In last year’s new year’s resolution post here at LoveSettlement I mostly talked about writing. That’s what I tend to think about when I think about resolutions because most of the other things in my life aren’t things to make resolutions about. I don’t make resolutions about better diet or more exercise because I eat good food as best I can and I do as much exercise as my body will allow. If I were to make a resolution it might be to get to the gym again. I am still nervous about being around people expelling a lot of breath, droplets in air being the main transmission factor for covid. The rigamarole of going to a special building downtown and changing my clothes in order to make myself tired and sore is also relatively hard to motivate myself into. I like walks around the neighborhood, even straight up the hill, and I’ve added pull-ups to that routine by stopping by a park playground and finding a bar to hang from. I have a regular yoga practice. So not going to the gym doesn’t mean I’m not exercising.
I don’t set writing goals either. I write, or I don’t. I work on projects or whatever comes. What I need resolve to get done is the marketing. I need to push myself to send work out. In 2022 I was surprised to learn that a poet friend with two books and various accolades has not been sending her poems out to magazines. So I proposed we form a mutual support group for submissions goals. We’ve been doing this for six months or so, each month setting a goal for number of places to send to. Then we check in to see how it went. We don’t set high goals, but for my friend going from none to four was a big step. I tend to set my goals low then exceed them, but when I was answering only to myself I was setting my goals high and straining to reach them, which was discouraging. Having a friend congratulate me on meeting my sub goal has been a real boost.
So long as your work is going around you place stuff. Mostly the response from editors is rejection, of course. Having rejection be the primary aspect of the process is a resolve weakener, so adding a friend’s encouraging voice — and in turn encouraging her — de-poisons the atmosphere. If my friend is amenable, I would continue this through 2023.
Another poet friend talked me into setting up a Twitter account: @lovesettlement … I did that at the beginning of October, then I read articles on how best to use Twitter. And I did all that just before Elon Musk bought it and started destroying it. I tweet links to old blog posts — and the stats for the blog posts always show 8 - 10 fresh visitors. Whether that means anyone new has stopped by to read is ambiguous. A number isn’t a reader. It may be some sort of software feeler, a bot. I don’t know. Should I bother anymore? Should I hook up with Mastodon? Some other Twitter-like site? Unresolved!
I am working with publisher AC Books to bring forth Autobiography of a Book. This year? Hope so! Supporting Book will be a task — seeking reviews, scheduling readings, figuring out what else one can do. Getting into that stuff will require resolve, but is it really any different from pushing oneself to do other things that need to be done but which one doesn’t readily want to do, like paying bills or renewing the passport? So would this count as a New Year’s Resolution?
Then there’s assembling manuscripts. I have a lot of work in notebooks and in computer files that can be organized. I have a chapbook manuscript out to a publisher. I sent my book-length poetry manuscript out to another publisher late last year. So: assembling manuscripts, researching publishers, sending those out. Resolved! Ugh. I mean, Whee!
I am glad the world continues to open up. I am adding live, in-person poetry events to my calendar. I’ll get myself to open mics again. Being around people at poetry readings is something like socializing and socializing is necessary, if hard for me. The main way I’ve gotten Thousand out into the world is by trading it for other people’s books or zines. So I remind myself to bring copies along to literary and small press occasions.
There is always something to do. I remember my mom saying something like that. True enough. People to see, things to do.
