Happy New Year! I hope you had a fantastic holiday that included some rest and relaxation and lots of family time and reading and/or writing.
I’ve spent the better part of my morning reading excellent posts from some of my favourite bloggers about New Year’s Resolutions, sipping coffee, and pondering my own resolutions for 2012.
I’m a planner by nature; I like to get things done, tick items off lists, make progress. My hyper-motivation has served me well over the past year as I completed two novels (one for NaNoWriMo, and one for the 3-Day Novel Contest), reached my ten month blogging anniversary, and just found out that one of my short stories has been accepted for publication in a literary journal (more to come on this!).
To change things up, I have decided that in 2012 I’ll only set one resolution: WRITE. It won’t matter if the writing is for others or for myself, if I’m working towards a novel or submitting a short story, or if the writing is ever read by anyone other than myself. The only requirement is that I write everyday, even if only for 5 minutes.
It might sound like my goal is a bit loosey-goosey, but for me–someone who errs to the side of making too many goals and filling her plate just a little too much–it feels right.
To kick things off I’m working my way through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, and toying with the idea of taking Sarah Selecky’s Story is a State of Mind course. Other than that, my year is wide open!
On a related note, here’s one of my all-time favourite TED Talks videos: Elizabeth Gilbert’s A New Way to Think About Creativity. Elizabeth talks about fear and its role in the creative process, along with the writing/creative life. It’s almost twenty minutes long, but (I think), it’s twenty minutes well spent. Focusing on creativity is one of the ways I’m going to support my writing this year. Enjoy!
What are your creative goals for 2012? Do you have many, or few, or maybe even only one?
I started reading the Artist’s Way about 7 years ago and it is very rare that I miss a day of early morning pages. On a trip to Sedona Arizona I met a woman who was in one of Julia Cameron’s first classes on Creativity in Chicago. She had a picture of herself and Julia and a few other class members when they were all quite young. She still writes her pages after maybe 20 or more years. When I met her she was the administrator of a fabulous art gallery and she lit up when talking about Julia Cameron and the Artist’s Way. I’ve read a lot of other books by Julia and recently bought “Finding Water” a book about persevering, a follow up to the Artist’s Way and Vein of Gold. It’s great!
May your New Years resolution and reading Cameron bring you to wonderful creative adventures! Happy 2012!
Hi Frank! It’s so inspirational that you’re still writing morning pages 7 years later. Thanks so much for your comment. Happy New Year!
It’s a really great solution, and not too easy at all! It is a great solution for a writer. :)
I had to smile about “The Artist’s Way”: I got it as a Christmas present and it is simply awesome. It has helped me a lot already, although I haven’t tried the weekly challenges yet. But it is a wonderful book to start thinking processes – I have reflected about me a lot during the last few days. :)
My solutions are to cook more, to blog more – and to write. A lot. And try to publish my children’s book (finally). ;-)
HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)
I’m glad to hear you’re working your way through the Artist’s Way too! Keep me updated on your progress (and I’ll do the same for you :). Happy New Year!
Hi Carrie,
I have a lot of goals for 2012 as a writer and editor, the most important of which is to attend the 2012 World Fantasy Convention happening in Toronto in November.
However, I made a whole list of them here: http://105creations.com/2011/12/20/goals-for/
Hi Christina,
I took a read through your goals, and they sound wonderful. I think you’ll be very busy this year! Do you use Good Reads or Library Thing to keep track of your reading? One of those sites could be really helpful as you work towards your goal of reading 25-30 sci-fi books.
Hi Carrie!
Happy New Year! The only resolution I make yearly is to not make any resolutions. Before I am flagged as someone who has an issue with commitment, I’d like to explain that I love spontaneity. My work life is very well structured, with the day starting at 6:45 AM, an hour commute, the workday, the return commute, making diner, and retiring at 9:00 PM. With that being the case, my free time is spent as a free spirit. My wish for you is that you find success and have a wonderful time doing so.
Sophi
Happy New Year! I love your resolution and can totally understand wanting to remove structure from your out-of-work-time. Just over the holidays I found that the more space I gave myself to do what I wanted, the more I got done. I wish you the best in 2012!
You have a wonderful New Year’s Resolution! I wish you all the best for it. Thank you for sharing the video – it was very insightful.
I just pop by to tell you that I watched the video you linked – WOW. This. Is. So. Awesome.
And it is so helpful!
I never read that book, but of course I have sold it a couple of times, and she is SO very nice, so authentic, so … honest! And so damn funny.
Thank you for sharing this, because I guess I will watch it a couple of times more, whenever I have got the feeling that I am not good enough to write or to be a writer.
Thank you.
Congratulations on getting your short story published!
I don’t have any specific resolutions. Instead this year, I’m doing more of a “theme” where everything I do is in service of that greater idea. This year my word is Intuition.
Happy New Year to you!