New Year’s Resolutions…right! I will get on that... I am still working on my New Year’s promise. That is what a New Year resolution really is for me, a promise.
A promise made by you, for you, to you… All home grown and set out there, just waiting for you to trip over its necessary completion.
Why is it, that a promise to yourself isn’t as important as taking out the garbage?
Could it be that, that promise won’t start stinking in the kitchen. That promise isn’t sitting out in the open calling attention to itself. Instead, it can be tucked away, behind the idea to clean out the garage. Do you smell promise you made two years ago, ten, twenty..?
Have you noticed that this year you are being told to bring your promises…resolutions out in the open? Post them on your Blog or to a specific web site for keeping promises. Or just post them in the comment section for news station. Declare to the world what you want to accomplish in the coming year, loudly and with conviction.
When I was around seven or eight years old I planned to write a book. I wasn’t specific to the genre, just knew that I ‘wanted to’ and ‘would’ write a book. Heavy Sigh!
With my younger sister’s help, she did the typing, we wrote out the beginnings of our book. “It was a dark and stormy night.”
Life got in the way, specifically second and third grade, where no one would believe we could write anything. I learned from that time never to disregard anyone’s dream no matter the age.
Age…Hmmm. Lots of time has passed since my sister and I sat at the kitchen table, and we wrote out the beginnings of story that had us running away from some unseen horror.
My sister passed at thirty-three and I have gone through cancer twice. Found out I was born with a thyroid disease. Divorced, remarried pulled out an ability to understand computers code, I talk to plants and animals, dabble at cooking, and loving open spaces and nature and along the way I have made many, many promises, to myself.
I set up several novels, sadly, not a one has been finished, yet. (GRIN) I say, yet because I am giving myself until my birthday to get off my butt and write. I am working on a world I imagined long ago.
I have notes everywhere.
I have beat sheets (a list of scenes).
Character sheets, notes, partially written chapters, and even a class paperwork, from where I spent time writing this story.
The only thing I did not have was the reasoning behind ‘why’ I keep stopping.
I searched out psychological reasons I can’t create… Hmmm! Wait a minute I need to straighten the living room. Just put on some music and I’ll be right back…
I looked into tapping therapy (EFT) Cognitive therapy (CT) and hypnosis. I Goggled, ‘stress induced creative procrastination’ all that searching, which was just more procrastination, I found that Nike’s slogan said it best, ‘Just do it!’
Some writers need to perform a ritual or have a specific item nearby in order to write, and others prefer to be nude.
Using the dining room, I set up a dry erasable board, hidden for years. Using markers, I made three columns characters, chapters and scenes. Using index cards and tape, I labeled one card for each character.
Under ‘Chapters’, I labeled the cards with the chapter number and the first and last sentence, and the amount of words.
For ‘Scenes’, well I haven’t listed them yet..
I gave myself a due date to have my novel written out. Not edited, just put down on paper. The day I picked is my birthday, which is January 23. I figured that was doable, considering all my notes, ‘and’ having the first four chapters already written out. I mean I would only have to write out about 60 to 80,000 words, no problem…(Insert scream here!)
Once I had everything set out, I remembered my promise and took a deep, ‘Oprah breath’, then told myself to write as if I was at work... for someone else.
No coffee breaks until I write at least 1,000 words.
Put blinders on and ignore the garbage in the corner.
I shivered, so I turned up the heat and started to write.
How are you at keeping your New Year Promises?
Comments