Another New Year

I spent New Year’s Eve celebrating with my family in California, although the traditional cucumber and salmon sandwiches were a bit beyond my reach. I’m the screen in the middle.

I’m going to do my damnedest to get Somnolence published this year.

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. A growing number of people who are smarter than I have argued that they’re not the best way to change habits or set goals. Sharing a resolution can actually make people less likely to accomplish it, because it gives a false sense of progress or completion. Just talking about it tricks the brain into thinking the work is already being done. If you’re interested, here’s a link to a short Ted Talk on the subject.

That said, it’s not always that simple. In this case, posting and talking about my work is an actual required step towards the completion of my goal. I’m just going to have to keep the phenomenon in mind, because I tend to procrastinate till the last minute on projects, and a novel just isn’t something you can hammer out the night before it’s due.

I suspect, just from what I HAVE seen so far of the process, that I am taking on something much bigger than I know. I’m going to hit snags, and things will always take longer than I expect because I’m a really unrealistic optimist. I finished my (very) rough draft last New Year’s Eve. Yeah, I actually did the last chunk of work the night before it was due. In my defense, it did get done.

Over the past year, I spent a lot of time editing, but in a rather haphazard fashion. This year, I’m going to have to be a lot more disciplined to get where I want to be.