2009: A Vision in Perpetual Motion

Earlier on in the week I posted my (fictional) list of Anti-Resolutions for 2009. You can also find a rather humorous one posted by Annie here.

As one door closes, another one opens - but inbetween there is a pause, a sort of slow moving action where you are neither open nor closed. That's the space for me between the new year and the old year as posed by the few weeks difference between the Western New Year and that in the East. And this is where I currently find myself - and why it's day four of the new year and I'm posting my draft vision for the new year.

In any type of business, preparation for the coming financial year, should include a pow wow about the future direction of their business/company and what they would like to implement/achieve/secure. This year I feel like I am venturing out of the cocoon like phase I spent most of 2008 years in and as consequence I want to plan and chart a course, rather than be lost in a sea of creativity - hoping for the best.

This year I’m calling my list resolutions an action plan (in keeping with my general theme for 2009 of ‘ACTION’) – but I guess I could equally call it my navigation guide to writing in 2009 or some other obnoxiously nautical title. Alternately I could christen it a vision statement (but not the sort of wanky ones that make no sense on the back of loads of business cards). I guess its a rose by any other name .. does it really matter what I 'call it'?

My ideas about the New Year are always a work in progress between late December and last January/early February when the Chinese New Year kicks in. Unlike last year though – I’m committing definitive objectives to The Universe (and making them public) on the back drop of the theme of action and kicking them in from January 1, rather than waiting for the Chinese New Year on January 26th. I intend to use the remaining 22 days until the Chinese New Year (the golden year of the ox – and I just so happen to be an ox so I’m just a tiny bit excited about this year) to reflect and contemplate on 2008, tidy up my writing space and I guess, use this time as a rehearsal and planning period for the rest of 2009 – like any good manager would!

Without further ado I unveil my action plan for 2009.

1. Write something every day – building up to three pages a day

2. Participate in [Fiction] Friday every week

3. Read two books a month (or a minimum of 600 pages)

4. Complete a manuscript

5. Enter a minimum of four competitions

6. Have a minimum of 2 fiction and 2 non fiction pieces published

7. Compile an electronic anthology of my best short stories from 2008.

8. Get my ‘Chinese Whispers’ novelette/anthology off the ground.

9. Begin writing my part of the Blood Sister project.

10. Commit to a schedule of professional development

11. Complete the series of articles for the Reclaim project on ‘Reclaiming Your Space’

12. Watch one movie a week

13. Participate in the National Novel Writing Month.

Over the next two weeks I’ll explore them further in individual posts.

What is your action/business plan or list of resolutions for writing in 2009?

Image: Remedios Varo's Despedida