I've been talking to a lot of people about New Year Resolutions and I'm surprised about some of the things I'm hearing. More and more people seem to be against making New Resolutions then ever before. Some are quite adamant about it. I don't ever remember hearing people get this way before.
A lot of people say that if there's something that needs to be done, or something you want to do just make the resolution to do it right then. You don't need to wait until the new year before you start working for something. I can see the logic in this but the start of a new year has always made people stop and think about their lives and where they want the next year to go. This mental process naturally makes one think about making resolutions. Besides when a lot of people are doing the same thing you are there's a greater support net around you that you can take advantage of when you need it.
Then there are those people who say just do it whenever it comes up. That means in February you might vow to find love, in May you might vow to lose weight, but in September you might vow to find another job. How are you suppose to keep those all straight? I do believe that if something comes up in your life that you can do something about at that moment you should take advantage of that and do it. But having a plan laid out and goals to work towards ahead of time might help you from living a knee-jerk type of lifestyle. But again that's just me.
I still don't have solid resolutions of my own for this new year yet, but I'm working on it. Once I decide what those resolutions are going to be I'll let you know. For me I don't see what's so bad about setting New Year Resolutions . . . even if you don't fulfill them. At least you have something to work on and look forward to.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
New Year Resolutions
Every year after all the torn and ripped up wrapping paper is thrown away I start to think about New Year Resolutions and what mine should be.
There's been a couple of years where I've actually started on my New Year Resolutions in the middle of December. I learned in college that if you did something the same way, the same time, every day it would take two weeks for it to become a habit. But if you didn't do that same thing for two days the habit would be broken. So why not start early and get those habits firmly in place before the new year starts?
Unfortunately I haven't always been that prepared. But what I did find out was that whatever book I was reading at the first of the year would have an influence on my whole outlook for the year. Read a bad book? Have a bad year. This year I've got that covered. What I don't have covered is my writing resolutions.
I've tried "writing every day" and "write X number of pages a day" and "write for X number of minutes a day," but nothing has stuck and worked out for me. I've even done "write one short story a month" but when you have a few days at the beginning of the month you think you have all the time in the world. Next thing you know is that it's the 28th and you haven't written anything. And I thought that was a do-able resolution.
I want to make my resolutions something meaningful. And something that will stick. I want to change my life (at least where my writing is concerned). I could be just like those millions of other writer wannabes that say they'll write, but then never do. Or I could actually do something about it.
In one of the Letters to the Editor in the February Writer's Digest someone said they wrote a novel at 17 years old and kept rewriting the same book for 41 years. They updated it to make it more modern and such but they never got around to selling it. They were able to get an agent but nothing came out of it. They said they might still be working on their novel until they're 80 years old and I'm left thinking why? Why not put that novel aside and write another one? Take what you learned from that novel and apply it to the next one. If that ones doesn't sell, move on to the next one and learn for it as well.
Am I going to be one of those people who writes one book and never writes anything else because I think that one book is amazing and should sell so I spend all my time just rewriting it until it does sell? Or am I going to be that person who always talks about writing, but who never actually sits down to write anything of any value.
I don't want to set myself up for failure, but I'm not sure what's obtainable for me either. Like my title description says I've got lots of ideas, but a lot of writer's block as well.
There's been a couple of years where I've actually started on my New Year Resolutions in the middle of December. I learned in college that if you did something the same way, the same time, every day it would take two weeks for it to become a habit. But if you didn't do that same thing for two days the habit would be broken. So why not start early and get those habits firmly in place before the new year starts?
Unfortunately I haven't always been that prepared. But what I did find out was that whatever book I was reading at the first of the year would have an influence on my whole outlook for the year. Read a bad book? Have a bad year. This year I've got that covered. What I don't have covered is my writing resolutions.
I've tried "writing every day" and "write X number of pages a day" and "write for X number of minutes a day," but nothing has stuck and worked out for me. I've even done "write one short story a month" but when you have a few days at the beginning of the month you think you have all the time in the world. Next thing you know is that it's the 28th and you haven't written anything. And I thought that was a do-able resolution.
I want to make my resolutions something meaningful. And something that will stick. I want to change my life (at least where my writing is concerned). I could be just like those millions of other writer wannabes that say they'll write, but then never do. Or I could actually do something about it.
In one of the Letters to the Editor in the February Writer's Digest someone said they wrote a novel at 17 years old and kept rewriting the same book for 41 years. They updated it to make it more modern and such but they never got around to selling it. They were able to get an agent but nothing came out of it. They said they might still be working on their novel until they're 80 years old and I'm left thinking why? Why not put that novel aside and write another one? Take what you learned from that novel and apply it to the next one. If that ones doesn't sell, move on to the next one and learn for it as well.
