Resolutions. Jut the word conjures up the failures of years past, so why am I bothering to make a couple this year? Because among the failed attempts to exercise for an hour every day, make home cooked meals for the family every night and write a masterpiece, there have been a few successes that have moved me nearer to my goal. The secret has been to keep the resolutions simple and very easy. And I never call them resolutions; they’re goals.
A couple of years ago I managed to get back to doing yoga every day by setting a goal of 5 minutes a day. I could manage that, and if I did 6 minutes I was proud that I’d exceeded my own expectations. So, for 2012, I’m setting myself a couple of easy goals. First, keep writing my blogs. In addition to this one, I have one I do for the local online paper, and another one for my family and friends. I don’t want to write them every day – that would probably just annoy the readers. But I do want to make it a more regular activity.
Second – revise my novel into at least the ‘Slightly Better Second Draft’. I’m expecting this to be fun, so it shouldn’t be too hard to do, so long as I make the time to do it.
Third, I am going to stop using the word ‘very’. That doesn’t seem much of a goal, probably, but until someone pointed it out, I didn’t realize how frequently I used it in my writing. I checked the first five chapters of my novel, and sure enough, there were about 20 instances of ‘very’, many of them in situations where I could have used a more effective word.
For example: very large could be replaced by enormous or huge. Very happy becomes ecstatic, delighted, or thrilled. Very angry might be maddened, enraged, furious, threatening – no shortage of synonyms there. It might seem a small thing, but if it helps to improve my writing I’ll be very happy. Oops. I mean ecstatic, delighted or thrilled…
Happy New Year!
I liked your blog very, very much. Happy New Year. Love, Linda
Love your resolution about eliminating “very”! Reminds me of my beloved 10th grade English teacher, who warned us against overusing it. Now whenever I resort to it, I actually feel guilty. Happy New Year!
I love word-eliminating resolutions! When I was in grammar school, my mother cut out the word “should” for a year. It wasn’t easy to do, and it wasn’t entirely successful, but it showed the whole household how often we said the word. Have a very happy, no, have a brilliant New Year!
And I’ve just realized that I’m rather fond of ‘rather’. That’ll have to go too!