New Year Musings and Goals

2013, 2013, 2013…..I feel excited about the New Year.  New possibilities, new directions, new goals: what does life have in store for me in 2013, where will my muse lead me in 2013: when, how, why and most importantly What IF?

Today I have reread my journal from last year.  Many of those notes became blog posts, some became polished pieces of writing; some saved for the future.

In my mind, 2012 stands out in three positive ways.

1. Organizing;
2. Experiments in Writing;
3. Dolls.

Highlights:
In the Organization Category, I threw away, gave away, recycled away things from my home.  There was no question in my mind that if I was going to move forward I needed to let go.  The oldest paper items trashed consisted of notebooks from a class I attended more than thirty years ago.  That should give you an idea of what I was up against.  It is amazing how much accumulation there is when a person has closets, drawers, and a garage.  And if you are the kind of person who says to yourself, “I might need that some day”, then the situation grows to gargantuan proportions.  I won’t bore you with any more of these details.

The most interesting part of the organizing evolved during the summer.  I began to organize my childhood life on paper:  time line of all the places I had lived with a list of ages and grades and schools.  Then I filled in the blanks with as many memories I could remember: good or bad or indifferent.  Lists of pets, favorite books, adventures, emotional moments, religious events, vacations, family, re-locations, friends, teachers, mishaps, holidays, relatives; I struggled to bring memories to the surface; to the surface for a particular reason.

Writing Category:
I experimented with writing as I wrote my blogs this year: sarcasm, travel, novel.

I explored my memory banks because I was looking for the voice of a child character for my story AND sad-to-say I couldn’t feel what it was really like to be a child anymore.  My personal quest was to find my childhood voice.  I actually found several voices depending on my age.  The voice of wonder spoke loudest at ages 5-6-7ish.  An angry voice at ages 13-14-15ish.

I focused my memory searches on the voice of wonder because that voice represented joy.    A new character entered the novel I’d been building for a few years (with more research than actual writing) and that character was a six or seven-year old girl and the NaNoWri novel I wrote in October 2012 is actually that girl’s back story, a completely different novel than the one I had worked on.  Hope that makes sense!

Doll Category:
I wrote a blog Post,  Doll Memories, and mentioned that dolls have been a re-occurring thread in my life.  Maybe its beginning to make sense why dolls resurfaced this year as a symbol of childhood wonder and joy.

Organizing, Writing, and Doll Making will all continue as goals in 2013.

Wonder…magic…awe…immense!  I want to capture those abstracts in my novel.

Update:  about my NaNoWri novel.  I am typing my handwritten draft and have about half of my notes completed.  Once I have a typed draft I’ll be making marks with the RED PEN and I’ll be rearranging the chapters for better flow.  Then the real editing will begin.  More updates to follows.