A New Year of Priorities

Another year ... gone. Poof!

As I have done for the past five years, I spent last evening watching the HGTV Dream Home Special. The house they build all year long then give away to one lucky winner. This year, the house was built in the Florida Keys. A couple years ago, the house was built in Lake Lure, NC. I've been in that house. I think it's still empty. The winner sold it back to the land developer. Dream Home winners never live in the houses they've been lucky enough to win. They can't afford to pay the taxes. So ... in a way ... the contest is a joke. Just another advertising gimmick, really, that's what it is.

But I still watch, drool, and enter. Maybe this year, huh?

I've made no resolutions this year. Nope. Not a one. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I'm sick of them. They bog me down for the first three months until I can forget about them. All I know is that changes are definitely on the horizon. But I've mentioned that already. It just feels good to write it. To see it written. To hear it in my head.

If you're a writer, however, the act of sitting your butt in the chair and placing your hands on the keyboard ... must take over as a priority this year. If writing is truly what you were born to do, then you must find the time to allow your muse to overtake you. Blogging doesn't count. Blogging, it seems, has become a form of writing to "replace" the writing you put off. Blogging, though important, is no substitute for your storytelling, your poetry, your unfinished memoir.

I've clicked on some blogs that astound and amaze me. Long, beautifully crafted pieces that I'm assuming the author wants to eventually publish. But I wonder how much energy they have left to write the rest of the day. These blogs are endless entries of the blogger's travels, their gripes and complaints, their thoughts on everything from A - Z. My question is ... where is their book?

Although I love to read blogs, catch up on a few, and believe they are a way to warm up the fingers--writers who blog should not feel as though once they've blogged their word quota is up for the day. No, blogging (in my humble opinion) should be just what it is. An online journal. A way to wake up with a cup of a coffee every morning. The real work ... the writing that matters ... should come after the blog. Spending anymore time than 20 minutes on one blog entry is biting into your time. Time that could have been spent on your next article, outline, or prologue.

If you don't see a blog from me every day ... just know there's a story I'm working on instead. I'll get back to the blog when I can. Blogging is not a priority. My blogs are just a howdy. A few random thoughts on writing, a way to let off steam, a bit of sharing the events in my life. Maybe even a few pictures here and there.

And so, to end today's blog ... I begin a new year of writing. A new year of changes. A new year and a new book. A year of no resolutions. Just priorities.

Blessings to you and yours.