‘Appy new year, everyone! (And send my late birthday condolences to Jesus)

Well, I’d like to start this update off with yet another apology for my incompetence – Indeed, I said I’d have Chapter 3 of Noumenal out for you to read weeks and weeks ago. In repetition of chapter 2’s debacle, this has not happened. Why? Because I’ve frankly been lazy – university was out and I wanted to recuperate before beginning on my Holiday assignments. I wanted to enjoy christmas; there I’ve certainly succeeded. Had the whole family over for the meal and bought plenty of books to inspire me, including House of Leaves, The earthsea trilogy and wouldja believe it 4 Full-metal Alchemist volumes. I’ve decided to improve my media diet, the poverty of which is often a cause of burnout or general ennui.

Y’know, if it wasn’t for my burnout over the weeks leading up to christmas, I could excuse this literary inactivity on some sort of sabbatical, but such is not the case. I am guilty of being a RIGHT slob.On top of that, I should have taken time to read through other people’s hard-earned projects: NaNoWriMo has been and gone. From what I’ve gleaned, you’ve all done a cracking job – several of you have cranked some lovely, inventive short stories out and really pushed themselves out of their comfort zone. As for me, well…I got through 2 chapters of an admittedly ambitious novel idea and am still working on the third. Worse yet, I haven’t even made a post on this blog for nearly three bleedin’ weeks! So much for accountability: I’ve let myself go completely astray, to be frank.

But whining about my failures won’t achieve anything, will it? I need to do something!

Last year’s Resolutions – Easier said than done

Some age-old traditions still have good intentions behind ’em. I mean, christmas was supposed to be an opportunity for charity – indeed, crumbs of the sentiment still remain ungobbled by consumerism. Wassailing was an excuse for exercise, Snapdragon for overcoming fear – for those who don’t know, the latter game entailed snatching raisins out of burning brandy…try that next Halloween in place of your apple bobbing! Then, the subject of this heading.

I’m not sure about the rest o’ you, but the act of throwing out last year’s calendar makes me reflective. Before I even think about what went well, I think about the opportunities wasted and the blunders I’ve made – evident in my introduction, of course. I don’t just settle with one resolution. I make a catalogue of them. and my brother will not let me forget them. He archives each one in a special pocket of his numerous folders just to rub it in! If a resolution is not piddlingly easy or draconianly enforced, I forget it entirely or (for I am mortal) tried to avoid commiting to it.

For an example, let’s haul up last year’s bucket list to check their success:

• (Yes! It’s another bullet list to end the year! Hope you’re not sick of them!)
• Start a writing Blog over Easter (Achieved late – started over summer)
• Have my Novel “Proto-sophont memories” drafted by summer. (Hell no.)
• Attend a creative writing course (Succeeded August)
• Run a new roleplay Campaign (Piddlingly easy)
• Complete my second year assignments without requiring any extensions. (Came pretty close but no)
• Take up Yoga to improve posture (Lasted a little while, but fell out of habit)
• Et cetera (Lots of red)

You can probably see why people stick to one easy target for their resolutions – seeing yourself fail at all your own ambitions is rather disheartening. Besides, best laid plans of mice’n men yadda yadda. But for me, I feel like it gives me options to better myself. Half-arsing something is not at all commendable, but at least an attempt leaves me with something constructive to work with. If I don’t win last year, I’ve laid sound foundations for a head start the next. All is not lost.

So…what shall my resolutions be this year? Well, I did an hour of planning sunday morning and condensed my targets down to this resolution trinity: One for my Blog, one for my writing and one for life.

• I will aim to post at least once every week, with a book review every fortnight (gives me time to read the thing around university obligations)
• Outside of blogwriting and University preparations, I will aim to toll up 4,000 words towards a project/short story per week. Doesn’t sound like much, but again, just you try to balance that with travel, assignments, homework and family obligations.
• I will intensify my exercise routine – jog further distances, get more fresh air and go for more walks. Given the seditary lifestyle of a writer, this is essential in stopping me from developing lumbago.

Of course, it’s all well and good setting these targets, but I’ve got to make an effort to actually do them…thus why I’ve endangered my sanity by exposing this online! With the (admittedly listless) eyes of wordpress upon my pledge, the illusion of accountability will be far greater, even if none of you give a fornication about it! I mean, even this talk about targets is pretty boring, so I don’t blame you. In fact, I’m going to stop blabbering about this slop right now in favour for somethin’ more interesting:

Bounty of the (undisclosed) Hiatus – Not another pixel project!

Although I haven’t really been refining my “online release” draft for my Noumenal chapters, I have still been ironing out the plot and working on some base-line concepts for later chapters: I’ve basically got the first “Book” of the serial down. Come new year, once straggler assignments are properly dealt with, I’ll have an entire half semester free for continuing the serial! I swear to god, as soon as I find the time to get chapter 3 over and done with, I’ll be pumping one out every fornight. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye, bake my gonads in a pie etc etc. Even if I begin to tire of the idea of the project, I’ll keep it going if there’s a demand, at least until I’ve finished the “first book” of the serial and redrafted it.

Unrelated to my Noumenal project, however…

I came up with the weirdest Idea for a Deltarune secret boss. I’ll be posting that seperately so the poor readers don’t have to trawl through my self-improvement ramblings to find it. I actually made several designs like this over the last week of university as a bit of fun. Nothing pretentious – writing is supposed to be fun, and I do not condone fanfiction for encouraging such experimentation.

On top of that, I shall probably be revamping the design of this blog at some point. After all, this puke-green background and lazy layout has lost it’s charm, hasn’t it? My Brother’s skilled in HTML and the like, so he’s offered to help me neaten things up a bit, should I get the chance. Surprised my blog has managed to accrue 37 followers in all, despite the irregularity of updates and shoddiness of materials! Well, should turn this around in the new year: a sub-resolution, as it were.

Anyhoo, hope we’ve got another decent year before us, in spite of the usual doomers and cynical forecasts. I should like to turn this blog around for it’s own first year anniversary. Good luck with your own resolutions, stories and miscellaneous projects, y’lot!

(Don’t forget to drink responsibly)