The academic calendar has been a part of my life since age six. I still remember the excitement of the first day of school, new pencils, one new dress laid out on a chair, sometimes new shoes, and the anticipation of another year.

Once I was an adult, the new dress and the new pencils were no longer part of the picture–same old jeans, same pencils (though I do buy a new pen to start a new story). Still, the anticipation of another year is more than dresses and pencils. This time of year seems like the start of the “real” new year. And each year I tell myself this time I’ll figure it out. I’ll be organized. I’ll be more focused. So, for this year my resolutions are:

  • keep my writing desk clean (since starting this blog post, I read “The Writer’s Room” in the Sunday New York Times, in which a number of writers show off their writing spaces and at least one says, “…like many writers I aspire to be a clean-desk person but admit the daily reality is very dirty.”)
  • read The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims
  • keep a  character journal–just a collection of possibilities–buying the notebook today
  • follow the Ron Koertge rule and start my writing time with a poem
  • follow the Phyllis Root rule and write a poem every now and then 

That’s an ok list, and it looks do-able. But it’s not all. What I really want to do this new year is scare myself, write something I don’t know how to write, something I’ve never done before, some new journey.  I’m gearing up.

When is your New Year? (I think any 365 day period can have more than one New Year.) And what would be your resolutions?