January resolutions

I’ve been absent lately. Judging by my radio silence it’s natural to presume I’m beavering away (cue puerile laughter) with edits, publishing deals, movie contracts, casting decisions and negotiations etc etc. Well not quite, but dream big, I say. I have two days per week with a nanny (for the kiddies folks, before there are any jokes) that I allot for writing and general household admin. This goes some way to explain the glacial pace of actually getting the book completed and edited if not to perfection, at least to a more readable state. So I resolved last month to be more enterprising, write /edit everyday and get a full re-write done by end of the year. (You know, do what actual writers do.) Naturally, this leaves little time for self-indulgent introspections which let’s face it, few, if any are reading.

But oh how naive I was. First, no use making resolutions at any time other than January, pointless, particularly heading into the holidays. Why resolve today what we can put off until the new US tax year? Second, I’ve realised I am not one of those alpha females who, even if not actually attaining wonder-woman status, make a damn good impression of it. You know the ones, those mildly insufferable overachievers who build a multi-million pound knitted-doilie company from scratch whilst breast-feeding their their fifth child, or complete a debut screenplay, secure movie deal and become an online sensation all in the time it takes to line-dry their laundry (being the eco-conscious wonder-women they are, natch). Sadly, no. Too often I come to the end of the day, kiddies all snug in their beds (bliss), crack open the ole’ MacBook to work on my opus only to be sidelined by far less lofty matters like my inbox, Christmas shopping, MailOnline and Facebook (ok that’s eery, my predictive text just auto-capitalised Facebook, but not i…hmmm). I need to pull my finger out. So that’s what I’ll do, become a self-starter, a go-getter, more work less talk. Yes. Definitely. Starting this January. Because that’s what the new year is for, procrastination of self-improvement.