A Happy New Year to you! Here’s to
the hopeful days of early January, at least for those of you
old enough to be over the angst of adolescent despair and weeping at Auld Lang Syne.
No matter how often
I’ve seen one year moving through to the next, I can't help loving the few
deliciously lazy days that run from Boxing Day to that itchy evening in January
when we get ready to go back to the Real World.
For now, the tree is still twinkling, there's enough food – though possibly in odd varieties - and
any visitors can jolly well ignore the state of the house.
From a writing point of view,
these quiet days are a gift, offering a space for clearer thinking, for hopeful
decisions, for the construction of sturdy To Do lists and – maybe - the gathering up and cosseting of projects
abandoned during 2012 in case they can be coaxed into good humour once more.
I’ve tidied my desk and put the in-tray in order. I've glanced at the remaining paperwork heaps and book piles and planned how
to sort them and stow them. I've pondered about re-arranging my working space, again, again.
So now, for a
very short while, there’s an illusion of positive order- but how that
feeling feeds the sou! And nearby I
spy that other solace: the empty diary, ready to be filled but still
mostly under my control.
I opt for the forward gaze
of Janus, not that retrospective face. Far too many things not done last year,
far too many distractions that distracted during 2012. The New Year will be
better, I promise myself, and just for a few days I can almost believe that.
So, here are my Notes to Self, my
resolutions, for me.
That lightweight Christmas
laptop? Now’s the time to test it out in the library or in local cafes, where
the nagging everyday stuff has no choice but to hush down and the brain has
space enough to work.
Set the timer. Open the
folder, or the notebook. Keep on doing the small bits of writing that add up to
the bigger thing.
Do nice things. Fill the
well. Make time to actually meet that “artist date”, not just mourn about its
absence. (And do plan such activities and outings into the diary.)
Oh, and don’t be a hermit.
Plan time for meeting people, positive people, those whose company you enjoy.
Beware of those other Meetings with a capital M that mean come away with even
more Things to Do – especially when they need not be Your Things to Do.
Go out for walks or more.
Move. Don’t let Rigor Scribis set in over the WIP. How will you come over as
bright and dynamic at any agent meeting/ networking event /publisher’s
party/award ceremony if writing toil has petrified the body? Think of those
inspiring writers who frequently go walking, or to the gym or to swim.
Don’t neglect the
smaller ideas. Don’t let that troublesome Big Idea blind you in its headlights.
Looking back – which I won’t, I won’t -
maybe I could have made time for smaller, more easily workable projects
instead of being mesmerised? Let the good small ideas in, make them welcome.
Build them a home.
On the other hand - and I'm not sure who said it: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Let the writing, not the tweeting and networking, be the main task of the day. Give the inspiration room to fly.
Had enough of my
resolutions? Just let me mention one last one, please.
Resolve to BE JOYFUL. The
writing life can be grim and horrid and soul-sapping and lonesome and tricksy
and financially unprofitable BUT there are far, far worse things to be doing
than writing. Make the most of it. Yes, be sad and angry when there’s a need
to, but don’t waste energy endlessly grouching.
That’s my Final Note to Self. Try and make 2013 as Happy a Year as it can be. (And keep calling back to read the posts on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure and Awfully Big Reviews, of course.)
Now, how about your
2013 resolutions?
Penny Dolan
www.pennydolan.com
A Boy Called M.O.U.S.E (Bloomsbury) Shortlisted for the West Sussex Children's Book Award and the Stockton Children's Book of the Year.