My first visit to the local library in the new year, and what books did I come home with? These two titles jumped out at me and found their way into my take-home pile:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel? Poetry for Dummies? I think these spoke to me because they announce there's potential in each writer, no matter what level we're at. Potential is my writing word for the upcoming year. And I'm open to inspiration wherever I can find it!
I'm also revisiting my "target" idea that I've adhered to the last two years, the concentric ring concept of a writer's bulls-eye that I posted about here. It's proved to be such a successful tool for getting more words down on paper than not (increasing from 71% of hitting a target the first year to 79% this past year!) that I'm returning to it in the new year.
My photo-a-day challenge came to a close December 31. In it's place I've set a higher word-count goal as the new year's challenge (so many writing ideas are begging for attention)--and to a more expanded exploration of poetry. The little bit of poetry that I dabbled in last year (especially haiku, talked about here) has inspired me to go a little deeper and see what potential a new writing form carries.
With all of this I've also determined to give myself permission. Permission to find patterns that work for me, a pace that's manageable, and priorities that are balanced.
Permission. Pace. Priorities. A tall order--but one with possibility, promise, potential.
How about you? What books are on the top of your reading pile for the new year? And how do you hope to unlock the potential that is within your grasp?
p.s. a helpful post on the subject of writing routines for the new year and finding a balance can be found over at Elizabeth Spann Craig's Mystery Writing Is Murder where Elizabeth Grace Saunders, author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success with Less Stress, has written a guest post on "More Time to Write in 2013."
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