Monday, December 5, 2011

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS?

  
By Rosalie Brinn


“By a vote of 77 for and 10 voting against, this New Year Resolution is hereby passed and …” Wait a minute. Is there a Congress in our minds? Do we put the things we do to a vote? Every New Year it seems we do. Yet no matter how many resolutions we write down and enact into law we all break them. Fortunately we never have to face a Senate subcommittee or hire a lawyer lest we go to jail for said offense.

Yet as each year draws to a close the ending is always the same. We run to get paper and ink to admit what we have left undone by what we plan to do.

Is your list always the same? Going to the gym and losing weight are always favorite number ones. But why try to lose weight in winter when our bodies are in opposition to this goal? And why do we have to go to the gym in order to lose weight? Can’t we knit or crochet in front of the TV so that we can’t munch out as we watch Sex and the City? An exercise DVD done at home, alone or with a friend is easier and more likely to be done.

Now we are coming to the big one. Since we are all writers, we must find time to write. But we never have enough time. It is true we all have to do some kind of work. In this case work is defined as anything except writing. Yet somehow work seems to prevent us from writing as much as we would like to.

Help is on the way. When traveling it is possible to write a paragraph or two. On paper if by bus or subway, in the mind if driving a car. While walking, especially across a street, the mind method is recommended. Also look closely at your fellow pedestrians, one of them may provide a prototype for one of your characters. Then one can pen a few words while on hold and even dash down a paragraph or two while in the midst of a boring meeting.

The main case against resolutions is that we really don’t need them. For heavens sake don’t we know the lacks in our lives? And although Ann Landers and Dear Abby are both gone, collections of their letters of advice are available and if carefully read can guide us for solutions to our current problems.

December is young as I sit here. I did not wait until the last moment of time to write this and maybe not write it at all. Now I can, with a clear conscience, concentrate on Lady Alyse and her myriad of problems. She is, disguised as Louis a young French page, about to meet Santousha a fortune telling gypsy. Who knows what will happen when Santousha has her palm crossed with silver?♥



Rosalie Brinn lives in Long Island. She started writing as a child and now considers it her passion and true vocation.  This article was previously published in the RWANYC newsletter, Keynotes.

3 comments:

  1. Shooting for 1000 words a day.
    Thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post! Thanks for the wonderful advice.

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  3. Good post about writing whenever and wherever one can, whether it's for 5 minutes or 5 hours. Karen K.

    ReplyDelete