Skip to main content

A Look Back

Image
By
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.


Labels:

Comments

  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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All in different places

By
We "gather" in this spot because of our common interest in writing. It is very possible that we will have little else in common - and that's okay. But even within the realm of writing, we are likely to be quite different from each other. One of the obvious differences will be that of genre - starting with fiction or non-fiction. I hope and believe that we can learn from each other across that divide. Personally, I can't envision being able to write fiction and I certainly admire you who can. We probably also have varying levels of intensity and desire about this writing thing. Some are dabbling while others may be quite serious. For that matter, maybe some of us haven't even thought about whether to dabble or to be serious about it. Then there's the matter of how far we are on this writing journey. Have you established some kind of writing habit yet? Have I set any writing goals? Do we want to? So, since we are all in different places and headed in various dir...
3 comments
Read more

What counts?

By
Okay; I am building a writing habit. I’m working toward the goal of writing every day. So here I am; now what do I write? What counts as writing? I wonder what qualifies as legitimate literary work. But then, you know… Who really cares? If this is my writing habit, then I guess I get to set the rules. Yes, I know there may come a time when I may want or need to set specific parameters for my daily writing – to discipline myself to move toward a certain project goal. But for now my main intent is to build the habit. So methinks it can be pretty open-ended. Writing projects I do have some ideas of things I want to write about someday and have even started some of them. I can be working on any one of them in my regular writing time. Blogging That blog that I started years ago and has received sparse attention from me is calling my name. I’ve even been toying with starting a new one, but how faithful would I be? Hmmm… Here’s another chance. Journaling I have written journals for m...
2 comments
Read more

Morning Pages

By
I had been lamenting the fact that I haven't been able to focus on writing regularly in the past weeks and probably won't be able to for another several weeks. I have expressed sadness about that, but want to be patient with myself during this intense transition time. However, just as I was accepting that reality, I came across (yet again!) the concept of keeping morning pages. Once again, I was inspired and wanted to do it - but this time there was a different twist. Whereas before I had tended to think of morning pages as an exercise, a discipline, something that I should do, this time I caught a glimpse of the benefits - immediate benefits, in fact. I had been saying that I didn't have the focus necessary to write. Interestingly, this blogger told how morning pages gave her focus for her day. Hmmm... Is it possible that this could actually HELP me during these weeks - rather than being one more chore on my list? Worth considering. And worth trying again. This...
2 comments
Read more