The First Blog of a New Year

Every year, on New Year’s Day, I make it a point to do the things I want to carry through the next year. One of the things I’m doing today is writing my blog, because I have let it go for too long.

I had burned myself out writing daily for a year, so I let it go for a couple of weeks, which turned out to be two or three weeks, then several weeks more. Then I lost the habit of writing and the initiative.

Now I’m thinking of writing today. Not a resolution, but a goal. Which means I need to set it up as a SMART goal — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound. Here goes: I will write my blog at least twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, in the morning before I work.

Now that I got that out of the way, here’s my first blog of the year:

How was 2025? It was a year of shock and horror looking at what came out of our government. We became a harsher, more bitter nation, obsessed with ‘sticking it’ to someone else. Personally, it was a year of little excitement, of doing my day to day routine and getting by. I don’t mind that; I’m older, and I’ve wearied of big surprises. My bipolar is under control, and my weight is down by almost 70 pounds. I pulled triumph out of failure for my research this year and made two presentations, which will keep my boss happy. I am one year closer to retirement — I’m looking at 5 years now.

What are my big plans for the New Year? I have two books I want to publish at the end of the year: a Kringle book and a Hidden in Plain Sight book. I have completed both (except for a cover for Avatar of the Maker). Finishing the editing and the formatting was a 2025 goal that I discovered at the last minute. Other than that, it will be another year without big surprises. I hope. Especially from the government.

It’s Fall, and Maybe I’m Making Progress.

I’ve remembered to write my blog today, about one day later, so maybe I am making progress.Time to remind myself that I am a writer, even if I feel little like one lately. I have a book I want to write, a Christmas romance novel, of which I have the basic outline laid out. I will start writing it on November 1st. Even if I don’t get those 50k words by December 1, I will make progress.

Photo by Kadri Vu00f5sumu00e4e on Pexels.com

Then there’s the other story, the one I don’t think is going well. Maybe I should look at it and see what it needs. A burial in a lead casket is a possibility unless I figure out how to make it a little less dark. Maybe it’s supposed to be that dark, but it’s ceased being fun to write.

Maybe I’ll feel like writing again, and it will become part of my life.

A Really Bad Job of Writing

It turns out I’m doing a really bad job of writing lately. I always seem to forget my writing days. Maybe I have a lot more to keep my mind on than usual; maybe work is calling me away too often. Maybe I’m just tired. But my writing (both blogging and story-wise) are not happening.

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Maybe it’s not the season to write. I hope that’s not the case, because I’m supposed to write a Christmas romance in November. I’m already going to be a couple days behind because of a conference I’m going to.

Here’s hoping the universe showers me with the gift of writing.

Perhaps a Controversial Move

I’m still not doing well with keeping up with blogging, but I do have some good news!

I just laid out a project in Scrivener. A new Christmas novel to be written in November for Novel November. Novel November is likely to be controversial because ProWritingAid essentially took over NaNoWriMo (it used to be a sponsor of such) and some associate them with the statement NaNo made accepting AI written projects.

I am joining it anyhow because I use ProWritingAid as an editing tool, not a composition tool. I do not see this support as endorsing generative AI. I would never endorse that, because it degrades writing and critical thinking. ProWritingAid does not appear to support using the program to write.

I believe Novel November will help me through my writing slump. It has already, as I have outlined the novel already and I am excited about writing again. Wish me luck!

Ten Thousand Views

According to JetPack this morning, my blog has gotten 10,000 views. That’s incredible! I know there are blogs that have gotten a lot more than this, but I didn’t expect my blog to have gotten this many!

I’ve made a lot of posts, maybe 2000 or so. That means my average post has gotten maybe five views. But they add up, and five per post is not bad for a humble little blog that is just my meanderings.

I should plug my books at this time, because my books are where this blog started. You can find my magical realism (?) and Christmas romances at this link: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Lauren-Leach-Steffens/author/B08KHCNJ3W?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Thank you for reading!

Not Doing So Well With This Little Audacious Goal

I set up the little audacious goal to write on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and have not done too well with it. I have the time; that’s not the problem. The problem is that I have forgotten about the goal and suffer from a degree of inertia on those days.

Once one quits writing, it’s hard to go back to that place. I have run into the same thing with my novel writing. The negative self-talk has taken over, and I don’t feel like I have too much to contribute to the world with writing. It’s keeping me from writing. I don’t like the current book, which is too much of a downer. I’m not sure if I’m going to get through it.

What I need is an attitude change. The little audacious goal is something I have to want to do. Right now I don’t know if I want to write. I think I need a message from the Universe (which I certainly believe can happen) to help me get back on track.

Or at least I need to follow my little audacious goal in the meantime.

little audacious goal?

I have lost track of writing this blog.

I lost my daily habit, and those pauses in days have become pauses in weeks, and then nearly a month. This is what happens when one loses a habit.

I feel like I have nothing to say, because I haven’t been using the daily prompts, because they were a means to an end and not necessarily what I wanted to say.

I now have to make a decision — what do I want to use this blog for? I want to talk about things of interest, and the daily prompts accomplish this. I want to stay away from politics because I don’t know if I have anything constructive to say. Social issues — I can talk about those occasionally because I do think I have something to say there. My books — I have always wanted to talk about my books, which includes my frustration in not writing lately.

I guess I need a little audacious goal to write again. It needs to be SMART — I will write three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (with some flexibility). I will use prompts as needed and some self-driven content. I will write about writing at least once a week as I originally intended. I will check weekly to make sure I’ve written my three days.

Hold me accountable.

Why I Blog

I ask myself this question often. I don’t know if I am satisfied with any of my answers, but I will spell them out as honestly as I can.

I originally started blogging as a way to publicize my writing. I write magical realism novels and Christmas romances. They’re very different from each other. It turns out that I talk little about my novels, although I am still writing them. You can find my novels at this link: Lauren Leach-Steffens’ author page.

After a while, I started writing because I liked the concept of followers. I like having an audience for writing, even though I know it’s more “pure” to write for the simple joy of writing. I have extrinsic motivation for writing.

For the past year, I wrote because I had a Big Audacious Goal of writing 365 days in a row. I made my goal a couple weeks ago. It took a lot of work. Then I took a break.

Now, at the moment, I write because it’s a habit. I think I have good things to say, and so I write. I still want followers, I still want to sell books, but I’m now writing (for the most part) to be heard, by whoever wants to read my writing.

The Enjoyment of Writing

Daily writing prompt

What do you enjoy most about writing?

View all responses

What I enjoy most about writing is the ‘aha’ reaction I get when my mind finds a new twist or a new direction to go while writing. I am what is known as a plantser, somewhere between planning the book and flying by the seat of my pants. In this method of writing, there is a certain amount of writing with the flow, although it’s grounded in a general outline. This gives me plenty of room for ‘aha’ reactions.

I love it when I learn something new about a character, for example. I will do this while writing, where suddenly one of my characters does something surprising. I have to pause and see whether it’s out of character, and if it’s not, then I have learned something new about the character. One of my favorite recurring characters, Luke Dunstan, still surprises me at times.

Plots behave similarly. I might find a plot point flowing through my mind and onto the screen. I test it to see if it works, and if it does, it becomes part of the book. I don’t know how it happens, but it does. Maybe my subconscious does more writing than I give it credit for.

The ‘aha’ of new developments is my favorite part of writing.

Update

I’m back from my adventure in New York. I still feel like I could use some sleep.

I only have two weeks until classes start again. Where did the time go?

Here’s hoping I feel like writing again before I run out of time.