Just some thoughts and ideas going around in my head while trying to figure out where I am and where everyone else is going.

Friday, January 2, 2009

And Now A Resolution

I don’t actually believe in New Year Resolutions. I think they are just something that you set up for yourself so that later on in the year or the week, you can look back on yourself as a failure or as someone without determination or will power.

When I was quitting smoking I would feel that way. I would stub out my last cigarette on New Year’s Eve, walk about free and clear on New Year’s Day and then go into a store on the 2nd and without even thinking, buy a pack and light up as soon as I walked out of the door. Can you say loser?

Loser!

I believe that if there is something that you really want to do then you wouldn’t have to set a certain date in the year for it to start happening, you’d just do it. However, this year I may have found something that I might be able to get my teeth into.

A few years ago, I bought a book by Ernest Hemingway called Garden of Eden. If I can remember correctly, it was about an author, his wife and a girlfriend that Hemingway started writing in the 40’s. Then Hemingway put the book down and picked it up again 10 or 20 years later to finish it. I guess he must have filled his time with big-game hunting, bar hopping or electro shock treatments. Anyway, so I get to about a third to halfway through the book and it changes suddenly. I don’t mean it evolved into a wonderfully new and welcomed direction. I mean that the entire flow and style of his prose had just for no reason changed. It was the same story and I didn’t like it.

I figured that this must have been the point that Hemingway picked up his story again. And recently I thought, that’s how I write but without the excuse of a 20 year vacation. You see, I have never really been proud of anything that I’ve written. I’ve been pleased with one or two pieces, but I will always go back and think there may have been a better way to have approached something, to have made it even better.

Also, I don’t often edit my stuff once I’ve written it, and to tell you the truth there isn’t much of a proofread either. I may change a word here or there once it’s published because I’ve noticed I’ve either missed something or misspelled something else. Nevertheless I’m usually just so glad to be done with it; I will just throw it out there as is. It’s like sex for me, it may not come out to be the best that I’ve ever had but the sheer joy of ejaculation will more than override the fact that I didn’t suck on this titty here or grab a hold of that butt cheek there. But like Hemingway’s novel, I'll drop ideas midstream and not head anywhere, and that probably isn’t good enough.

So this is it. This will be my resolution for the year. Even though I know that writing for the computer is different from writing for print, I will start to edit my pieces more. I will try not to bring up ideas that are dropped halfway through a paragraph or sentence. I will try to develop a steady flow through my work that will go from beginning to end. The spelling thing, I’m going to let go, if Word can’t fix it before it’s published then you’ll have no chance of me catching it.

So there it is, my first and only resolution for 2009: To try to write gooder.

9 comments:

  1. I think probably the idea behind the resolutions is to have a focused vision and to strengthen our determinations through a series of steps towards achieving them.Thanks for the other way of explanation.

    Cheers!!!

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  2. LOL @ Gooder. Oh just write how you feel. I think stories are always better that way. If people want more they'll ask for it then you'll have something else to write when your in the mood.

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  3. No resolutions for me this year. I always break them anyway.

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  4. I have ADD so I really have to pay attention to what I write. Even so.. I still miss things.

    I love your blog and I love your writing. Proofreading is fine, but don't go overthinking everything you write either!

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  5. Manifestation - I think you are correct in your beliefs, except I would ask why then do people have to wait until New Year's Eve to start whatever task or trek they have committed themselves to? I believe they are more interested in the romance of the idea rather than the follow through and if that's the case, then why bother....And what's up with the advertising, don't think I didn't catch that?


    D - I'd like to think that I do write how I feel, I just also believe in good form. It's easier to follow and keeps with my old physics professor's mantra, KISS, keep it simple stupid.


    Nite - See, a man after my own heart. Like Clint Eastwood said in one of the Dirty Harry movies, "a man's got to know his own limitations." If you know you can't keep a resolution, why make one.


    RunningMom - Thanks, I think. I hope you are not saying that I don't think enough. Or that you think that I think too much as it is and any further thinking would just get in the way of saying what I'm thinking about. Oh, I have to think about this some more LOL.

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  6. I love the analogy of writing being like sex for you. I dodn't know I felt the same way until you said it, but that about sums it up for me also... with one minor difference I am so happy to get some now that the sheer joy of writing one posts trumps the memories of the "pen whore" I used to be.

    And just so you know I feel you on"Garden of Eden" and for that very reason if more than two days passes before i finish a post I consider the inpiration gone and move on to something else. All this time I thought i was just flaky... now I know it is just me being considerate of my readers. ;)

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  7. "I believe that if there is something that you really want to do then you wouldn’t have to set a certain date in the year for it to start happening, you’d just do it."

    You are sooooooo right about that. I'm with you on the not caring for resolutions, too. Those are for suckas! LOL.

    Oh, and btw...I ADORE your blog layout. It so clean and well-kept. Don't be surprised if you dont see a modified version on my spot one day. It ain't stealing if I let you know Im taking it, right?

    I'm just sayin...

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  8. What a disappoint that Ernest Hemmingway novel must have been. Resolutions are for actual problems and most of us really don't have problems we are just to lazy to change various things, and there is no immediate need for a resolution simply because we change or correct these habits on our own time not just at the beginning of any New Year.

    Writing now that seems to be your forte or one of your stronger points. Linguistics and sorts.

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  9. Ingrid - "...considerate of my readers," I like that. I guess you're that if someone is going to take time to read your work then perhaps you, meaning one, should take time to think of their needs as well.


    Mr. Jones - Like thieves, there is no honor among bloggers. Do what you got to do. Besides, I've borrowed *cough, lots of stuff from other people and just tailored it to fit my needs.


    Chet - Like I've said to someone before, english is the language that I speak and the one that I use to communicate my wants and needs with others. If I don't do that well, I might not get what I'm looking for.

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