It’s not a doom laden message. In fact a small celebration. I am getting close to the end of my poem a day for a year challenge! To be honest – it’s already done. I had a bad night a few weeks ago, couldn’t sleep, all the small niggles of life piling up on me chafing. So I sat up and did the last twenty or so. They are all just waiting to be posted one after another.

But that begs the question – what next?

Well I don’t want to stop writing that’s for sure. But I feel a bit like I freewheeling now. I need to step it up a notch, push myself a bit more. However I also need to keep it realistic and achievable. With the poems, though they ruminate in my head for days, weeks even, when I come to write them down its usually fairly quick. Hence I have achieved several goals. First to get something posted each day, but second to put myself back in a state of mind where my creative juices are running all the time. I have to take into account time constraints – especially now that we have a new little one settling in.

Incidentally – I am beginning to see other benefits from this project – that I had hoped for. For a few years now I have really been struggling in certain areas, particularly at work, trying to grasp new programming concepts and methodologies. Even though some of it was very simple. It was getting me down, I was worried I had lost the capacity to learn.

My push to get back writing was, in part, in fear that I could lose the ability to do even that (not that I am claiming a special ability but you see what I mean). I wondered if I might never write again.

Anyway – over the past few days – I have started on a another new project at work (Drawing using HTML5 canvas and JavaScript). It’s all new to me – but – for the first time in ages it’s flowing. I am getting it, and getting it quickly. I feel like a corner has turned there and I think it’s because I am waking up parts of my brain that have been asleep too long. Who knows?

So what next?

My plan now is to write longer pieces less often. However – having the push of a time-table also helped, although I was writing for me I had at the beginning an imaginary audience – now a small but real audience  who were expecting each day’s post.

So here is my idea. I will write one long piece each week. Four or five a month. Furthermore they will be as follows.

1. A short story
2. A film review
3. A book review
4. Just general ramblings.
5 (when needed) another of any of the above.

I will still try to post something each day perhaps more like a journal now, something that happened that day, and every now and then some more poetry.

We will see how it goes.

Oh – and I am also planning to re edit my novel and push on the marketing for that. Plus I will gather together the poems from the year and publish those in an e-book too!

Finally – I am going to make an effort to actually be more social on this social media! I have spent so much time writing on here that I have engaged in much reading or commenting. That is something I need to do more now. I need to feedback and the fertility of ideas bouncing around. Very often something someone says to you – or a particular phrase in somebody’s work can set you off down a completely different train of thought, or give you the kick you need when stuck.  That is the beauty of blogging that I have discovered.