This Year's Paradigm

Now Playing: SAY THIS SOONER by The Almost
Just Finished: BREATH OF EARTH by Beth Cato--Great novel, very imaginative, fast-paced, and fun. Looking forward to more in this series.
Reading Now: READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline

Happy New Year! It's 2017, and with the changing of the calendar comes ambitions for the upcoming year. For me that means writing goals. Mine are simple. Read more, write more.

Accomplishing this may involve a shift in my writing paradigm; being in graduate school is a real art-limiter, you know? Major bummer.

Totally worth it, I believe, and I love being a graduate student. But I also love writing stories, and being a student doesn't allot much time for those kinds of hobbies/passions.

I'm going to make 2017 a bit of a work-around. Here's the plan: every day I'll do something related to writing, even if it doesn't include putting new words down on paper. Thinking up new titles to future stories, jotting ideas for stories in my notes app, editing old pieces, tweeting about writing, putting together some poetry, blogging, submitting or re-submitting stories, or actually writing new prose. Even reading short stories. I'll count it all as forward progress.

Then, when school is on break or if I have a long weekend with some free time, I'll try to dedicate those times to relaxation and writing, and maybe even reading some fiction. Nonfiction dominated the second half of 2016, and while I like reading about nurse anesthesia, I do miss novels terribly. I was glad to get back to reading during Christmas break! Maybe the local library will reopen and I can go checkout some books on CD to listen to during my commute . . . .

But, yeah, that's it. I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing: trying to juggle lots of things at once and do them the best I can. I'm excited about what stories will emerge in 2017! Let's get it rolling.