Resolutions for 2017! World Domination Optional!

Okay, new year has started, old year has been evaluated and reviewed, let’s do this. My resolutions for 2017:

Do at least four one-month long programs for physical exercise.

I failed to hit my goals last year, and I’m blaming it on vagueness. Now I’m putting my foot down: at least four months spent with regular physical exercise, hoping to bump it up to six. My end goal is to have a flat enough stomach so I can see my abdominal muscles, both because I want to reduce my risk of several illnesses that run in my family and to make sure my back doesn’t grow crooked. After weighing myself this morning, I'm now heavier than I've ever been. And yet I don't look fat... yet. Only way to be sure is to go for full flat belly. I can't risk it.

Optional goal: I want to look like my fursona, sort of, despite not having a clear view of what that even is. I know the general outlines of it, but nothing visual. I know the species, at least, and I know I want to look buff. But unlike my transgender friends, I can’t apply for surgery to have electric cheeks and a tail installed, so exercise will have to do. Possibly combined with…

At least four one-month long programs for mental exercise.

Write a script. Find time every day. Go over script. Trance regularly. That’s it. Basically I’m going to treat the self-hypnosis/meditation aspect like it’s physical exercise and assign time to it. I’ll practise imagination. For those who are keeping track: yes, that’s where Whimper’s 'rune page' practice comes from, too. In his case, it’s medicinal, though, in mine it’s recreational. Plus, you know, I’m not a magical talking horse, or ten. The books I have on mental imagery contain a series of images set up as a progressive training, it wouldn’t take much to shift it to my purposes. Plus, I've got some stuff on shamanism I can look at, plenty of options.

I do have to settle on aforementioned purposes, though. Just increasing clarity of mental images should be fine to start. Again, more than four months spent on it would be best, but four is the target number.

3D model Corona, Riley, Rowan, Tobias, Aurora, and Laurel. And finish character sheets while I’m at it.

My novel project suffers from lack of clarity. I’m a scene-first writer, so turns out I’m a lot weaker at working with characters who don’t yet have their defining scenes. Basically, I need to know what they all look like, in detail. And I need to have their character-defining traits locked down before I go back and edit more.

So the goal for this year is to model those six characters in Blender, in 3D. That’ll make it easier to re-use for cover art and promotion purposes. I’ve already got Corona started, but again, because the overall style isn’t locked down yet, it kind of got stuck halfway.

To avoid issues with that, I’ll start by tracing some examples in Inkscape and modelling those first: the 2D Filly characters, the Fantasia horses, and Jolly Jumper (Lucky Luke’s horse). That should be a diverse enough sample to work from for the two equines, Corona and Riley. For the four reindeer kids, I’ll probably tinker around with some real life examples and the Niko models again, as well as any genuine cartoon reindeer I can find. Or maybe play around with the Rudolph style, I don’t know. Bottom line: in 2017, my characters shall be given life! Because hey, just because I don’t have a life doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.

I should probably make a picture of my fursona, too. Been meaning to for years. But that's optional, stories take priority.

Outline at least six episodes of the City of Tomes series.

Related to the same project, I’ll want to use a seasonal set-up, with thirteen or twenty-six episodes per go. But again, given that so much of it isn’t properly defined yet, I want at least six episodes locked in before I finish editing the first two stories I’ve done. Make sure it’s all internally consistent, settle on series themes and a season theme. I know I’ll want to at least set up one of my characters to transition, but that’s going to take too much background to put into the first round. Possibly biting off more than I can chew, but we’ll see how far it gets.

Chapter-per-chapter outlines, scene-per-scene. Worry about tweening and finishing later. I may have to join another social network to promote it if I want to chuck it all up for sale on Amazon. Has Tumblr gotten any better recently ?

Make a finished deer for 2D proxy animation.

My resolution last year was to make a short animation. I did: it’s seven seconds of a stick deer jumping, skidding over the ground and coming to a stop over a cliff, before looking back and jumping. Kind of bare-bones. So I’d like to draw a finished deer to fit to that skeleton and swap out in animation. Simple, but relevant. Especially considering...

