A FRESH START...

Yep, it's here.
2016
No matter how much you ignored it, or celebrated it in style..the new year is here.
Sitting.
Waiting.
Staring.

A blank canvas waiting for me to put my mark on it. Hmmmmm. So of course I prepare.
One can't merely plough full on into a new year, you must sort yourself, prepare yourself and your writing environment.  Get yourself mentally and physically ready.

Tidying my desk, is of course on my list of MUST DO items.
It always is.

And I do tidy my desk...occasionally. The trouble is, it never lasts.

For a day or two, perhaps even a week it looks so sleek and inviting and appealing. I become lost in admiration of my own hard work.

In my dreams my desk looks a little like this...

in reality, it never ever will be. This is a part of life that I must come to terms with and accept.

Eventually.

So before I do anything else I must tidy my desk, my writing area. This will, on a good day, take about a month.

Perhaps two months, allowing for distractions such as finding long forgotten rejection letters, Christmas cards from 1994 and some electronic component of something or other.

Then of course I must organise, to some extent, my stationery. How can one write if one doesn't know where the nearest notepad and pen is for those sudden bursts of brilliance?

This could take me, looking on the bright side, about seven days. Eight if I have to test every pen I find to ensure that it does work.

Then of course there is the mental state to get into. I must remember that this writing business is not a race. That I am not competing with anyone else, merely myself. That I can write, how and when I like. There is no right or wrong way....

I have to have a plan of sorts. What will I work on this year? Something old, something new? What are my goals? 

More thinking and planning required. 

Getting myself into this mental mode will take me, assured that I have already dealt with my desk and writing paraphernalia...about six weeks. Don't they say it takes at least that long to turn something into a habit?

And I must ensure that physically I am in the best writerly condition. That will require doing some form of exercise besides lifting a coffee cup to my lips. Add another two months, no better make that three to be on the safe side. Don't want to begin a novel and find that I've pulled a calf muscle. 

2016 is here and I'm champing at the bit to get into it. It will just take me about seven months to get ready to begin. Then of course a few weeks of deep thought to decide what I plan to do.

So by about July I should be able to make a start. If all goes well.

Watch out 2016...I'm getting prepared.. to get ready... to begin... to think about you.

At least that's the plan.

What's yours?

Vicki