I’ve had this dry-erase board since college, maybe even high school. The magnets come in handy for pinning post-its and reminders to the wall. There’s even a koala-shaped magnet I’m using to hold onto tickets from a subscription I received from my birthday. I obviously removed the number to the pizza place we use, since we haven’t ordered from them in ages.
Last year, I wrote down six long-term projects I wanted to finish, including a video game idea and an ambitious expansion of a short story. A good friend sensibly suggested reducing the goals to the three that I had to do. These titles may have changed, but I’m proud to say that I finished these projects that are on this dry-erase board. Soon I will erase the words off the board and replace them with new ones, with goals for 2019 that I want to finish. It will probably be longer than three, and I’ll pare down.
The hard part about working on long works is the commitment over time, usually weeks and nights. once you write a short story or a poem, it’s done; you can send it off. A novel is a whole different ball game; you need to hold slippery narrative threads in your head. You have the make the time to balance out your previous assignments and ambitions. I’ve been writing freelance and was working full-time for most of 2018, so making time and head-space for a novel was easier said than done.
Still, I got it done. It just took one final push in the first week of January 2019. The right person motivated me to finish the last project, to work rapidly on Monday and Tuesday last week, with me staying up past midnight to get the words down. Now I’m just waiting, and wishing I could improve my pacing,
This year, let’s see what long-term goals we can make with the short-term ones. I have many ideas, some that may or may not last. Also, I hope to take advantage of the time I have, and write it away. There are so many words in the world, but seconds are finite.
