Resolutions and a Poetry Contest

Thought for the Week: We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~  Edith Lovejoy Pierce 

I don’t normally bother with New Year’s resolutions, but my productivity faltered in 2012 because I lost my focus and took a scattered approach to submissions. My 2013 writing resolutions help me focus on what I really want to do and where I’ve had good results in the past. They are:

1. write magazine articles for both print and e-pubs

2. write nonfiction pieces for anthologies

3. schedule weekly time to work on my novel (includes both historical and writing research) and hopefully complete a first draft by year-end

4. dabble in flash fiction or a short story when the muse strikes

5. create a more professional web site

The third one qualifies on only one count – it’s what I want to do and now feel I must do. I started a historical novel several years ago but never finished. I became bogged down in research and felt I needed to work on my craft by writing short work first. 

I’ve kept the book on the back burner so long it’s boiling over and blocking me from other things. By scheduling a fixed amount of time to work on it, I hope to keep it simmering as a side dish for nonfiction. Don’t all cooks experiment now and then?

What are your writing resolutions? If you have resolution block, check the the list Joe Konrath accumulated over the years.

If you’re still procrastinating about the social media January bootcamp I mentioned last week, you have until midnight Dec. 31 to sign up. (The sponsor is on the U.S. West Coast, so presumably that's western standard time.) I’ll be there.

CHA POETRY CONTEST

Theme: Betrayal

Deadline: January 15, 2013
No entry fee

Each poet may submit up to two unpublished poems (no more than 80 lines long each). Cash prizes and publication in the March 2013 issue of CHA for three winning and up to five highly commended poems. 

Pays via PayPal, which handles currency conversions.