Writing From the Bones, and other New Year's Resolutions

In mid December, i decided I owed a penance to a growing stack of unread hardcover books in my house.  In 2014, I read an unaccounted, but significant number of ebooks on my iPad's kindle app, while I accrued an impressive list of hardcover books that I wanted to read, on parenting, sustainability, buddhism, and writing;  or felt I should read, on parenting sustainability, buddhism or writing.

So in December I picked up one of these books, The Universe in a Single Atom, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and decided I would read it before i shifted to less esoteric material.  I also took the time to combine the stack of unread books on my desk, bedside table, and bureau, and now count 18 books purchased in the last few years with every intent to read them, but which are, as of yet, unread.  After finishing that first book, I picked up Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, and decided I would read that in lieu of an electronic something or other.  Best decision I've made all year!  The book is full of writing exercises, which prompted me to pick up a more or less daily writing exercise, but besides that, it is an enjoyable read.

My 2014 new year's resolutions were to write a book in a month (yes, there is a system, yes, people actually do it, no I did not fulfill that resolution).  Another resolution was to begin a 5 minute per day meditation practice, with the goal of expanding as time wore on.  That was a hit or miss resolution - I did establish a meditation practice, but not until June or July, after DH bought me a beautiful meditation cushion (guess I'd been talking about meditation for a while).  So I began meditating, but for 10 minutes a day, and not nearly every day.  I've had fits and spurts of daily meditation, but while I have meditated more in 2014 than I ever have before, there is plenty of room for improvement in 2015.

The thing that I am really excited about, is that in December of 2013, I began the book in a month process, with a 9 month old baby in the house, no less, because I have an idea in my head that I can't let go of.  I progressed on a couple of 'days' worth of process - which was to lay out the overall story line, then the specific scenes in the story - but here is where I got stuck.  The story line was a little stilted, and I couldn't get behind my character's motivations or environment.  The great news is that after I started reading Writing from the Bones and doing some of the writing excercises, some of the loosening exercises, I found my old project and cracked the cover on it.  I re-read the story line and the scenes, and I was able to tweak it enough to get really excited about it.  With a minor plot tweak, I can get behind my character's decisions, which seem much more real, in the new scenario.  I am so excited to get back into it, though here I am on a blog I haven't visited in four and a half years, instead of working on that.  There will be time though.