By The Way...

Thursday, December 20, 2007
11:42:00 AM EST
Hearing Nothing at the moment


First the important news: This is the last Weekend Assignment I'll be doing here at By The Way. Next week is the last full week of me doing By The Way, and also we'll be in the thick of holiday madness, so I think it's best to wrap up this very long-running feature here and now. It's been lots of fun, though, and I hope you've all enjoyed playing along as much as I have.

But I don't want to spend too much time with the past here, because the future is so much more interesting to me at the moment. With that in mind, here is the topic for this week's Weekend Assignment:

Weekend Assignment #196: What are your hopes or plans for 2008? Any big projects for the year? Anything you hope to accomplish or change? Or will you just relax? Because, you know, that's okay, too.

Extra Credit: How was your 2007?

I'll do the extra credit first: My 2007 was pretty good. My books did well and were nominated for some awards, which is always nice, my family is doing well. I could have stood for a little more organization, but that's sort of a running theme in my life. But in all, a pretty good year.

Plans for 2008: Write! Write! And then, just when you think it wouldn't be possible, write some more. I'm not going to lie to you: one of the excellent things about the AOL gig I've had here for the last four-and-a-half years was that it was regular pay, which is an excellent thing for a freelance writer. I got a monthly paycheck without having to actually go into an office, and really, it doesn't get better than that.

But all good things come to an end, and while I'm very excited about having more time to write books, and indeed the books writing things is going well for me, now comes the time where I actually have to feed the beast. I can't just muck about on the book writing, or else I won't eat or be able to pay the mortgage. So: books galore, with occasional side tracks into short fiction.

And in fact, here's what I have on next year's schedule so far (assuming that I do, in fact, finish the book I'm writing now before the end of the year):

Two novels (one a follow-up to The Android's Dream, another a stand-alone);

A compilation of ten years worth of writing at my personal Web site, called Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded;

A  novella (that's about half the size of a novel) that will be put out in book form;

A couple of novelettes (those are half the size of a novella), which will go to anthologies;

Two or three short stories, which will go various places;

And some articles I'm writing for the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books, because those are fun to do.

Now, while I'm doing all that I'll also be plotting out the books I'll need to write after that; I have some proposals for non-fiction books I want to do on my "to-do" list, plus looking at where I want to go with the fiction work. In all, lots of stuff to keep myself busy.

One thing that is nice about all this is that I know that in the immediate term I'll not want for work. The trick is to keep it coming. That's what I really need to accomplish in 2008. We'll see how it goes.

Your turn: What are your plans and hopes for 2008? Write them up in your blog or journal and then come back here to leave a link! And remember: This is for posterity.


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This entry has 16 comments: (Add your own)

• #16 Comment from carolelainedodd 
  12/22/07 5:33 PM | Permalink

  Just wanted to wish you all the very best for 2008.
  Carolxx
• #15 Comment from nicurnmama 
  12/22/07 12:06 PM | Permalink

  well if you don't know what my plans are for 2008 then your aren't reading my blog!
  here you go:
  http://adventuresinjuggling.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/the-last-weekend-assignment-the-2008-plans/
  thank you for the inspiration, Mr. Scalzi!
  laura
• #14 Comment from jabarett 
  12/21/07 1:08 PM | Permalink

  All the best to you, John!
  
  Here's mine: http://www.barrettmanor.com/julie/archive.aspx?ID=1848
  
  Julie
• #13 Comment from jamie24601 
  12/21/07 10:18 AM | Permalink

  You know what else about 2008?  I'm going to miss doing the occasional Weekend Assignment/Monday Photo Shoot.  Cheers to you John!
  
  Jamie
  http://parkhopper.blogspot.com/2007/12/one-last-weekend-assignment.html
• #12 Comment from jmorancoyle 
  12/21/07 8:55 AM | Permalink

  http://journals.aol.com/jmorancoyle/MyWay/entries/2007/12/21/john-scalzis-last-weekend-assignment/2515
  Hi John;
      Take care of yourself and much good luck to you and yours.
  Jude

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