I hope you've recovered from all your festivities and are looking forward to the New Year. So, I have to ask the inevitable question – have you made any New Year's Resolutions?
Are they the common ones which are often triggered by over-indulgence over the Christmas period - eat less, exercise more? Or have you got some unusual, more interesting ones to suggest?
Mine invariably reflect my interests:
1) read more, especially non-fiction, as I had 2 new books as presents as you can see from the photograph above
2) be more efficient with my writing time (another classic for writers!)
3) get my family history files better organised (a perennial one for me, though I did make a bit of progress in 2018)
and.... (this is a new one)
4) make time to activate another area of my creative brain
I'm not alone in believing that this will be beneficial in my writing. Most writers will tell you that stepping away from the computer is the perfect way to solve a plotting issue, allowing your sub-conscious to tackle the problem while you switch off and get on with something else. And while ironing has its place (I do a lot of plotting and character thinking while I iron!) it's not very exciting...
So, my go-to activity when I've hit a "writerly" brick wall, either because of hitting a "plot hole" or whether I'm getting cross-eyed from sitting at my laptop all morning, is going to be textile art!
I was lucky enough to get a fabulous book for Christmas written by felting artist, Moy Mackay. I'll be interested to see whether it has a positive effect on my writing output (I hope so, as I have a novella and a novel to write in the next few months!).
So - what about those unusual New Year Resolutions? Have you got any to share?