Back at it

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. I simply decide I’m going to do things and do them. I’ve been planning to get back to two things, one of which lends itself to a third.

First, I’ve put on some weight over the last year. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but enough that I’m not happy with my appearance…and that’s really my impetus. I don’t look at the scale as other than a device that can provide a measurable metric. I base my goal on my appearance and whether I’m happy with myself. Right now, I’m not.

How’d I get here? Some is work interfering in my ability to get a full match of lunchtime soccer in regularly. Mostly, though, that’s just one of a number of excuses, along with needing to make sure my daughter got off to catch her ride to school in the morning, then making sure she got off in time to drive herself once she got her license, and making sure I was available if she called because something happened while she drove to school. So I had good reasons to not head to the gym before work, but they were still excuses. I could have tried to find time during the day or gone after work, so…an excuse.

Now, I’m back at it. I pack two sets of clothes on soccer days. If I don’t get in a full match, I can hit the gym after work and I’ve started going on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work. Worst case, I can always use the treadmill at home.

Second, the need, yes, need to write has been niggling at me again. I can’t recall the last time I wrote something not for work. I’ve had a few story ideas pop into my melon, one may have been from a dream. I’ve started laying them out in yWriter, but haven’t really tried writing any parts of them. I’m also fairly sure it’s been three years or so since I wrote a poem. Sad, I know. As I said, though, I’ve found an urge to write. Such an urge that during some goofy “game” around Christmas, I told my wife and the others that my goal (game term) for this year is to start writing again. I suppose this post will serve as my first step toward that goal. One post. It’s a start.

Which leads into the third: blogging. Much like my poetry writong, all of my blogs have been sorely neglected. I have no reason, again, other than excuses so I won’t waste my time trying to enumerate them. They’d just sound trite and overused.

So…here I am. No more excuses. It’s writing time. Fiction, poems, blog posts, and writing prompts. Hope you enjoy some of them. They are coming anyway.

Project 347…er, 346

I failed this year.  I failed to accomplish my goal of 366 posts on this blog in 2012.  Even after changing my game plan to shoot for a total of 366 posts by combining the totals from this blog and my other blog, Wanna Get Published, Write! (WGPW), I came up short.  I ended up with the Project 346.  196 posts here and 150 on WGPW.  The title reflects that I started this post yesterday.  Had I posted it it then, I’d have had 347 posts for the year, but since I am finishing it up on the first of 2013, I only managed 346 last year.

Of course, this wasn’t a total failure.  I did do a lot more writing this year than in previous years.  I started a weekly post on this blog called Music Monday, in which I write about songs, artists, and/or lyrics and link to videos of a few of the songs I talk about.  On WGPW, I participated in two poem-a-day challenges and wrote a poem for almost every Poetic Asides Wednesday Poetry Prompt.  I also wrote a number of flash fiction stories and became the Tuesday prompt provider for Flashy Fiction…to which I’ve got to figure out how to drive more traffic.

Ultimately, while I didn’t meet my goal of 366 posts, I was much more productive.  I’ll try to carry that momentum forward into 2013.

 

Happy New Year!

Project 366 – Two-Thirds Done

Roughly two-thirds of the way through the year at the end of August, and I’ve made a total of 263 posts between this blog and my writing blog, Wanna Get Published, Write!  That’s 165 posts here and 98 there.  That puts me only 19 posts ahead of the total number of days in the year so far (244).  My work rate has slacked off as I was 33 ahead at the end of May.  I’m going to have to start being much more active to stay ahead of the game or, better yet, to get back to making a post a day or close to it.

Project 366 – Changing the Game Plan

Back in early May, I posted an update on my Project 366 called Playing Catch-up or Dontcha Hate It When You Bite Off More Than You Can Chew.  In that post, I mentioned that I’d been doing pretty well with the Project until I also took on the April Poem-A-Day (PAD) Challenge.  During April, my “official” Project 366 posts on this site fell off dramatically in favor of the shorter term PAD which I did complete with poems that I posted to my writing blog Wanna Get Published, Write!.  Sadly, since that update, I didn’t jump right back on the horse and get back to posting daily.  I have been doing more fiction writing, though.  Again, that gets posted on the writing blog, so according to my Project 366 plan at the beginning of the year, it wouldn’t count.

Weeellllllll, I’m changing my plan.  My goal for Project 366 will be to accomplish more than 366 posts between both of my blogs.  Not counting this post, I’ve made 124 posts on this blog  and 73 on Wanna Get Published, Write! for a total of 197 posts so far, which puts me ahead 164, the number of days this year.  I plan on getting busier on this blog, but don’t think I can make up the 40 posts on this blog while also continuing to write poems and fiction for the other blog.  Who knows?  I suppose it’s possible, but it’s very unlikely.  Maybe I can narrow the gap.  Ultimately, though, as long as my total for the year exceeds 366 posts between the two blogs, I’ll feel pretty good.

Those “Oh, Wow!” Moments

At first, I thought this topic would be a better fit for my “Wanna Get Published, Write!” blog since it was going to be focused on writing, but I decided to expand it to include more than that, to be more general…so here it is.

Within the last couple years, I’ve begun posting poems to the Poetic Asides blog on Writer’s Digest website.  I try to post at least one poem each Wednesday when the blog owner posts the weekly Wednesday Poetry Prompt.  Last year, I participated in the April Poem-A-Day challenge and the November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge, although I never submitted a chapbook –the final step in November’s challenge.  So, over the last two years, give or take, I’ve been writing a lot more poems than I used to, with the exception of a poetry class I took at the college at which I worked back in 1999 and a flurry of poems I wrote over seven or eight months starting around January of 1995.  Because Poetic Asides is a blog, many poets contribute poems each week in the form of comments and also read the poems others have posted and comment on them.  Last week, one of the more prolific poets on the blog, commented on my blog about getting in touch with me about a closed poetry group on FaceBook and possibly working with some of the others on an anthology.  I thought this sounded very cool and jumped at the chance.  Part of the anthology includes poet bios and tonight, I had one of those “Oh, Wow!” moments while reading through the ones already posted.  The first four or five poets to post their bios have been published numerous times in multiple publications, including poetry, fiction, non-fiction.  They’ve won awards.  They’ve done stand-up comedy and performance poetry, written TV screenplays, and a host of other noteworthy activities.  And I thought…”Oh, Wow!  [the originator of the group] thinks my poetry is worthy of appearing with theirs.”

When you’re creating…poetry, art, games, websites, interiors, etc… as a hobby, you may think your stuff is okay, sometimes good, and now and then, a wower,  but when someone else includes you in a group of folks who’ve been recognized, it’s pretty cool.

I’m looking forward to seeing this anthology published and having a copy for my coffee table.  I’m sure you’ve all had these moments and I’m hoping you’ll share your “Oh, Wow!” moments…so, c’mon…’fess up!