Christmas has passed, the trees are evenly lined up on the side of the road, and 2010 slowly breathes its last gasps. Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions. I am compiling a list and checking it twice and have even planned on sharing it this week with my writers group, but in the meantime, I wanted to share the one item I plan to stick to no matter what this year.
RESOLUTION #1: I WILL WRITE FOR AT LEAST ONE HALF HOUR EVERY DAY.
That’s it.
Writing is a job, and lately, I have been showing up to work late, or not at all. Some days I’m too tired, other days I prefer to come home and watch Netflix on Demand (which is like TV, except better, because it shows lots more Fawlty Towers). A half hour of writing is not unreasonable, and gives me time to do other things, like watch Netflix. It’s enough time to get excited and not enough to intimidate me.
I notice that in the past during these mandated half-hour stretches, I tend to goof off on the internet for twenty minutes and then write for ten minutes. Instead, I plan to take the Jonathan Franzen approach and disconnect the internet. My only worry is with my spotty technical knowledge, I won’t be able to reconnect the internet. Of course, that’s a 2011 worry.
If I can write a page in a half hour, and write every day, that’s 365 pages, or the equivalent of about four screenplays. That easily bests my grand total of zero screenplays from 2010. I just have to stick with the plan. I’m pretty compulsive about other things (read: Netflix) so I shouldn’t have too much of a problem with this—I hope.
What are your resolutions? Please respond in the comments.
And Happy New Years!
When Pico Met Sepulveda (alternatewrites.wordpress.com) 
” That easily bests my grand total of zero screenplays from 2010.”
LOL why yes, yes it is.
Hmm, I may adopt your resolution as one of my own as well… Other than that, my main (and possibly only… we’ll see) resolution is to bring new pages in to my writing group every week. The two resolutions may dovetail nicely…
Ha, I go through the same thing each week! I think I have something for the writers group this week–but I still have to polish it.
Not to be the pessimist here, but it’s important to be realistic when setting goals. I might say aim to do a half hour 5-6 days a week…some days things are just going to come up!
Day 1 went well!
Good luck to you dude, I know I’ll be working my tail off on this animation project here. It’s not so much a resolution, but definitely something I wanted to do for a long, long time.
Thanks! Best of luck to you too.
Thank you for referencing my man Jonathan Franzen! He’s like you, but older and with glasses and a million dollars.
My writer boss told me that it’s best to write for as long as you can… first thing in the morning. She said it has a profound creative effect on one’s writing–I think her word was “magical.” I set my alarm for forty five minutes earlier and indeed noticed a profound effect by day three and that by day six, all I could think about was my writing.
By day seven, I lost interest. But I totally respect the process.