The New Year’s kickoff (other than the Rose Bowl) is usually a time of resolutions, goals, wishes. I’ve had a few of the latter. For example:
I wish I had the body of Steve Reeves.
I wish I could have played center field for the Dodgers.
I wish I had played quarterback for the USC Trojans, won the Heisman, and played my whole NFL career for the Rams.
I wish I could have seen Laurette Taylor on Broadway.
I wish I could sing like Ray Charles. I wish I could tickle the ivories like Martha Davis.
I wish I could have seen Jim Thorpe play football, Babe Ruth play baseball, and Beethoven play the piano.
I wish I could have had dinner with Shakespeare and Winston Churchill at the same time.
I wish I could write as effortlessly as Stephen King seems to.
But after wishing those things, I remind myself that I’ve got my own package to work with. The cards I was dealt. My job is to till the soil, plumb the depths, hose the driveway, paint the ceiling and write the books that come out of my particular package. I have to keep improving what I have, taking it as far as I can, leaving what is out of my hands to the forces that be.
As far as 2010 goes, I wish to make some plans. The overarching plan is to make this year the most productive of my writing life. Not necessarily in quantity–though I do have several projects in mind–but quality. This will be my twenty-second year as a serious writer, my fifteenth as a published novelist. I know a lot more now than when I began. If I don’t use this knowledge, and leverage it, then I’m wasting my experience.
So here’s to 2010 (for many of you, seeing 2009 in the rear view mirror is not a bad thing), and may it be productive for you in the best way possible.
What are some of the things you wished for at one time in your life?
What are your plans for the new year?
James, my wish is to absorb some of the wisdom you shared in THE ART OF WAR FOR WRITERS then apply it. After that I want to become the Susan Boyle of writers. But I’m guessing that last spot is taken, so I’ll concentrate on your very fine book instead. Thanks for writing it! And Happy 2010.
Thanks for the kind word, EC. Happy 2010. Keep writing.
I wish I could manage to juggle everything I need to! 2010 is going to challenge me more than ever in this respect!
I don’t are for the new Susan Boyle because she is far too glam now.
As a novice writer hoping to eventually shift from a career of 19+ years in Information Technology to writing full-time (and humbly accepting the hard years of learning that lie ahead), my goals for 2010 are to soak up everything on writing, publish a few articles, and begin research on a lingering novel idea.
Thanks for your and the rest of The Kill Zone authors’ time and wisdom on this blog. Looking forward to hearing you speak next month at the Christian Writers Guild conference!
I wish I had invested in that Netscape stock in 1991 instead of just chatting about with a bunch of other nerds on that new but mostly useless “internet” thing.
I wish I thought ahead far enough to send my spare parts with my cousin Leonard the last time he took the time machine back to the eighties with a bunch of money to invest in that nerdy Bill Gates guy’s ideas.
Since I didn’t think smart enough back then, I plan to undo that mistake by writing some amazingly good thrillers and selling them while juggling a full time career, and a web talk show and spend time with my family and doing whatever else happens to come my way and barely surviving by the sweat of my brow until one day when I am old I will look back and tell stories to my great-great-grandchildren about how cool it was to live in two centuries.
i had always wanted to ride a filly to a win in one of the legs of the triple crown. and that would have been when i wasn’t living in a lighthouse in northern michigan….too late for either, i suppose….kathy d.
My wish is to get in better shape and train with my 14 year old son for the Donner Sprint Triathlon.
I also want to do a bit of travel writing.
BIG goal is to get my historical book published as well as “They Shall Rise Up and Call Me Crabby.”
Hey, the year is young.