At the start of 2011 I did a post about My Goals for 2011. Before
I do the same for 2012, I wanted to look at how I did last year.
Feature Scripts
A year ago I decided that one goal in 2011 I would rewrite
the three scripts I did in 2010 and write two new scripts. I didn’t do that.
Early on I decided that I would write some “longer” short stories to practice
writing for a longer format. I did start to convert a couple of my short
stories, The Abattoir
Project and The Crying Woman,
into scripts.
My First Feature
I didn’t set a goal to start a feature this year and I
didn’t make one.
Short Films
I set a goal to complete a short film in 2011. I did better
with this goal. I completed two shorts for the $100 Film
Festival. It is the 20th annual festival and the organizer asked me if I
could do a film. I shot both on 16mm. I still need to do a little more work on
them before they are ready to screen. The festival runs in early March, so need
to get that done early in the year.
I wanted to finish My
Most Difficult Case and submit it for distribution. At first I made
progress, but then a person I hired to help took my money and didn’t do the
work. I sued him in small claims court. I got some of the money back, but all
distracted me from the film. Patrick Aull gave me some good advice that will
help me get it done.
I did a sound track for Extra Special
Care and put it on my website.
Short Stories
My goal for 2011 was to complete three short stories I had
started in 2010, and if that turned out well, I would try to do enough to
publish another book. I published five stories:
The Crying Woman
and
The Glencoe Project
and The Gladstone Barrier were part
of a larger project idea to do a book or movie about transportation
planning. I hoped that it would be easier because I had 30 years experience
in the field. It proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. I’ve put it
on hold for a short time so I could work on other projects.
I stopped posting my short stories on Triond and Wikinut. I
decided that in the long run I would be better off with them on my own site.
Articles
I published 13 articles this year on Triond, 11
articles on Bukisa
and 8 articles on Wikinut.
That is more than I planned to do. Actually, I didn’t plan to write any. I
didn’t make much money. I did better early in the year, but then views dropped
off later.
Part way through the year I decided not to post to Wikinut
anymore. I get a lot of people who read my posts there, but it doesn’t pay very
well. I feel that posting there just undercuts views on my other pages. I
haven’t posted much to Bukisa recently. I intended to report reworked versions
of some of my blog posts, but never got around to it.
Blog
My 2011 goal was the same as 2010, to post at least one blog
a week. This will be blog post number 78. I would like to have more people read
my blog.
Writing Skills
Several people had suggested that I work on my
characterisation and dialogue, so I made that a goal for 2011. I did some
reading on the subject and did some exercises. I think I improved my dialog a
bit.
Website and Promotion
I’ve done made some changes to my website. I enjoy the work
on my website, but I don’t think it helps draw people to the site.
My Goals for 2012
Next week, after New Years Day, I’ll do a new set of goals
for 2012. The results this year were mixed, but I still felt it was worthwhile
to set the goals.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
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