Most of us look forward to the start of a new year as a clean slate. We reflect on the past 12 months, take stock of where we are, and make new resolutions about how to improve in the coming year.
— Mazie Hirono
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
— Abraham Lincoln
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.
― G.K. Chesterton
Just as Christmas caught me unawares, so too did New Years. In other words, I’m totally unprepared. Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Years is spent tying up the loose ends of the old year and contemplating the ins and outs of the year to come. Unfortunately, I did neither of those things. I was still busy trying to catch up to Christmas.
But while I didn’t spend a whole lot of time navel gazing, and contemplating life, the universe, and everything, I did come up with a short list of things I’d like to focus on.
1. Start things
2. Finish things
3. Develop better writing habits
4. Take charge of my health.
1. Start things – I need to put on the big girl underpants and start marketing my work. What good are all these books and stories and poems if no one else ever gets to read them?
I need to start being more active promoting myself as well, which is much harder thing for an introvert like me to do. And I need to start learning more by taking advantage of the online classes I paid for but never used.
2. Finish things – this should go without saying, but it seems to be a problem for me. After six (I think) years, I finally finished Magical Mayhem, the final book in my Moonstone Chronicles, and it was a good feeling. And even though writing new stuff is a lot more fun, I need to start finishing all of the “almost there” books I’ve written for NaNoWriMo. I tend to get to my 50,000 words and then stop, whether the novel is finished or not.
First on the list will be An Elemental Spirit, which I wrote for NaNo three years ago. It’s one hot mess, but it’s a starting point. And it’s really only the first third that’s really bad, the rest of it is a little more cohesive.
I’ve also been all talk, no action when it comes to doing up a volume of my poetry. I’ve written hundreds of poems, surely there’s enough decent ones to fill book of verse. And what about my stories from last year’s NaNo when I did a story a day? Maybe it’s time for a proper anthology, rather than just a wire bound volume.
3. Develop better writing habits – this is something I think I include every year, and the resolution that seems to fizzle out the quickest. But when you think about it, it should be the one that’s easiest to achieve . . . if you have a little will power.
I need to write every day, which is basic advice. I started out strong last year doing the three-minute words, but that kind of petered out after I finished my cave story in the summer. By writing every day I don’t just mean fiction, I could include non-fiction as well. This could overlap with my first resolution of starting things, like an on-line course.
Another one of those writing habits to start is to write more in my office. I mean really, that’s what it’s there for. And while it would be nice to have regular office hours, that isn’t always practical, so maybe I need to have a set amount of time in my office, even if it’s a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon.
4. Take charge of my health – in this day and age, we all need to be more responsible for our health. When I was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, it wasn’t because the doctor figured it out, it was because I listened to my body and knew something was wrong.
I’m also type II diabetic, and a poor one at that. Which means, my blood sugar has been high for the last year. I joined a gym to get more exercise, but that only helps if I actually go, which I only did a handful of times in December. And it certainly doesn’t help when I keep eating stuff that I know is bad for me.
So not only do I need to up the exercise – maybe add in the weights or bike at home, or even go for a daily walk – I need to take a more active interest in what I’m eating. And I need to find healthier alternatives to some of the quick and easy meals I tend to gravitate to. And if I happen to lose a few pounds along the way, all the better.
So there you have it. Four little goals/resolutions to start the year out right.
Let’s see how long they last. :-)
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WORDAGE REPORT
Well . . . it was another busy week, starting with my car dying last Sunday (and having to wait until Wednesday to have someone look at it), and ending with the start of the great closet/drawer/shelf reorganization.
This week’s distractions were a back log of laundry, catching up on my journal (which I hadn’t touched since the beginning of the month), a visit from the granddaughter, baking a Scripture bread for my sister, driving to Hamilton to visit my sister, and another visit from the granddaughter.
I was super late with the serial post. I didn’t get it done ahead of time and the first chance I had to work on it was early afternoon on Friday. I really have to start working on it earlier in the week.
And I know I’ve always said that if we had snow at Christmas then it could be spring on New Year’s, but I didn’t really mean for Mother Nature to take it so literally. This time last week we were still under a winter storm warning because of the high winds, and this week we’re under a flood warning because of the warm temperatures and the amount of rain we’re getting.
Come to think of it, we’ve had rain for New Year’s the last couple of years, including the year we went to Niagara Falls to ring it in.
But when all is said and done, I don’t care. I got my white Christmas finally. That’s what really matters. :-D
NEW WORDS:
1523+697+339+750=3,309
UP – 148 words from last week
Goals For Next Week:
Try to get my blog posts done earlier in the week.
EDITING:
0 pages
I thought about many things last week, but editing was not one of them. I really need to get on with this though.
Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.
MARKETING:
I made no inroads in making an Amazon page (to be honest, I forgot all about it), and I’m sure it’s easier than I think it is. Nor did I start filling out the paperwork to be included in the book promotion site. Bad Author!
Goal For Next Week:
Look into developing an author page on Amazon, work on the book promotion form.
TECH & TRAINING:
I did not look into doing anything with Dropbox. It keeps getting lost in the shuffle of the minutiae of life.
Goal For Next Week:
Start backing up files to Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.
POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Once again I cheated on the poetry post last week by recycling an old poem. But if I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have had a poem at all. And it was from 12 years ago, so the chances are no one remembered it anyway.
I didn’t get a chance to start working on the poemwork for my poetry group, but I really need to get on with it.
Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form; work on my poemwork.
CRAFTING:
No crafting, although the kittens had fun hiding toys in my crochet bag and then digging them out again. But I did start the Great Craft Migration, where I’m moving the craft supplies from the main floor hall closet to the double-wide closet in the spare bedroom so I can get to everything easier. So far I’ve filled the chest of drawers (that I moved into the closet last week) with supplies for Christmas crafts. This is going to make it much easier to start making my ornaments earlier in the season. Maybe even year round – a few at a time.
Goal For Next Week:
Continue working on the craft migration, work on the afghan.
WHAT I’M READING:
Read a couple more of the Christmas romance anthologies - One Starry Christmas, which included Stormwalker’s Woman, by Carolyn Davidson, Home For Christmas, by Carol Finch, and Hark the Harried Angels, by Lynna Banning; and Jingle All the Way, which included A Bright Red Ribbon, by Fern Michaels, The 24 Days of Christmas, by Linda Lael Miller, Santa Unwrapped, by Theresa Alan, and Maybe This Christmas by Jane Blackwood.
Goal For Next Week:
Continue making a little time to read every day.
GOAL REVIEW:
Once again I got all my blog posts done, although I was seriously late with my serial installment.
No editing, or marketing, or tech and training. I seriously need to carve out an hour each for these things. Even an hour a week would be better than I’m doing now.
And once again I cheated with my poetry form and you know what? I don’t care. I’m not saying I’m going to start recycling poems every week, and I actually did rewrite the post part for this form, but I’ve written so much poetry over the years that maybe I could get away with it once a week.
I did start the craft migration, you know, yesterday. It might go faster if I wasn’t reorganizing all my craft stuff at the same time. I bought a few smaller bins to go in the shelf of the spare bedroom closet, and they work great. And I used medium and large zip lock bags to keep all the loose stuff together. It’s really going to make things a lot easier.
But the problem with starting it, is that I have to finish it ASAP. I actually started it to make room in the old craft closet for the bins in the corner of the dining room where the cat tree I ordered from Amazon is going to go. It just kind of snowballed from there.
So . . . I have a busy week ahead, but it kind of fits in with my new motto: Finish what you start.
What’s your motto for 2023?
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