Wednesday, January 02, 2013

2013 -- The Year of Awesome

I don't remember when I've started out a calendar year so full of hope. And I'm not sure why.

I'm under a lot of personal stress right now. Things actually aren't going all that well in most areas of my life. Plus, I came down with a horrible New Year's cold that has me knocked off my feet at a time when I have A LOT TO DO.

But... I feel hopeful. I feel like the 365 days (okay 363 1/2 days) stretched ahead of me are full of opportunities and possibilities. For me and for my friends.

I stopped making resolutions years ago, but I think this year I'm going to try.

Here I go:

1. Eat better (For me, a lot of this is eat out less often, which will also help with the financial woes).

2. Stretch every day (Yes, I want to exercise more in general, but I'm such a tight ball of pain and stress right now and I know that, as painful and uncomfortable as stretching is in my current condition, I always feel better after I do it.)

3. Stay on the sunny side. (This one will be hard for me. As positive as I feel today, I know myself. I get blue. But I have a few ideas and strategies in mind to keep the brightness alight.)

4. Don't second guess as much. (Okay, now I'm starting to sound as if my plan for 2013 is to entirely change my personality. LOL. But I think what I mean is, especially in terms of my writing, that I just want to go for it, again. Like I did in the early days when I believed all of my ideas were awesome and marketable and worth reading. Having been hit on the head by the sledge hammer that is publishing, a few too many times, I've started to assume my ideas suck, or are derivative or boring, before I even start them--and that seriously saps all the fun out of writing.)

5. Write more proposals. (This is related to the one above. Back in the day, I could write, say 35-50 pages of something new in a week, maybe two. They'd be a mess, but they'd be done. And sometimes it's hard to get the feel of a story or a character or figure out whether an idea has legs by brainstorming ideas with friends or writing notes and outlines. Sometimes you just need to start. And it's not a failure if it's something I never finish. I think that's the key. I have a fairly lengthy list of ideas. I want to turn several those "ideas" and combinations and permutations of those ideas, into 50 page starts and use those beginnings to figure out which ones might be worth finishing. And not put this HUGE PRESSURE on which idea to tackle first. It's just 35-50 pages, for frack's sake!)

I do feel hopeful about this year. I think, one way or another, 2013 is going to be a year of change for me.

Change is scary. But at least I feel sure that a year from now my world won't look the same to me as it looks right now.

5 comments:

A.J. Frey said...

This sounds like a great list of goals. It's always nice to know what you want to adjust; the hard part can be the how. It's all a process, and as writers - man--we know about processes. :-)

Good luck and Happy New Year!

Molly O'Keefe said...

AJ! So true - it's all a process and we writers get that. Maybe that's why we're so tolerant of our lapses and backslides. Backsides?

I've been thinking of my year end and new year lists a lot lately and Maureen, I wish there was a way we could get back some of the excited, newbie mojo we had five years ago. Just a little.

But stretching is good. And I am implementing one meatless meal a week. Watch me.

Eileen said...

LOVE the proposal comment. Yes. It is only 35-50 pages. WHy do they seem so insurmountable?

Maureen McGowan said...

A.J. It is about the how... Good point. And one day in to my new year, I'm not that successful so far. But I'm sick as a dog, so giving myself a break. :)

Molly, Oh, that excited newbie mojo!!! It was so awesome to think we knew everything and we were going to take over the world!

Eileen, I think my mind switch re proposals was realizing that I didn't need to commit to a book or even an idea by writing a proposal. Or at least starting one to see how it goes. Not every idea needs to be written/finished (or sell, or even be shown to my agent) and for me, I think I need to write the start to have any idea of whether or not I've got something.

I can brainstorm with Molly and Sinead, and it's helpful, don't get me wrong, but often either one or the other of them sees a wildly different story based on my idea, and I usually assume that means my story plan sucks, so I try to change it and the life gets sucked out of it before I even start. I dunno... I keep changing my mind about my process with developing new ideas.

But I do want to not to put so much freaking pressure on everything I start. And as soon as I get a draft done of book 3, I want to start a few things with no pressure... Then pick which one to work on after that.

Anonymous said...

Maureen, I love the year of awesome... love that. I'm with you. Excited for the new year.

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