Eileen Slovak

Take 0,1,2,3 rearrange = 2013

Ah, a crisp, unwrinkled New Year…so what’s the plan?  All over the globe people are pledging their resolutions for 2013, well, not me.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to fix, it’s just that I cannot see the point in making a bunch of empty promises to myself and to others.

Instead, I’ll do what I do every year and focus on unlocking the key to all of my unresolved issues, like starting new projects before completing the old ones.  Sound familiar?  At the same, I’ll try to give myself some credit for the issues I did manage to resolve in 2012.

For the sake of this exercise, I’ll explore my writing life as it parallels all other aspects of my personal life.

Unresolved:

I begin new Novels before completing the old ones.

• Novel #1 in a perpetual state of semi completion and ‘limbo status’ because I think it needs another rewrite but am so sick of looking at it that it now rests in a cozy “cyber draw”.
• Novel #2, definitely better than #1 and considerably less narcissistic and entertaining; 80% done for several months now; blaming rest of life for this fact.
• Novel #3, an excellent first chapter and outline complete.
• Novel #4, a few characters studies done and plot all in my head.
• Novel #5, the best idea I have ever had, just thought of it this morning and cannot wait to get started!

Hmmm…okay, what did I do right?

Resolved Issues: 

In order to resolve my writing fears and issues, I came out of the writing closet and:

• Joined a writers group and religiously attended until the rest of my life got in the way.
• Attended a writer’s conference and followed some of the advice I gleaned during attendance until the rest of my life got in the way.
• Started a weekly blog, actually wrote every week, until the rest of my life got in the way. My blog site
• Created an Author Website and updated it regularly before the rest of my life got in the way. My Author Webpage
• Started a twitter account and consistently kept up with it, but realized it gets in the way of my writing life. My twitter site

Still unresolved for 2013:  Figure out what’s going wrong in the rest of my life so I can get my writing life back on track, oh and vow to finish something–anything that I’ve started in all prior years combined.

Unresolvedly yours, (& yes I know it’s a made up word.)

Until next time, wishing you all a happy, prosperous and successful New Year!