Happy New Creating Writing Year!

Resolutions or Intentions?

I don’t know about you, but the whole idea of New Year’s Resolutions is a bit confounding. In fact, I’m not really sure what “resolutions” are. They are not “goals” which are measurable so it seems they are never quite attainable.

The idea of setting intentions seems to be all the rage, along with “mindfulness” which both seem to be ideas that we should think about what we do, to act with purpose. But even those ideas are a little slippery and hard to grasp. But I do try.

Last year I decided to focus on generosity. I don’t know if you could call that an intention, but I did work on being more generous with my time and money in helping others. The result was that I went to my favorite coffee hangout less and chipped in more to various calls for donations.

The $5 a day I spent on fancy coffee turned into helping with some elections, helping an acquaintance get a certification so she could get a job, contributing to a GoFundMe for someone who is sick, for example. When someone asked for help with dog sitting, or an airport pick up I said yes. I even did some transcription for someone who doesn’t type 80 words a minute. And with generosity as my guide I did these things without expecting anything in return and even enjoyed it! I admit, it’s not always easy. I have to remind myself that generosity is important to me, that I have benefitted greatly from the generosity of others and the five dollars here and the hour there can make a difference. If we all volunteered an hour or kicked in five bucks think what we could accomplish together!

I spent New Year’s Day home. Watching the snow slowly pile up. I did laundry. I made empanadas. I put all my clothes away (instead of piling them up in my room), and I vacuumed. I cleaned the kitchen. I ventured outside once to take the recycling out. I drank hot apple cider. But mostly I spent the day dreaming about what 2019 could bring.

I decided my word for 2019 would be work though I plan to continue with generosity too. I will focus efforts on creating a regular and reliable source of income. I will also focus on my creative writing work– finishing my in-progress memoir, submitting work for publication, and offering workshops. And of course I will focus on Plume, working on expanding our audience and building a community to support and encourage the work of women writers.

Accomplishing Goals

I’ll write more about this in another post but as you think about projects you want to complete, think about the steps you need to take and maybe even set appointments for yourself. For me, for example, I want to finish my memoir. I have a decent draft and I have a published author friend who is willing to help me get to the next step–approaching an agent. So far this year I’ve submitted my first two chapters to my Read & Critique group. I’ll need to work on a query letter, and come up with a list of potential agents and I’ll need to follow up with my friend. I know myself–I’ll need to get all these things on my calendar. And I’ll make a list of potential agents. And I’ll need to make a deadline for myself otherwise they will remain on the To Do list and not on the Done list….

What do you want to get on your Done list?

May 2019 be prosperous and fruitful for all of us!