! I finished the book, revised, revised, revised, had oodles of so-awesome-I'm-not-worthy beta readers give me advice, revised, revised, revised again, and finally started querying this summer. A few weeks later I (rather wisely) decided that my query wasn't getting the job done and paused to rewrite it. I'm still doing that. I'm also anxiously awaiting a 30-page crit from Gabriela Lessa--after which I'll probably revise again. Then rewrite my query again. Then get going querying again. Still, I'm counting #1 as accomplished! :)

I only accomplished half of #2, and that was thanks to NaNoWriMo. WIP #1 edits took a few months longer than I planned for (always better to take more time than less time on that sort of thing, methinks). Still, I made amazing headway, all things considered, and really enjoy having TWO books to obsess over. Breaks up the monotony nicely.

So on to 2012, no?

This year, I'm going to try to get a little more specific, so you might want to skip to the end. This is mostly to hold myself accountable later:

Goal #1: Obtain Agent
Steps to Accomplish Goal #1:

1. Finish re-revising WIP #1: DUSTED (the book formerly known as GEAS). 
2. Rewrite query until it can fully express the awesomeness that is DUSTED without being confusing
3. Query 10 agents 
4. Revise query, depending on response
5. Repeat steps 2&3 until I...
6. Obtain agent and/or 100 rejections

Goal #2: Complete Second Full Book

Steps to Accomplish Goal #2:

1. Write every day. I did it during November, but then slacked off. I want to write at least 20,000 words a month, so I'll need at least 5,000 words a week. I hope you'll join me on Twitter for a few hundred rounds of #1k1hr over the next year
2. Have first draft done by April, and ready for my writer's group to critique.
3. Revise.
4. Get to beta readers by June
5. Revise again. Repeat as needed.
6. When complete, query as necessary (see goal #1)

Goal #3: More books!
Steps to Accomplish Goal #3:

1. Learn how to outline
2. Build outline for DUSTED 2 and SECONDBOOK 2
3. Brainstorm more book ideas, write those during downtime on Goals #1&2

Okay, I'll stop there. I also have a goal to lose at least 20 pounds this year, but that's probably better for a different sort of blog. :)

So what goals do you have for 2012? Does YOUR horoscope say you're destined for bigger and more glamorous things? It does? Oh. Figures.