Publish at least one Synfig tutorial.

Most likely going to be a tutorial on proxy animation. Synfig needs more attention, more community involvement. I cannot do much, but I can do something. Proxy animation bypasses the more intimidating aspects of character creation, since you can make characters and use different rigs as well as animate without worrying about hardware restrictions.

Plus, publishing a tutorial on something only one other countryman can work with would look nice on my c.v., I think. Wouldn’t it?

Finish at least one show per month.

Well, y’all know about my procrastinating issues by now. One of the effects it’s had is delaying things that appear ‘frivolous’ or ‘that I don’t deserve to spend time on.’ As a direct result, I’ve not kept up with the show, still need to see half of the Season (though I have caught spoilers about changelings being involved, which might have a negative effect on future Bastion/Changeling Blood stories ). But more than that, I’ve not been exposed to new ideas for a while. I’m putting out material, but not consuming new things. And that can become a problem down the line. It's like writer's boulimia, or something.

So why not take a cue from Twilight Sparkle and simply start scheduling cartoon time ? No more waiting for the television to be available, just watch it on my laptop. I mean, no one in my household really watches cartoons, even my mom kind of needed coaxing to watch Avatar (which stopped airing today, right before Aang learned Earthbending, damnit.) I just need to face facts and accept that my recreation simply isn’t a joy I can share. And that’s okay. No need to bug anyone else with it. Starting with MLP, then moving on to, I think, Powerpuff Girls Z, then there’s an anime involving swimming that looked interesting, and I’ll see where it goes from there. More material to learn to copy and build off from, both in writing and art, old and new. Should be good.

Read at least one work off the Gutenberg Project per month.

Good writers have to read a lot, people say. If that’s true, then it’s a small miracle I have any following at all . This resolution is basically to solve the same problem as the cartoon thing, but with the added bonus of going closer to the source of things: older works. I may not be able to trace My Little Pony all the way to the first pony tales (those are from the fifties, so the copyright hasn't expired yet), but I can certainly try and find some similarities. And besides that, I want to see what all the fuss is about. The Scarlet Pimpernel was, if nothing else, a nice indicator that fanfiction becoming its own thing didn’t just start with Fifty Shades of Grey, and writing fanfics about the French Revolution will land you in history books. I’m pretty sure doing the same with World War 2 would get you thrown in prison , but hey, there’s surely other avenues to look at.

Possibly going to swap out with or just add some books I still have lying around, read some printed stuff instead, but we'll see.

Watch at least one full tutorial per month.

Just to make sure I don’t get rusty or stuck with Blender, watch how others do it. See which mistakes they make, if any, see what’s universal. Same with vector art, maybe. Not much to say about this one, just more videos to watch and less excuse to idle time away on YouTube.

Cut down my Read Later list by half, at least.

Cutting off the new Season leads me to want to avoid spoilers (in vain, obviously), which in turn makes it so I’m not that social. I suspect that doesn’t help with getting exposure as a writer, either. But I also want to read pony fanfics, just because there’s good stuff there. I want to enjoy stories, and having a pile of them sitting around is not enjoying them.

Currently, the list has ninety-one entries. That needs to be cut down by at least forty-five before year’s end. Once I’m done with the Season, I’ll get cracking on that.

That’s my list for 2017. How’s yours?

Addendum: Obviously I'll still be looking to escape from the purgatory I'm in and invade the Land of the Living Gainfully Employed. But making a job part of the resolutions is both redundant and pointless. It's too vague, and any concrete measures (apply for one job per month until success, for example) isn't taking into account outside influences. Like, you know, availability of the jobs, or qualifications. Now re-schooling, that could be a resolution. But I wouldn't know where to start on that, or how to make that concrete. Maybe something will come up throughout the year to change that. So rest assured, I am trying, I'm just not tossing that on the list.

Cracker out.