I finally finished putting all of the dates for everything on my goals lists yesterday (target weight/size goals listed on my weight-loss blog and the writing/career goals I posted here). I’m thinking I should set dates for my reading list as well, but I believe I’ll put off thinking about that until tomorrow.

For now, I want to announce a few series I’ve already started planning for 2009.

Beginning next week, I, along with several other writers, will be exploring the question, “Why did I become a writer?” If you’re a writer (published or unpublished) and would like to participate with a guest blog, please let me know! In addition to some inspiration from other writers, I’ll cover topics such as:

• Imagination—where does it come from, how can we cultivate it?
• Creativity—how it’s different from imagination and how to tap into it
• Feeding the “Muse”
• Developing an active fantasy life (hey, keep it “G-rated” there!)
• Putting a story down on paper
• When is my manuscript finished/ready?
• When am I ready?

I’m going to do a second series on Plot. I know I’ve done a series on plot before (see Plot or Plod on the Writing Series Index), but I barely scratched the surface of defining what plot is. This year’s series will delve into some of the following:

• What is plot?
• When should the story start?
• Exposition (looking at the dangers of explaining too much and info-dumps)
• Sagging middles
• Pacing and rhythm
• When should the story end?
• Revising with an eye for plot

I’m also going to revisit Point of View. Again, the previous series barely managed to define what Point of View is, so this year, we’re going to delve into some of the deeper questions that come up on this topic, such as:

• Choosing POV
• Determining Stakeholders (what are Stakeholders?)
• Going Deep
• Character development and backstory
• When is it interior monologue and when is it info-dump?
• Emotional investment with emotional and visceral reactions, without being melodramatic
• Internalizing consequences
• Switching POV
• Obscured/Omniscient POV to build tension

Then, when I was scouring Amazon for some of the books I wanted for the series above, I ran across two books that gave me an idea for a series that isn’t a topic I’ve covered here previously: Writing Bad Guys. Because I don’t have the books yet, I’m not sure exactly what this series will cover, but I may time it to coincide with the release of Ransome’s Honor which has the first bad-guy character I’ve ever used as a POV character—and his were some of my favorite scenes to write.

I set a goal of at least nine series on the blog this year. This is only four, so what are some of the topics you’d like to see covered here this year?