Ten New Year Resolutions of a Would-be Writer

So here we are again, at the start of another year. This is my fifty-third year. So I'm an old hand at this. 

The Christmas decorations have been taken down, the new calenders hung up and new diaries started. Standard.

Here is Gus, our cat in a box of Christmas decorations - He is 'helping?'

The question is have I got any resolutions?

I kinda stopped making resolutions after the whole Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) diagnosis. I used to have had a list like this:

• Eat more healthily
• Exercise more
• Drink less coffee
• Write a novel
• Write more
• Do more walking
• Do more stuff with the kids
• Worry less about work
• And for God sake, drink less wine!
  

In fact you can see a list almost identical to this here.

After CML happened, my list changed. It's funny how that sort of thing focusses the mind. So for the last ten years, since my diagnosis my list has been more like this:

• Stay alive
• Stay healthy
• Do what the doctors say

And just as I was feeling more confident that actually, I was on top of this CML thing and may be able to expand my resolution list - stupid F*£king Covid happened and suddenly I am in the clinically extremely vulnerable category.

Honestly!

None the less, I have tried to make the best of it, I finished my Masters in Creative writing in October and passed it. Not with the brilliant grade I had hoped for, but I passed so I should be grateful for that. 

I wrote a novel which I am quite proud of (although, I need to edit it more), even if it hasn't had an inkling of interest from any agent I sent it to. Regardless, I have started writing my second novel and have other ideas for future novels mulling about in my brain. I will get published. And there it is - resolution number 1.

1. Get Published

Writing is a very solitary experience, and making myself go upstairs to my desk every day is a battle of self discipline verses procrastination, and even when I am at my desk there is so many things you can do on a laptop rather than write. So, resolution number 2.

      2. Stop Procrastinating

Writing can be quite soul destroying, we creative types are delicate little flowers who don't like it when people aren't very nice about our work, or simply don't want to publish it. I write poems, short stories and novels and send them off regularly to competitions and literary magazines in the vague hope that one of them will be shortlisted or accepted. Mostly, they aren't. This is normal for any writer. You hear all sorts of tales of very famous writers who, at first, lived a life of rejection after rejection until they were finally offered a publishing deal - you need to hold onto this. So here are my next three resolutions.

      3. Persevere 

      4. Be Resilient 

      5. Stay Positive 

These are all well and good, but I still need my standard resolutions - it feels unlucky not to make them.

      6. Stay Alive

      7. Stay Healthy 

      8. Do what the doctors say 

Now I have started this and have eight resolutions, it seems odd not make it up to ten. So here are my last two which are linked to how much I tend to worry about things. 

       9. Try to stay in the moment

      10. Be grateful for what you already have

Number ten is actually a bit of mantra. It puts me back in reality when I am spiralling into a dark place with no windows or doors. Fortunately, that rarely happens these days. 

So, there are mine, what are yours?

Happy New Year!

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