Top5: Artsy New Year’s Resolutions

Journaling

I used to journal fairly consistently in high school. Then I didn’t for a bit, then I found all of my old journals and threw them in the trash. It was necessary. There was absolutely nothing in those pages I ever want to remember. After that I never really got back into it. Not in any meaningful way, but journaling is actually a great way to practice transferring your thoughts to paper. From a practical side, I could use the practice to encourage my story writing.

Reading

Every list of writing advice tells me to read more. I love reading, but I don’t prioritise it as much as I should and that’s not something I’m proud of. The power went out a few weeks ago and I read an entire novella in bed. The story wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read or anything, but it felt great to just read. My last book was an audio book and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. It was nice to be able to listen in while doing other tasks BUT that also means constantly doing other tasks instead of just focusing on reading. I’ll definitely be prioritising more reading time this year.

Short Stories

I’ve always leaned towards a short story in my own writing but somewhere along the way I got in my own head about it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I convinced myself they weren’t good enough? Which is preposterous because I love reading other peoples short stories. I think I got it in my head that if I couldn’t write a full novel I shouldn’t even try. This is peak ‘blank page syndrome’. You can stare at a blank page all day but you can’t edit nothing. Just start writing and see where it takes you. I’m going to embrace my love of short stories and focus on them for awhile. We’ll see how it goes.

Drawing

Nothing on this website would indicate to you that I can draw. That’s because I haven’t been. Not really. A few little side projects, usually for the kids, but I can’t remember the last time I sat down with my sketchbook and really got in to it. I miss it. It used to be such a huge part of me but I put it away. Partially because it was messy (painting or taking out my pencil crayons) and my kids were little and making their own messes that I didn’t want to add to. Partially because I was focusing on other things and that’s fine, but I’m ready to dive back in.

Learning

I love researching and learning new things. On the creative side of things I’m very interested in digital art and design. In grade 5 or 6 we all took a career test and got to spend the day at a job that matched our results. I spent the day at a design firm. I remember loving their desks. Covered in art supplies, big screens (that was a big deal back then!), magazine/photo clippings pinned up, and cool toys. I adored that they could have all these little figurines lined up over their screens. They all seemed so interesting and creative and I had the best time. This is a memory that I still come back to often. Developing this blog over the years has lead me down similar self-learning paths and I’m looking forward to learning more about it this year.