My Resolution

It's New Years Day. It's Sunday. So that means no one's really reading this right? I can write out my New Year's Resolution here, giving it the weight of announcement, without derailing the Comic Bloggery too much? I can lay out my thoughts, and have this to refer back to in 12 months without alienating anyone too much?

Good.

Over the past few years, I have rediscovered writing. I wrote a lot in college, but theatre eventually took over my life to such an extent that it was difficult to have a second artistic pursuit. Later, after I had left the theatre, I tried to write again. I found that the muscles had atrophied. I fought against words and syntax and struggled with phrasing. A few years after that, I started writing reviews for Operation Sports as another way to help the site (past posting new, coding, moderating forums, etc.). This very simple, very limited writing began to get those muscles back in shape, and the more I wrote the easier it got. This blog was an extension of that: daily writing that would keep the muscles limber, and strengthen them to the point that the words weren't the issue ... the ideas were.

Which brings me, inexorably, to this year's resolution: to submit for publication.

Not to get published, as that's really out of my control. My resolution is simply to get something together and submit.

By the by ... I have no interest in writing a comic. I perfectly enjoy reading them and reveling in them, but I don't think my mind works in page layouts. To start the year, I'll be working at getting back into short story writing, which is the writing I prefer best. It will be blissfully un-electronic with fountain pen and notepad, free from the cathode chain of my day job. I will also investigate non-fiction, ideally using comics or gaming as a subject.

Some steps over the year:

• It's very easy to slip away into comics and The Sporting News and cheap fiction, but good literature puts a spring in my step. I'll be reading through the some of the short story writers that really speak to me: David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, Howard Waldrop, Raymond Carver, George Saunders, and others.



• Carving out writing time will be one of the huge challenges, as keeping up with all my current pursuits consumes my day with ease.



• I am preparing a pitch for my semimonthly local newspaper. It's tiny, but would be a step in the right direction. They have movie reviews and restaurant reviews, so I'm planning a "geek culture" column pitch: games, computers, technology, comics, etc.



• I will be a NaNoWriMo 2006 participant. I almost did it this year, but ideas came to me late and required significant historical research. I'd like to stockpile the research before the writing starts this year.

Now this is published, saved, and can be held against me in late December 2006.

Hope all of you reading this (or even skipping this) have a great New Year.