Ack! (and "artist development")

Ack! Look how long between posts. Yikes! If I had readers, they have now gone elsewhere. But I'll still post, cause this is supposed to be a journal. Had a busy summer, mostly spent out of town and away from computers. Have been back a few days, and busy getting back to teaching, paying bills, organizing my life, procrastinating, and generally being ineffectual. Then I got a cold. But I am now bouncing back so here I am again... :-)

Hey, well I was just on another board and someone had posted about 'artist development' and it got me to thinking. How many of us want to be professional singers/artists? And how many of us have mapped out some sort of development plan for this goal? If you were starting a business, for example, you would be expected to create a business & financial plan showing your goals and ideas for the next 3 to 5 years. So, do you have a treasure map for your personal artistic success? Say, for the next year?

Here's mine:

singing/instruments
- continue vocal coaching
- continue guitar lessons
- take mandolin lessons
- try out the fiddle
- take some jazz piano

performance
- open stages & open mics
- songwriter's nights
- look for hour-long paying gigs or feature performer slots
- apply to music festivals for next year

conferences/travel
- Road Rally music conference (LA), November
- Nashville next spring??

songwriting
- complete my solo electronic-pop album
- pitch film/tv & songs
- complete all current collaborations
- read up on industry
- keep marketing current CD
- keep writing!

producing
- read Studio Buddy
- get a larger hard drive

marketing
- stay up-to-date with all web pages
- get CD reviews
- work on getting more radio play

How about you? :-)