THE YEAR IS UP

The 365 day deadline snuck up on me yesterday while I wasn’t looking. Just read over my first blog entry on Dec 8 last year to see why I embarked on this project, and whether or not I achieved anything.

Well, a Julie Powell I’m not, which was what got me going in the first place (Julie & Julia). No book deal, no movie deal, no magazines or agents tracking me down, no article in the New York Times, or even in the Launceston Examiner for that matter. Admittedly, I wasn’t exactly doing anything or writing anything worthy of such coverage anyway, so there’ll be no claims to fame emanating from my scribblings of the past year.

So, what other writing did I complete besides the blog? 1 children’s story sitting in a folder, 2 half finished children’s stories, a few more paragraphs to a story started about two years ago, rough notes on ideas, that’s probably about it. Not exactly prolific am I? Obvious I’d never make a living from my writing.

So what do we do when we find there’s a monumental gap between wanting to do something and actually doing it? Tendency is usually to give up, it’s too hard. Giving up on the dream is an option, bit depressing though, I could whip myself for being so undisciplined, or put together a structured plan to approach it more systematically, but somehow I don’t think it would make a lot of difference.

When it all comes down to it, I have to have something worthwhile to say in order to be motivated enough to say it. Well, not necessarily worthwhile in the sense of being profound, but something that’s burning a hole in my brain, or my heart for that matter, an issue running round in my head, an idea itching to be scratched, an injustice that’s got me riled, a situation which makes me laugh or cry or scares the hell out of me, all of these and more are grist to the mill.

So, time to pull up the socks and head out once more into the fray. Until a bolt of lightning hits me I’ll keep blogging away.