And So It Begins ...

The new year is upon us, filled with infinite possibilities...

Usually I take the time between Christmas and New Year’s to consider my goals for the year ahead, and figure out what changes I want/need to make to help reach those goals. Unfortunately this didn’t happen. I was a lot busier than I’d counted on and didn’t even have time to relax, let alone contemplate the future.

So January 1st caught me totally unprepared. And the shame of it all was that it fell on a Monday, perfect timing for my regular Monday post. But I had nothing to share, so I bought myself more time by going over last year’s goals and whether or not I met them. Then I spent the next couple of days staring at the blank screen, trying to figure out what I wanted to accomplish in the year ahead. And you could almost hear the tumbleweeds blowing around in my empty mind.

Then last night I pulled out one of my notebooks and started a list. There are a lot of doodles on the page with this list, and I added and deleted many times, but finally I had a list I could be happy with. It may not be a life-changing list, but I think it will take me where I want to be.

In no particular order:

Write every day - at least 500 words
This may seem like a no-brainer - if you’re a writer you write, right? But it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Even during NaNoWriMo there were days when I didn’t write a word, but also during NaNo I proved to myself that when I find my focus it’s possible to amaze even myself with my word counts. It’s just too bad my focus and my muse took off for an extended vacation at the beginning of December and haven’t come back yet.

Less time gaming and checking social media
One of the things that helped me when I got my writing mojo back during NaNo was I limited myself to the amount of time I spent on the internet playing games, checking Facebook, and checking my email. While I get email notifications on my phone, I do not have the Facebook ap on it, nor do I want it. And don’t even suggest I get Pinterest!

Shut down by 11 p.m., 12 at the latest
I go to bed around 1 a.m., and to be honest, the last couple of hours on the computer I’m usually too tired to do more than play games. So unless I’m on a roll with the writing, I think it’s reasonable to give myself an hour of reading time before bed.

Spend more time doing crafts
Last year I had this vision of making a lot of my presents for Christmas. And I was going to do this in the evenings while watching T.V. But invariably I found myself watching TV with the lap top open on my lap, one eye on the program I was watching and one eye on the game I was playing. I want to get my word count in during the day so I can start crafting while watching TV at night. Not only did I not get any crafts done for Christmas, for the first time in a long time I didn’t even get a new ornament made for my tree.

Make better use of my Neo
Another of the things I credit my spectacular word count for the last week of NaNo was that I stayed off the lap top. I used my Alphasmart Neo which has no bells, whistles, or internet. I also type faster on it than my lap top - I have no idea why, I’ll just go with the flow.

Organize my poetry
I started out writing poetry. I have a lot of poems - some printed out, some on the computer, a lot of it is both. Some of these poems have been saved more than once. I would really, really like to develop some kind of system to keep track of my poetry. I’m thinking a database so I can cross reference forms, subject, mood, whatever. All I know is that right now my poems are one hot mess, and good luck finding a specific poem.

Journal more often
I have a personal journal and a writing journal and I’m pretty sporadic with both of them. My personal journal I’ll promise myself I’ll update it tomorrow and before I know it a week has gone by and I’ll end up making these massive, multi-page entries that are pretty hum drum. My writing journal I just plain forget to use. It’s supposed to be for thoughts and ideas and notes about stories, but...yeah. Maybe part of that hour or two before bed could be spend writing in one or both of my journals.

So there you go. My goals for the coming year. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing arduous, just things I’d like to get in the habit of or accomplish over the course of the year. Good habits to get into, methinks.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have 500 words to write today. :-D