One Word

I believe in the cliché, "say what you mean and mean what you say." One of our  Plot Sisters, Jude, encouraged our writing group to individually choose a word that had meaning for us. It was understood that the word we chose would manifest itself somehow in our writing in the next 12 months, but it could also have other personal significance. Mine has both.

My word is diligent. While I have two completed manuscripts, a handful of essays and short stories, I've been on a hiatus from regular writing and submitting for a variety of legitimate and not-so legitimate reasons. I appreciated the challenge to reflect and contemplate the trajectory of the upcoming year. I want to continue. I want to make time to keep sitting down with my thoughts and keep the creative juices flowing. Despite setbacks or rejection I want to move forward. I want to be diligent.

The accountability, critiquing, and support that my writing group/ friends provide is monumental. We're going on four years together. Hard to believe we've stuck it out through scheduling conflicts and life's moments that pull at our time and attention. I'm very thankful. Twice a month I have the opportunity to learn from very gifted writers. So along with being thoughtful of what I want to do and where I want to go in 2016, its hard not to be a little reflective of how far we've all come.

Placing an emphasis on a goal, a journey, or even simply, a word ... is powerful. We've all got a story to tell and hopefully, this year, I'll also have a few to share.

~Cindy