It’s been nearly a year since I updated this blog. There have been global events and personal ones, health hurdles, and academic goals. One ongoing writing project is finally seeing the light of day, while another is percolating in the background. As such, I haven’t really had much to say. What is there to write on writing that has not been written before?
I am reading more, this year. A number of habits have been on my list of yearly goals in the recommended SMART form for many years, and I have not come close to achieving them. I don’t think SMART goals work for everyone. I can set a goal of “read 50 books” but if I’m not regularly reading, I’m not going to achieve that. “Read every day” turned out to be a better goal, because really it’s 365 goals, each one “read something today”. All it has to be is a paragraph; it’s usually a chapter or two. I did set a Goodreads goal of 25 books, but whether or not I achieve that isn’t too important. (A Dance With Dragons rather set me back on that goal, anyway. 1100 fucking pages, gods be good…) It feels good to return to regular reading, and make it a part of my day again.
My writing goals have been much the same: every day, write something. In practice, this has meant touching base with my WIP (The Monstrosity, pt. 2) every day. As a result, I haven’t worked much on poetry or original fiction. In some ways, that’s a shame. Original writing isn’t at the top of my to-do list this year. I’m OK with that.
My word of the year for 2021 has been “Conscious”. I wanted to be more conscious of my time, conscious of the moment, to act consciously and with intention. My goals about today, about the moment I’m living in, rather than tomorrow or next week or five years from now. Progress has been slow, but there has been progress. Over the last year or so, since we spoke last, I have been making some life changes. Not big ones, but not small ones either… Changes that are unquantifiable, changes on a mental, personal level. Good changes. Ongoing changes. Changes in how I think about life, and how to live the best way I can. I want to write about them, but here is not the place – there will be a Substack for such things, in time. I am in no rush to launch it, and have it run on some haphazard schedule, like most of my projects always have… I would rather have a set of articles ready to publish than try to come up with something the day before it’s meant to go live. This is emblematic of the changes I am making.
And what of this place? Monthly updates, perhaps, would be best – we will see. Somehow I like the lack of schedule. Does it need a schedule? What is a writer’s blog nowadays? The communities of the internet have moved away from blogs, I fear. I am not sure that a writer’s blog has much of a place any longer, at least not as much a place as a writer’s twitter account. (Mine is Spookestre now, by the way. I probably have some links as need changing…) This year has, simply, not been a year for achieving writing goals. I have sketched out a few drafts, made a few submissions. I have so many poems still looking for homes, in magazines and so forth, and no idea if any of them will ever find one. Right now, I am OK with that.
What are your writing goals? What are your thoughts on writers’ blogs? Please share, or link to your thoughts, below.
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