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A Look Back

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The end of another year...

Sometimes it's tough to be objective. Often we are tempted to focus on the negative - what we didn't accomplish that we wish we had, where we didn't live up to our goals.

But why not look back and notice what you DID accomplish, something that you feel good about? Is there something in your writing life that makes you happy, some step of progress that you made this year? It doesn't have to be a big step.

I haven't completed a manuscript nor made great progress on any particular writing project. But I have been intentional about the act of writing. Granted, I have expanded my criteria for what "counts" as writing - making it easier for myself, but those are admirable and beneficial steps. I have done quite a bit of letter-writing and have dusted off my journal.

A friend passed along an idea that seems to be encouraging for me - putting a large red X on the calendar for each day that I write. By "large" I mean an X that fills the square corner to corner so that consecutive days begin to form a chain. For the second half of this year I have averaged over 12 X's each month.

AND I've established a blog dedicated to topics about the writing life. I wondered whether I would manage to keep it going. So far, I have posted somewhat regular entries - at least one per month - although barely getting this one in under the wire.

So what about you? As you look back to 2009, what is there in your writing life that makes you feel good? And what about the coming year? Do you want to set some writing goals? If goals are too scary for you just yet, maybe just dream a little and start to list ideas - whether silly small ones or crazy big ones.


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  1. KayeDecember 31, 2009 at 11:10 PM

    * I had forgotten that the red X idea came from Jerry Seinfeld. Maybe I'll post what he said about it....

    ReplyDelete

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