I hate New Year's most of all because of the enormous pressure I feel to take stock, to assess progress and to aim higher. Blah, blah. Every year I make promises to myself (not resolutions, mind you!) about what I will accomplish in the New Year, about what I'll attempt to achieve. The problem with this, is that I get overwhelmed easily and almost all of the items on my promise list take me away from my writing.
"Write more" is always on the list of course, at the tippity top. But it must compete with things like: cook more, design more, start a design blog, yoga more, run that half marathon, read more from this list, read more from that list, travel more, have more dinner parties, make new friends, stay in better touch with the friends I already have and so on. There are so many things I'd like to do more of and every year I try very hard to make them all happen. To cram them all in. Yet I can't help feeling that makes me jack of all trades, master of none. When you scrape away the subterfuge, aren't these all thinly veiled, sanctioned excuses not to write?
So. This year, let it be different. I am tired of saying I'm writing when I'm not. I'm tired of rehashing the same stories over and over, tinkering endlessly and never sending them out. If there are no submissions, there will be no publication. A simple formula, really. Just too chicken to accept this is my fate. So, sod it all. This will be the year of no resolutions, no promises, save one: no more excuses. Writing trumps all.