Am I going to be one of those people who writes one book and never writes anything else because I think that one book is amazing and should sell so I spend all my time just rewriting it until it does sell? Or am I going to be that person who always talks about writing, but who never actually sits down to write anything of any value.
I don't want to set myself up for failure, but I'm not sure what's obtainable for me either. Like my title description says I've got lots of ideas, but a lot of writer's block as well.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Title's matter to me
I'm still tweaking the site here so bear with me as things might change around day to day. One of the things I had a hard time with was the title.
Titles mean something to me. Well, d'oh. Of course they mean something. But it's more than that. A title sums up the whole book/site/whatever. Just like a person's name.
I hated my name when I was younger. For some reason people couldn't figure out how to say it. It don't think it's that hard, but then I've been living with it for some time. The spelling is just a little bit different than what you normally see it as and I've always felt I needed to explain that. Whatever.
Looking at the title of this blog and my gamer blog you wouldn't' think I had a hard time coming up with something. I wanted something clever and funny. A pun or a metaphor. Something a true lover of words and stories would instantly recognize and understand. Some of my more brilliant ideas were already used here at Blogspot and that just made me mad.
Why? Because these were blogs that haven't been updated for years. It wasn't uncommon to type in a blog name that I wanted to use only to find the last post made to it was back in 2002. I mean, come on people! If you're not going to use it just delete the thing so someone else can use the name. It's not like it means anything to you anyway because you haven't updated it for five years!
Yes, I'm abandoning my LiveJournel blog on writing, but that's because I don't like the formatting system used there. Here's it's much easier and streamlined. Once I've saved everything I want to from there I will delete it entirely and someone else can be free to use that link name if they want. I don't have a problem with that. Maybe Blogspot should purge blogs that haven't been posted to in over 3 years or something. I even found blogs that were created but NO posts were ever made.
Why do people do that? Maybe they forgot. Maybe they're just lazy. Maybe they created the thing in a drunken stupor and have no clue what they did. Maybe people think they've got something to say but when it comes right down to it they really don't. Is that what this world's really coming to? On one hand I hope not, but on the other hand I do. But that's a topic for a post some other day.
In my search of cool blog names I did come across a couple of names that are still being used today. I'll keep my eye on them and maybe add them to my links so you can check them out.
In the mean time stay tuned for more from me. I may not entirely like the title of this blog for it's lack of originality but I've got lots to say and I'm not affraid to do so. This is one blog that isn't going away. Although if I find a better title I might change it.
Titles mean something to me. Well, d'oh. Of course they mean something. But it's more than that. A title sums up the whole book/site/whatever. Just like a person's name.
I hated my name when I was younger. For some reason people couldn't figure out how to say it. It don't think it's that hard, but then I've been living with it for some time. The spelling is just a little bit different than what you normally see it as and I've always felt I needed to explain that. Whatever.
Looking at the title of this blog and my gamer blog you wouldn't' think I had a hard time coming up with something. I wanted something clever and funny. A pun or a metaphor. Something a true lover of words and stories would instantly recognize and understand. Some of my more brilliant ideas were already used here at Blogspot and that just made me mad.
Why? Because these were blogs that haven't been updated for years. It wasn't uncommon to type in a blog name that I wanted to use only to find the last post made to it was back in 2002. I mean, come on people! If you're not going to use it just delete the thing so someone else can use the name. It's not like it means anything to you anyway because you haven't updated it for five years!
Yes, I'm abandoning my LiveJournel blog on writing, but that's because I don't like the formatting system used there. Here's it's much easier and streamlined. Once I've saved everything I want to from there I will delete it entirely and someone else can be free to use that link name if they want. I don't have a problem with that. Maybe Blogspot should purge blogs that haven't been posted to in over 3 years or something. I even found blogs that were created but NO posts were ever made.
Why do people do that? Maybe they forgot. Maybe they're just lazy. Maybe they created the thing in a drunken stupor and have no clue what they did. Maybe people think they've got something to say but when it comes right down to it they really don't. Is that what this world's really coming to? On one hand I hope not, but on the other hand I do. But that's a topic for a post some other day.
In my search of cool blog names I did come across a couple of names that are still being used today. I'll keep my eye on them and maybe add them to my links so you can check them out.
In the mean time stay tuned for more from me. I may not entirely like the title of this blog for it's lack of originality but I've got lots to say and I'm not affraid to do so. This is one blog that isn't going away. Although if I find a better title I might change it.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
That which is familiar
I have a gamer blog here on Blogspot but I kept my writing blog separate on Live Journal. Well, I found that I didn't like the functionality of posting and maintenance with Life Journal so I'm moving everything here. Give me a couple of days to format things just the way I want them here and copy over some of the posts worth saving from that other place. Otherwise just stayed tuned for more on my life as a writer.
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