The Phoenix Effect

There’s something about retiring the old calendar and starting a new year. There’s an inherent sense of rebirth: a new year, new possibilities, new goals, new plans…

Or maybe that’s just me.

I’m the sort of person who has a hard time looking back over the past year, seeing the highlights and lowlights. (Though some years are easier than others.) My brain just doesn’t work like that. I’m too busy looking ahead to the new year and what it will bring.

I spent the second half of 2010 dazed and disoriented from the sudden death of my dad. The whole of 2011 was a struggle to get my feet back under me and find some equilibrium between the things I needed to do for other people and what I needed to do for me.

In 2012, I found that equilibrium. I auditioned for shows. I went to my 5-year college reunion and saw Jane Lynch deliver the commencement address. Designed and built a house. Started this blog. (And a massive THANK YOU to all of you! You’re amazing! ♥) Made new friends. Began new projects that challenge my storytelling abilities. Went to Toronto and the World Fantasy Convention. Survived the apocalypse.

And I wrote throughout it all.

2013 will be even better. There’s the film project and seeing a novel out for submission. Applying to a workshop for genre writers, or attending another convention if I’m not accepted. A couple big things that I don’t want to talk about until they’re definite. I may tackle learning a new language, or playing an instrument, or singing again…

That brings me to New Year’s resolutions.

I don’t normally make them. They seem like things made to be broken. But this morning, I discovered I have goals — habits I want to develop over the next year — that I know no better name for.

I made a list:

• Pay more attention to what needs doing and just do it. Don’t procrastinate.
• Write more letters.
• Use the library more.
• Challenge what scares or intimidates me.
• MAKE GOOD ART.

What resolutions have you made for 2013? And/or: What are you looking forward to in the next year?