So, it’s a new year, a new decade, and time for a re-boot of this blog. I’m keeping this one, rather than starting yet another blog, because I only had 14 posts last year, so there’s plenty of room for many more this year. And I like the format and topic of this blog. Hopefully, this year I’ll be able to develop this blog enough to be able to express my thoughts and ideas about writing, time, and life in general.
Today was New Year’s Day, and I’m glad to say it was a productive day, a good way to start 2010.
I woke up to Ian cueing up U2’s “New Year’s Day,” our first-song-of-the-new-year ritual. Bonos’ words, “I… I will begin again” reminded me to consciously make my goals for the year, even if only in my mind.
I’ll write them out here now:
- Work more on my writing projects. Mainly, to finally finish writing my “neverending novel. Actually I have three novels in the works now – but I definitely want to pick one and stick with it until the end. I’ll still make notes and outlines for the other stories though, and even sketch out rough drafts of scenes for them, whenever my mind turns to them. But I do want my main focus to be to finish one book by the end of this year. That’s been my main goal of each new year, for way too many years. Hopefully, I’ll see it through this time.
- Write more blog posts here, and on Facebook and MySpace. I know how important it is for writers to have a presence on the Internet. So I want to develop this blog into something interesting enough to draw some readers, and maybe even get some comments on it. I need to build my identity as a writer, even if I’m not published yet. It’s a way of taking my writing more seriously, and of committing to a writing career.
- Work on other, shorter forms of writing – like articles and short stories. I’ve always envied my writing friends like Michelle, who’s now an internationally published poet; and Rich and Lisa, who have written and published excellent short stories; for their ability to write in shorter forms while they also work on their novel projects. They get the satisfaction of having some finished works, as well as having credits for their writing resumes. I’m glad to say that I did actually write a complete 10-page short story today – I started it this afternoon, and finished it just before I started writing this blog. It’s just a piece of “fan fiction” (a story that borrows characters from an already established work, like a book, movie or TV show) so I can’t do anything with it, unless I want to post it on a fan fiction forum. But even writing fan fiction can help me to hone the skills needed to write short pieces of my own. And I proved to myself that I can write and finish a complete story, which is something I haven’t done in a long time.
- Take better care of my health.
- Take better care of my finances.
- Become a full-time driver.
- Try to keep a positive attitude.
- Appreciate all the great people in my life, and let them know it.
- Be the best person I can be and do my part (however big or small) to help make this world a better place.
So, my goals are pretty much the same every new year – but hopefully this year, I’ll be able to achieve some of them.
It’s late now (3:30 am) and I’m going to stop for now and try to get some sleep. I’ve had insomnia for several months now, but hopefully I can work on beating it, and maybe I’ll be able to be in better health this year.
So far, I’m feeling pretty positive about 2010 – I know every year has its ups and downs. But hopefully I’ll be able to maintain that positivity, and achieve another goal for this year!
Happy 2010!
