Saturday, January 4, 2014

Ten Writing Resolutions That Rock

  1. Type daily
  2. Handwrite daily
  3. Read daily
  4. Meditate daily
  5. Exercise daily
  6. Drink water daily
  7. Network a little daily
  8. Step outside for a minute daily
  9. Love daily
  10. Live daily
Writing is essential to mankind. You know this as sure as I do. Cave art, Dead Sea scrolls, the Bible, libraries, universities, the grocery list. It's all good. If you're a writer, then write. However you manage it.

Reading is also essential to mankind. Same list. If you're like me, reading was your first love. It was that moment you read something truly wonderful, or maybe it was truly awful...and you realized you just had to put your fingers in that socket too.

Meditation is essential to self. Spending time in your head, even if you don't like your own company, is going to get you to where you want to go. Whether it's a story idea or a New Year's resolution, as a man thinketh, so is he.


Meditation can go hand in hand with exercise, depending on what you do in your head when you're engaging your body. Physical activity has mental dividends in addition to everything else we already know about exercise.

We also already know that we're supposed to drink more water than most of us already do. Shoot for 8 glasses a day for starters. It's so good for us! And maybe the literal flow will help with the mental flow as well.

If you're self-marketing, then you can't get away from the need to Network. But hopefully you won't let it subjugate the rest of your life. Maybe set a timer.

Don't forget your roots. Most of us got to play outside for hours as kids. Don't lose touch with that. Remember what it was like to get on your knees and inspect the strange wings of that bug, or what it was like to shred the seeds from the top of the grass stalk.

Let your heart fill with love for things, people, places, events, books, characters, God and self. Readers can feel that love in your work.

LIVE. In whatever form it takes, live your life. Love your life.

In Joe Vs the Volcano, Joe has his life epiphany out on the ocean when the moon comes out, bigger than the world, and he says a most profound prayer. "I forgot how BIG...thank you. Thank you for my life." I love that scene. We have so much to be thankful for. And when we write, we're sharing that with others and maybe even giving them something to be thankful for as well.

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