December’s Resolutions – Why Wait for the New Year?

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Since it looks as if I’ve managed to score an entire month at home – I should be in Toronto all December – I’ll use the time to get my writing life in order – and if some housework happens to get done at the same time all the better, but no promises there.

1) One big goal is to develop my blog into a serious mix of blog and webpage with loads of articles all neatly (ha, in my dreams) categorized, mainly in the areas of spa, solo travel, scandalous women and outdoor adventure. So far, I have managed to get my own website, wanderingcarol.com, and get wordpress up on it, but the thing is, I can’t figure out how to actually get in there to blog anything. As soon as I get over the embarrassment of admitting this (oh, wait, I think I just have) I’ll figure out who to ask for help.

2) By January my friend Michele Peterson, who is also working on a book, and I have pledged to hand over everything we have written so far of our manuscripts, including scattered chapters, vague outlines, etc, to each other so we can help each other with structure. Hopefully this will motivate me to fix my first chapter, which takes place in Paris and involves the Buddha Bar, the Hotel Crillon, too much wine and (as it stands) too much whining. Either I need to drastically cut it into a prologue or draw it out into full scenes. Right now it’s a sad hybrid, but I’m not ready to kill it totally.

3) Get my winter columns and articles planned out. My problem is that there are too many stories I want to write and ideas are flying around my head like banshees. I need to focus, pare down and um, well there’s always room for improvement, write funnier, faster, be more profound, more entertaining, and stop using ‘I’ so much. This, like housework, is not likely to happen, but maybe in 2010!

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