Write Every Day

Last year, I set myself a goal. I wanted to write something every single day of 2013.

I failed. I'll admit that openly. I failed in August, and I stopped writing for a while. I hit a slump. Whether it was emotional, or physical, the exhaustion that overtook me then kept me from writing on a regular basis for a long time. I almost recovered it last month, but then I really was too tired to turn on my laptop at the end of the day.

This year, I want to make up for that.

I'm giving myself that very same goal, to write every day this year. However, I'm being a little more direct about it. I want to be putting out material on particular days, which will require me to write particular things on particular days each week. I won't just be writing a blog post every day and saying that's that. I won't just be writing bad poetry and thinking it's enough. I'm going to write something specific every day, and a lot of what I write is going online very shortly after it's written.

This is my goal, this is my resolution. I know it's possible, and I know I can do it. I suspect that the realisation that I wouldn't be returning to college had something to do with what happened in 2013, but this year I'm off the hook. Life is what it is, right now, and I can handle it quite effectively.

I'm not going to release a publication schedule, because things will probably be changing every now and then as time goes by, but for now I'm using my  FiloFax to help organise and plan what I'll be writing this year.

Of course, between all the different poems and stories and articles I'll be writing for various sites I run, I'll also be writing books. This is the big challenge: to keep up with both my online presence and to produce the books I want to write, and to the deadlines I've set myself. This is all while also working on a book I want to submit to an agent or publisher in the near future. By this day next year, I want to be able to say that I tried.

That's the point of New Year's Resolutions, really: that we try. We try to change our habits, change our diets and our lifestyles. We try. Sometimes we succeed. It's great when we do, but it's not the whole point. The attempt to change is the big thing. It's why I always ask people what their New Year's Resolution is, because I like to see who wants to make a change in their lives.

For me, it's about finishing what I set out to do last year. I want to be able to go the whole writing without missing a day of writing. I want to be able to make it a habit, and one I purposely set out to do. I want to be able to say that in 2014, I tried to write a lot, I tried to become successful with my online publishing (I have my own definition of successful), and I tried to get a book that I love published and on its way into bookshops.

At the end of the day, and at the end of the year, the very least we can do is try.

So, what are your New Year's Resolutions? What are you going to try in 2014?