Happy New Year! Like many folks, I usually make a list of things I plan on doing in the new year. Some people like to set goals, both personal and professional, some promise to break bad habits or start good ones. I prefer to set some standards for my writing life. In the past, I've done fairly well with these--I've gotten poems published, read my work in public, gotten books published. I think every writer should try each year (or month or week or day) to improve his/her writing and writing life in some way. I make a short list and post it on the bulletin board above my work station, and refer to it throughout the year. I even revise it, adding new standards, but never (NEVER!) subtracting or downsizing any of them.
This year's goals are a hodgepodge of things--Readings, contests, poems to write, etc. I also want to move into my new home office and GET ORGANIZED! No matter how far along you are as a writer, it pays to try to improve yourself in small increments. Take a class, join a writers' group, write 4 poems a month, send off 4 poems a month to journals, read your work aloud to someone or someones.
A new year can be a new you if you put forth the effort. I bought my 2010 wall-mount appointment calendar today, and I'm already penciling in speaking engagements, contest deadlines, group meetings and conventions. I hope to have a very busy and rewarding new writing year, and hope you all have one, too.
Write on.
