New Year, New Target…

There is always that voice that can encourage, there is also that voice that does the opposite. I think the best way that I have ever seen this explored would be in Disney Pixar’s Inside Out. The characters there seem to explain very well how our brains can work. Yes, I am sure there is a more sophisticated way of making it, but I like that one. This might be true for some more than others. But for me it definitely appears to hit the nail on the head so to speak.

Exciting news, today I took my dog out for a walk around a place where he loves in the local area of North Somerset. Smells everything as he is inquisitive about all things. Runs through all the puddles, yet is scared of going in the water it seems despite him being a water dog bread, apparently. He also wants to play with dogs, but is nervous when a new one that he does not know appears, or worse, a male dog appears with all their bits and he is barking before they have even appeared (He has lost his but the defence/nervousness is still there).

I often wonder what characters he has inside his head. Are any of them similar to mine or yours?

But I love this Combe, not only as it was an escape for me during the first year I moved here, it has also been when walking there that characters have appeared to me. This is then followed by a balancing act between poo bags, dog treats and a fairly hefty (please don’t tell him I called him that!) lab-golden cross as I try to remember the wonderful ground breaking character. Lets just say I have often been found talking into WhatsApp leaving a voice message to myself in between whistles and such when he pulls me around to smell under a log his missed. Such messages always get a giggle when I listen to them later. How a character is being described, their hair, or an event that came to mind, followed by a loud whistle or simply ‘****’ when a squirrel appears and his instinct kicks in to chase.

So it is probably apt that as I am writing this the montage music from Rocky IV has just started playing. Could there be a better uplifting song to overcome a challenge? Possibly Rocky I’s ‘Eye of a Tiger’ or the Hercules Disney tune of ‘I will go the distance’. The New Year is here and after last year’s wobble (as it is officially being called), I am still attempting to do the writing thing. Encouragingly, I have already thought through, written out and currently editing a near 5k short story. Post teaching life has not collapsed the universe and I am working in a local retail shop considering what to do next while thinking through story ideas between selling appliances.

I am not a fan normally of picking a date on the calendar as a ‘Day 1’, this is mainly because I have had too may of them with my never ending disagreement with the scales over nearing 2 decades now. But this year feels different, probably a reaction to now firmly being past the mid thirties mark, but alas. If my lovely dog can still pull me back to smell a leaf he missed, or enjoy the new smells after it has rained, then maybe this year will see the writing attempt go somewhere and a new target is worth thinking about.

The targets I have chosen this time I think are reasonable. Win the lottery, so that should be easy. Have one piece published somewhere (anywhere, I think is open enough to happen), along with self publish something, which means finishing either an idea that is long enough to be called a novella, or have a collection of flash fiction pieces that are vaguely linked to be collated together to be worthy of charging someone 99p. ‘The Novel’ is still being played with, but making that a target would hyperdrive the ADHD I doubt I would touch the computer with procrastination.

Therefore, bring on the New Year, today is the 5th and there has been progress. Plus the dog will be sleeping for a bit longer after exploring the Combe so I should try to be productive with this time.

p.s. I might just take down Christmas first, procrastination is the key to progress isn’t it?

Happy New Year all 🙂