First things first: I am not going to be writing every day. I could set it as a goal, but I know it’s not happening, and I don’t have a compelling reason to try to force it. Well, okay, that’s not entirely true. I intend to keep up my habit of journalling every day the way I have for the last two years. But the kind of writing I’m talking about here is writing that is intended to be shared in some way.
I’m going to keep blogging. My last year on this blog has been the most consistent public writing I’ve done in my life. I like it and I want to keep doing it. There will be no schedule, there will be no targets, I’m not doing 100 days to offload. My goal is simply to launch as many thoughts as I can out into the internet1. Woe be upon ye.
I’ve also been dipping my toes into poetry lately (check out the new section on my site). The plan for this year is more, and not only that, to try actually submitting some for publication. Wish me luck.
I also write stories from time to time. Thus far they have all been fanfiction. I’m not giving that up, there are too many ideas in my notebooks for that—I can see them, looking at me plaintively.
But I am also feeling like it is time to branch out. I’ve been reading more and more sci-fi lately, in magazines like Clarkesworld and Uncanny. Writing a novel is a daunting thing to me, but it it much easier to imagine that I might be able to write a short story of the sort that I see there.2.
But writing stories has always been a very slow and intermittent process for me. If my past is any indication, I’ll be lucky to get two stories into a state that I can submit with dignity. So be it. I’m certainly not counting on writing to pay any bills, so what does it matter how infrequent and intermittent things are? It’s purely for my own satisfaction.
I don’t know if I can call these plans, really. I think that word usually implies more specific details and goals. But I have directions. Knowing which way you are going is not nothing.
Likes: 1,000,000