One Word for 2014: Progress

Once again this year I’m marking my “blogiversary” (number two!) by participating in the One-Word Challenge offered by Melanie at Only a Breath.

Last year I chose the word renewal for a number of reasons that you can read about here.   

This year I feel that I’ve accomplished that goal, if not everything I had planned to do during the year. I am beginning 2014 renewed, refreshed, and ready for a productive new year.

 In that spirit I’ve chosen one word in anticipation of the coming year:

 

 Progress, either as a noun or a verb.

This year I am ready to and want to move ahead with my life.

I'm going to be a bit more cautious, though, and not try to stake out too many divergent roads.

So for my purposes this year, I’m defining “progress” in terms of writing. Time passes, and we need to choose what we do with it, and I think it’s time for me to take this whole thing seriously.

Last year I took three writing courses. I made a few submissions to publications and contests and was thrilled to have a short-short story accepted by the journal The Quotable, which should be appearing in February (something to look forward to!).

 

In two of the courses I took, I worked on another short story, and I ended the year by submitting that one to a contest for new writers (that is, unpublished in a large-circulation print journal) in Glimmer Train. I’m not getting my hopes up; I have three other “backups” at present to submit it to.

 

Another story I've been working on is just about ready, and I hope to submit it soon.

And there's my long-neglected novel. Last year I stated right here that I wanted to have my second draft finished by my birthday in September.

 

That didn’t happen.

 

However, I have some time off now at the end of this year, and I’ve already begun looking over the manuscript again and organizing my files. I was inspired this year when I learned that a former writing classmate had had her novel published, one that I had helped her work on in a private writing group. Now I think: if she can do it, so can I!

 

So my first intermediate goal is, during this “down time” from work, to get to work on the novel again and try to start a writing habit that I’ll be able to keep up when work projects begin to come in again.

As a former writing teacher said, Onward!!

Do you have one word you can designate as your goal for 2014? Visit Melanie’s page to learn how to get a button!