2008 started with the specter of unfinished goals and family illness. I found out that my dad had cancer. I confronted his mortality head on and in doing so confronted my own. Faced with death, I chose to live, to deal, to move on. And so I started putting words together in this blog. Day after day I wrote or tried to. The story that came out was like nothing I ever thought I would write. But it made me what I always wanted to be but was to afraid to be, a writer. And if I could write, I could exercise, I could repair my relationship with my dad. I stopped worrying about the time lost and concentrated on the time I had, right now, to do whatever I wanted to do. I learned that Depression is a real thing, a beast that robbed me of strength but that could be, if not slain, then tamed.
Then dad had an operation.
Pulled through.
I saw him for what he was and not what I thought he should be and I saw a little of what he really saw in me instead of what I thought he saw.
Then it seemed that the cancer had returned.
But not really.
And I wrote a first draft.
Plus a TV series bible.
And competed in NaNo (and won!)
Connected with other struggling writers across the electronic ether.
Discovered old friends.
Forgave myself for my short comings.
Discovered a future full of possibilities.
The value of making the routine of life your own.
The joy of setting goals and accomplishing them.
Saw history being made.
In the spirit of all that and more I set a few goals for the upcoming year:
- To finish Neither Here nor There….
- To get an agent
- To get published
- To keep writing
- To keep working out in order to reach a healthy weight
- To continue my search for mental health
- To find the courage to confront all lives ills head on
- To re-connect with old friends and make new ones
- To expand my horizons
- To find a better job
- To live life to the fullest
- To boldly go where I never gone before in mind, body and soul
A year ago I would have said that the above was nothing but bullshit, but not today. This year, this 2008, has been the best year I had in a decade, at least and I plan to make 2009, come what may, even better.
Happy New Year, RP. I’ve gone back through some of the posts of yours that I’ve missed and I’ve seen that between yesterday’s post and others, you’ve talked a fair amount about your writing. But you asked me to give you five questions, so after some delay, here they are. I tried to avoid topics you’ve already discussed in detail.
1. Your house is on fire. All the people and pets are already out and safe. You can take only one thing with you. What will it be and why? (Harriet asked me this question, and it flummoxed me, so now I pass the flummoxing on to you.)
2. The job interview question: where do you see yourself in five years?
3. I tracked this meme back through several iterations and found this question. I like it, now it’s yours: What would surprise people about you if they met you, having only known you from your blog?
4. You get one do over. What is it?
5. How do you fit your writing into the rest of your life? What have you had to give up? (Again, largely taken from Harriet’s questions to me.)
Have fun! Please leave a comment on my blog when you post your answers.
Wow, lots of interesting questions. Let see how I fare:
1. Your house is on fire. All the people and pets are already out and safe. You can take only one thing with you. What will it be and why? (Harriet asked me this question, and it flummoxed me, so now I pass the flummoxing on to you.)
My notebooks. Too many notes, too much information. If everything else is safe then I’ll take them with me. Why? They represent what I have achieved this last year and what I hope to accomplish in the future.
2. The job interview question: where do you see yourself in five years?
Well, any work I take in the short term would exist to support my writing. In five years I see myself in London, writing and publishing more books, probably working on TV and or movies and starting production of the film adaptation of Neither Here nor There….
3. I tracked this meme back through several iterations and found this question. I like it, now it’s yours: What would surprise people about you if they met you, having only known you from your blog?
I don’t know, really. I laid my life bare on these pages, I doubt anyone that read them would be surprised by anything they see in real life. If anything it maybe how much I resemble what I write or that I am not as handsome as I portray myself!
4. You get one do over. What is it?
College. It was great but I would have liked to graduate sooner, with better grades and taken more writing courses.
5. How do you fit your writing into the rest of your life? What have you had to give up? (Again, largely taken from Harriet’s questions to me.)
It is not so much what I given up but what I gained. I gained a sense of purpose, enhanced my routine and found my calling. Writing is what I do, who I am. I may not be a good writer, but I am one and I hope to improve with every word I type.