“…December is traditionally a bad month for writing. It is a month of Mondays.”

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

The first time I read it, I breezed past this statement. December? A month of Mondays? No, not here. But now that January is here and the schools are back, the chocolate eaten, the house returned to its normal state of just-about-ready-for-a-good-sorting-out (although I’ll have you know that I am exceptionally tidy; I just happen to live with grubs)  and I have once again spent a whole week sitting at my writing table, the document history on my computer tells its own story. Yep, before Monday, I last opened any of my writing files on the 19th December and work in the two weeks preceding that date was…..sporadic. Um. I can see the advantages of the pre-computer age; it’s so much easier to fool yourself on paper. It can’t  have been just me who not only made colour-coded revision timetables but who also made long lists of revision sessions undertaken and perhaps, now and then, misremembered the time actually spent labouring over Physics or whatever. Good for morale, you see. <Ahem>

And so I have been thinking about what I want to achieve this coming year. I don’t make New Year’s resolutions – I gave them up along with the colour-coded revision timetables – but I have reminded myself of a few things:

1. I can’t edit what I haven’t written.
2. No-one has to like what I write but shared writing can grow into stronger writing.
3. I’m privileged to be able to spend so much time doing this thing that is so fundamental a part of me – and I should not be abusing that privilege by using the internet so much. Online shopping can never constitute research. Neither can Facebook. And probably not this blog either…..