A NaNoWin and a ROW80 New Year

      Happy New Year!  Many of us look at the new year as a great opportunity to reach for new goals and I am no different.  The real difference is only that I started my goals last year.  For those of you who are reading my blog you know that I did NaNoWriMo this past year during November.  What you might not know is that I won!  At 50504 words I managed to beat NaNo in about twenty five days (technically 24).  This got me super excited and I began to write the second draft, but I ran into a huge problem.  Energy.
     Perhaps some of you have the same problem that I have, but when I write I need a community around me not so much for editing, or drafting, but for the energy to write.  I discovered during NaNoWriMo one of the reasons that I don't write consistently is because I don't have positive pressure on me to write most of the time.  That pressure is what enables me to create most effectively and my time when I have my butt in my chair and my hands on my keyboard something that I am truly going to enjoy.
     That led me to looking for other resources after November to find a community.  First I looked on Twitter and that didn't pan out cause I was too new to know what to look for.  Then I went to Google + and one of my writing buddies there pointed out A Round of Words in Eighty Days.  It seemed like a good way to be a part of a writing community that I could really enjoy and have friends who are working on similar goals.
      But I didn't stop there.  I went the next step and determined that I wanted some folks that would yell at me if I didn't write consistently.  So I went out and sought out a bunch of people that want to learn about writing and would like the same kind of positive pressure to help them out.  So far I have including myself about eight people.  I'm really excited about the writing group, but I'm a little scared also.  By starting it I think I've put myself in the moderator role and I really want to do well by everyone because they are my friends.  So if anyone who is reading this wishes to offer any suggestions or tips for me I'd totally appreciate it.
     So finally to list my goals for this year.  I know that I write about a 1000 words per hour so I've decided to really put my nose to the grindstone to actually accomplish this each week. Between work and home obligations I see myself right now being able to finish about 12,000 to 15,000 words per week.  I might seem a little lofty there with my desires, but I'm going to be looking for every opportunity to write to accomplish this.  I want to finish during this round of words my NaNoNovel: Crimes of the Umbramancer.  So I might post questions about science or magic that I hope for folks to answer here on the blog too.
      Well that's about all I got for the day.  I'm going to be doing a ton of writing tonight.  My wife actually already knows that I won't be around too much tonight, so I think I have everything ready to go.  To my fellow writers, good luck and lets make 2012 a year to remember!