Dear Me '11

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Dear Me,

I think this might be the first year where you will really achieve your New Year’s resolution goals. After making New Year’s resolutions as a child and never keeping them, you never really saw any point to stay up until midnight to make them, never mind to keep them. This year will be a completely different story. Not only are you going to do everything you can to succeed in fulfilling your usual New Year’s resolution, but you will succeed with two main goals. You will succeed because your resolution for this year can be divided into two main concepts: healthier living and writing. Everything else is just smaller steps to help propel these New Year’s resolutions forward.

The first concept is much easier to understand in theory than to put into practical application. You must be wary of this! Time and time again you have proven how easily the human mind can succumb to negative habits. In your New Year’s resolution this year, and every year after this, we must not focus on the negative energies surrounding you, but rather set your goals firmly in your mind – you must stay focused and positive.

You can make healthier lifestyle choices by doing the following steps:
• Drink two to three liters of water every day
• Wear your corset for a minimum of four hours a day. You should have 500 hours by May 31
• Consume minimal amounts of chocolate (only 70% chocolate for the occasional treat)
• No caffeinated pop (Root beer and Ginger ale are allowed)
• No sugary candies (Nerds, jujubes, caramels etc.)
• Things like muffins and banana bread are allowed, but no icing or whip cream etc.

You will be satisfied at the end of this year when you can honestly say you stayed away from unhealthy snack choices according to your New Year’s resolution and drank plenty of water. You will know at that time that it was because of your conscious decisions to make healthier food choices that you were able to be more alert and focused on the important things in your life; doing this also better prepared you to attack the second concept of your New Year’s resolution – your writing.

It is always a good idea to try to improve your writing. There are so many ways to do this that your writing goal for this year must be very specific. Your ultimate writing goal is to have at least one of your books professionally published. This will not happen if you do not set smaller goals first, which leads us to your biggest writing goal of 2011. This year your main writing goal is to write at least the skeleton outline of the plot, with complex character development for the first novel in your nine-book-series project.

You can achieve this goal easily by doing the following steps:
• No distractions – write all of your ideas and stories, not related to your novel, in your Ideas Notebook so that you can stop dwelling on them and focus on your novel. Don’t categorize ideas as bad or good. If it doesn’t feel right to write the story now, tuck it into your writing binder for later. Writing your ideas in your notebook will also make your ideas seem more interesting and real because they won’t just be written on trivial scraps of paper.
• Get those creative juices flowing – Consider everything to have the potential to inspire you to add to your writing such as common clichés, people and random events.
• Organization – Make a conscious effort to keep your desk clean! Tidy up the desk every time you do more than a few minutes of cleaning somewhere else. Twice a month do a thorough cleaning of your desk area, organizing pens, papers, and any writing notes you may have accumulated. This is also a good time to evaluate how your writing goal is coming along.
• Discipline – Get into the habit of writing everyday with a minimum of three hours a week. You also need to focus on not typing the perfect product the first time, but rather sucking every idea out of your head. Being a perfectionist at heart, you must continually remind yourself to wait until you finish your first draft or a few pages first before going through and editing. These pieces haven’t reached their own stage of perfection yet, but they will progress at their own rate and there is always plenty of time to edit them later.
• Keep writing - Work towards typing one page every three minutes. Once you start the timer, start writing and don’t stop for anything until the timer goes off or you finish your three pages. Remember your ultimate writing goal: to publish one of your novels. Keep this ultimate goal in mind as you write, but don’t let it interfere with your creative juices!

Now that you know what you are supposed to do, go do it. Read and write everyday so you can be inspired to finish your skeletal outline and character developments for your writing project this year. You should not be afraid of mistakes; there are always new things to learn for improving yourself and your writing. Be patient with yourself, there will be times when you don’t follow your New Year’s resolution goals perfectly. When you do make a mistake following your New Year’s resolution goals, do not despair! Acknowledge your mistake and move on towards your goals. You will be happy with yourself as long as you keep trying to further yourself and don’t give up. When you feel stuck don’t be afraid to take a break and when you excel, reward yourself for completing your goals. Most of all, you should face every challenge and obstacle with a smile and encourage new situations to improve yourself. Remember that you have people in your life who love and support you and want the best for you, so don’t be scared to ask for help sometimes and go and do your best.

Until next year – sincerely, with love and encouragement from
Me

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