Friday, January 11, 2013

Resolutions: to make or not?

Resolution, thy name is change! Yes, I recently spent an entire day re-watching my beloved Jane Austen movies. I need to do this at least once a year to charge my batteries. Many of us see the word January and immediately think of change, resolutions. I used to compile a list of things I really wanted to change about myself and in my life, but by the end of the year many had fallen to the wayside straight into the sewer grating of forgotten good intentions. This year I've made a few personal resolutions I'm keeping to myself, and the ones I have made pertaining to my writing I will list here.

1. Finish, finish. My major resolution is to finish my major wip, followed by at least two others. After mapping out my major wip for Cheryl Klein's Mast Class on Plot last October (THE BEST workshop I have ever attended), I have everything I need to finish. 

2. Listen, then get out of bed. When my brain awakens me at four thirty in the morning, pay attention and get up. The other morning my mind began to show me scenes from a movie: dialogue, the model of the car, names of towns, even the name of the mall the mc worked in. I didn't get up, I let it all play out, then I got up and typed what I remembered. My new motto is when these ideas pop into my noggin, take advantage of them and get them down somewhere, either onto a notepad or into a document. Once the day begins and the kids are up, family life takes over my brain and when I try to remember that morning's slew of lines and details, they've become fuzzy.

3. Pay attention! Those words remind me of a Kate Bush song and they are true. I must pay attention to that voice inside my head. Not the ones of characters, the one I call "instinct." It's there for a reason and every time I don't listen, she proves me right. It may not happen that same day or that month, but it does happen and I want to kick myself. So self, listen up.

4. More on craft, less vampires. Read more of the books on craft and not so much fiction. I am a fiction junkie. I love to read, yet there are other types of books on my shelves and in my e-reader and I need to crank them open.

5. Teach me. Teach myself Scrivener. My hubby gave me a beautiful new laptop for Christmas which I am devoting exclusively to my writing (that means my family photos and ginormous iTunes library stays on the other laptop). I have folders with inspirational pictures I haven't bothered to pin to my Pintrest boards, but they need to be organized with the appropriate story and that's where this program is a big help.

6. Time for the shorts. Write more short stories and enter more contests. I was never a fan of short stories and now I am. I've written a bunch the last few years and was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. Entering contests is just a way of lighting a fire under me to prepare and edit a wip for submission. I never expect to win, it's all about the preparation, the act of doing.

7. Self-pub? I'm curious about the hot market of self-publishing and would like to test these untried waters with a novella or two. I still plan on going the traditional route though, part of me is simply wondering what it it like.

Since I like the number seven, I'm ending my list there. This is what I have decided to do in 2013. Go me!

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