Saturday, January 5, 2013

Resolution Number One

This January, I am pushing myself to write. I'd love to tell you that I have a plan or a set goal for this task, but I don't. This is not entirely by accident. I know that They tell you that for resolutions to succeed, your resolutions should be specific and measurable, and for most resolutions, this is probably true. However, in this case, I am ignoring this advice.

I know I could set goals: the obvious one being a certain wordcount every day or over a period of time (5000 words per week or something like that), but I feel like at this point, this won't help me. I've done these sorts of things. I did the NaNoWriMo, and I've done the blog post a day for a month (in fact, I had quite the streak going for a while). I keep a journal that I write in every single day (just started Year 4!); I email, facebook, tweet, and text; and I write actual letters, not to mention that my actual job involves writing. This isn't to brag, but to point out that my issue isn't not writing. My issue is quality.

I feel like I have roughly 2743 projects going, at some stage of development. I don't hate any of them, but I'm not in love with any of them either. I know some of this is about finding a voice and making up for the fact that the last writing class I took was in high school. I know that I have to learn how to kill my darlings and push through and let go and all those things about writing you hear about. There are times I think about writing and am so excited about the possibilities and then there are times it scares the hell out of me. Sometimes this happens at the same time.

So, what did I decide? I resolve, in the vaguest of ways, just to write every day. No wordcount or time period will be set but I plan to work on something of mine every day, for the month of January. Maybe it doesn't sound like much, but I am hoping that this may help focus me a bit. I can see which projects I drift towards and which projects make me the happiest. Maybe I'll just write an interesting paragraph or sentence but I'm fine with that. Maybe I'll figure out a way to blend a couple of projects together or let one go. What I would like to achieve by the end of the month is a sense of purpose to my writing. Let's see how it goes!