Top 10 Things I Want to Learn About in 2011

1. Voice. I struggle with voice, with separating my characters from me and from each other. I think I'll be able to work on that to make my manuscript sellable, now that I've got the plot working better, but it's something I'll need to know for future works as well.

2. Description. I've never been a fan of heavy description, which means that I don't write enough of it. My critique partners have said that my prose is good, but it takes a lot of work to get it to that point, so I'm going to work harder on it.

3. Dialogue. My dialogue can be good, but again it's one of those things I work a lot on. I go back and forth on it. When I was younger I was good at it, now I'm not as good again. I'm really learning how much of a balancing act writing is.

4. Networking. I have a presence on Twitter, but I'm going to my first writing conference in 2011, and I hope to meet more people who are doing what I do. For so long it was me in my room, and now I'm slowly becoming part of a community.

5. How to read without then self-depricating. The published authors i'm reading have all been writing longer than me. I have to learn from them, not be jealous of them.

6. People. I want to meet new people, see how they tick. For characters, sure, but also to expand my world. 2010 had a lot of that, but I want more. I want to get closer friends, and get closer to my friends, because they're indispensable to me.

7. Music. I love music. I could see myself writing reviews, or something, in the future, but I've been learning about in a kind of "need to know as I know" way. I need to make my own class on music history, or something, and get a better grounding in it.

8. Budgeting. Probably not the best thing to say when I'm planning an epic European tour, but hey, I do need to learn how to spend less money so I'll have it for that tour.

9. Being nice. I'm kind of snarky, and don't always know when it's appropriate to be so and when it's not. I need to think before I speak a little more, if only because that will allow me to be wittier anyway....

10. Keeping the happiness going. After the disaster that was the end of 2009, 2010 has been great. I'm hopeful, I'm writing, I'm in a program that will get me where I want to go if I work for it. I want to keep these feelings going and strong no matter what happens in 2011. Even if my plans fall through, the way they did in 2010. There are big things on the horizon.