New Resolution

I seriously thought about re-hashing all of the old New Year's resolutions this time around again: eat better, exercise more, write the Great American Novel, etc. Blah, blah, blah. That lasted about ten seconds, the last nine of which were spent laughing at myself for even thinking I'd follow through with any of them this year.

The "novel" bit hurt, though. Yes, I've repeatedly failed, but not for lack of trying. I've attempted NaNoWriMo each of the past several years. (I've got the sweatshirt to prove it.) I've got a half dozen beginnings, maybe a few more that actually made it to 50,000 words of (what might be considered) "middle," but no endings. Maybe what I need are results a little more tangible.

Lately I've revisited some of my old short stories. Seems like not so long ago that I was writing these, but as the cursed date column in Windows Explorer points out, the last one was actually written in 1999. Sure, I've tinkered with a few since then, but nothing new in the past decade. I've got almost 30 (mostly horrible) short stories from the 90's but a big fat zero from the Naughties. I think I need to make a change for the Teens.

So this year, with no serious resolution in hand, and thinking that I'd like to do something different in 2011, I've decided to write some short stories. Eleven of them, in fact, because fuck it, why not. I like prime numbers and there's a little poetry in that. Eleven in 2011. Twelve seemed too much a cliché almost. (One per month? Bah.) One or two seemed like hardly a challenge.

I'm going to dive in with the idea that this could be the short story equivalent of NaNo. They don't need to be polished or great. They don't need to be read (readable) by anyone else. They don't need to be gems. They don't need to be long. Just done. Beginning, middle and end. Eleven of them.

Now, of course, the irony. I have a story in mind. Been turning it over in my mind for a few weeks. Something that shouldn't take too long to write. And as I sit down now ostensibly to write, what do I do? Scribble out a blog entry about the writing that I haven't started. (Sigh.) Ominous beginnings. Let's not hold our collective breath just yet.