Collage of own writing notebook and craft project

As much as I love making lists, I honestly cannot remember the last time I made New Year resolutions. I stopped when I realised, I was stressing myself out for no reason. As daft as it sounds, it was almost as if I didn’t want to be caught out by the ‘failed resolutions’ police!

Instead, I now think about what I’d like to achieve creatively for the year while reminding myself that it’s ok if I don’t achieve every single thing I’ve thought about.

In no order whatsoever, these are what I’ve come up with so far…

Books I plan on reading:
As I didn’t finish the books I’d planned on reading before the end of 2019, I’d decided to start my reading year with those. I’m sad to say, although I got halfway through the stories in Stephen King’s ‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’, I’ve decided to put it aside for now as I was struggling to get into the stories.

The three I didn’t get around to reading are Neil Gaiman’s ‘Stardust’ (illustrated), Patricia C. Wrede’s ‘Thirteenth Child’ and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ‘Guns of the Dawn’.

I’m hoping to also read the books my boys gave me for Christmas – Pat Barker’s ‘The Silence of the Girls’, which tells the story of ‘The Iliad’ from the point of view of Briseis. And Bettany Hughes’ ‘Venus and Aphrodite’ (non-fiction). The plan is to read these by the end of February.

However, thanks (or ‘no thanks’) to the BBC’s latest offering of ‘Dracula’, I’m now re-reading Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’.

In case there are those who are planning on watching the 3-part adaptation, all I’ll say is, for me, the first 2 episodes were brilliant, but the last episode was an absolute, complete let-down!

Writing:
I’m still working on my latest WiP, the one I started in September. It’s very loosely based on the ‘Jack the Giantkiller/Jack and the Beanstalk’ stories. I’m on the fourth draft, and each time I think I’ve nailed it, I make what I think is just a little change, but which ends up having a cascading effect on the characters’ interactions. I’m hoping by the time I’m on the fifth draft, I’m done with making such changes.

Also, instead of concentrating on that one piece of writing, I think it would be good to do regular writing exercises. For me, that takes the form of writing short stories based on story prompts, something I’ve only ever done between WiPs.

Craft:
I’d just like to get back to crafting regularly, instead of only doing it when I want to try out something new or when I want to make a gift.

There is a project I’d planned on doing last year but never got around to it, what with the upsetting start we’d had to 2019 followed by bureaucratic guff around trying to get a job. I’ve already got the supplies, so there’s no reason why I can’t do it now.

Using Graphic 45 papers – ‘A Place in Time’ and ‘Seasons’ – I’d like to make seasonal layouts to go in a shadow box frame, which can be hung in the entrance hallway.

Starting a Patreon page:
This one, I’m really not sure about at all. When I was talking about needing to start looking for a job again, and because my options are limited due to my age and my weakened back (due to the hotel housekeeping and care worker jobs I’d had last year), a couple of friends suggested setting up a Patreon page to take some of the pressure off.

My knee-jerk reaction – what could I possibly offer and who the heck is going to want to pay for it? Add to that, my almost phobic dislike of asking anyone for money/payment! So, that one is going to require a whole lot more thought than anything else on my list.

And now, over to you. Are a ‘New Year resolution’ kind of person? Or do you prefer to go with the flow and just see what happens?

My (Very Fluid) Creative Plans for 2020