Resolutions, 2018

RESOLUTIONS, 2018 I don’t at all times make New Years resolutionsâ€"and I not often really follow up on them. If you’ve been following Fantasy Author’s Handbook for a while now you’ll likely see a number of repeatsâ€"or, properly, all of these are repeatsâ€"from previous years. But this year I feel a different sense of urgencyâ€"a minimum of one is a bit more do or die this year. Most of all, although, prior to now eighteen months I’ve proven to myself that I have some untapped reserves, that I can rise to the occasion in ways I don’t always have the self-confidence to think about. So let’s wipe the slate clean of earlier resolutions, to do list schemes, and so on, and get to these three… I WILL BE HEALTHIER IN 2018 I’m not going to get into too much detail about the current state of my well being however, please forgive me, I’m going to make use of this blog to say, publically and without reservation, that (nearly) every little thing that’s wrong with me, including some stuff that has significantly intruded into both my private and skilled lives in 2017 (and before) comes all the way down to me just being way, way too fats. For the record, I don’t give a crap how much I weigh, or what I look like. There might be no “weigh ins” or before and after photographs. I simply need to eat higher and exercise more so I can sit, stand, lay down, or walk without agonizing pain in my ankles, toes, and upper back. And that ache is usually too extreme to permit me to proceed to do any workâ€"typically it’s tough to breathe. This is not only whiningâ€"this is me drawing a line in the sand with myself. I made the problem, and I’m the one one who can repair it. But from the standpoint of advice f or style authors? Look, I’ve been going to SF, fantasy, and gaming conventions for one thing like forty years now and I know I’m not alone in the Doritos and Mountain Dew “diet plan.” I hope that when you’re studying this and pondering, Yeah… me, too, I guess that you’re youthful than fifty-three and may have a longer interval of wholesome, pain-free dwelling than I’ve allowed myself when you make a transfer within the path of fine general well being. No one can learn our epic fantasy masterpieces if we die before we’ve finished them. Let’s get and stay healthyâ€"all of us! I are likely to eat (almost repeatedly) after I watch TV and by no means while reading or writing, so one road to well being is the highway that leads away from the TV. To that finish… I WILL READ 52 BOOKS IN 2018 That’s a mean of a guide a week, which I know is under no circumstances weird for a lot of you, however unusually sufficient it has been for me. And understand that this is 52 books “for pleasure,” and though I take huge pleasure in my work as an editor, I mean that these are leisure booksâ€"books which have already been published, books that I’m not editing (though I do pull quotes and concepts out of them for other stuff, however that’s me), and that I’m not being paid to read but simply the alternative. I’m going to read 52 books in 2018 only for enjoyable and private curiosity and growth. To put that quantity, 52, in perspective, though, I’ll only be counting books I really learn all the way through. I began studying forty two books this year, gave up on 17, am nonetheless working my means via 2, and completed 23â€"that’s my finest 12 months since 2011’s 33, and 2010 (the 12 months I mainly took six months off) continues to be in the lead with forty. If you’ re interested, the best books I read in 2017 had been The Haunting of Hill House and The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson, and The Dismal Science by Peter Mountford. I’m nonetheless engaged on two large books: Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert, e-book 5 in my slow (partially re-) read of the complete extended Dune sequence; and The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, a mammoth 800-page tome that I just can’t put down, and although I’m barely a third of the way in I’m already convinced this ought to be required studying in every college on the planetâ€"not simply America, although it’s message is something each American needs to hear and perceive before we do ourselves any extra harm in the cause of “homeland protection,” both public and private. But anyway… I’ll hold working my means via those larger books, however to get to my objective of a guide per week I’m definitely going to be looking for some shorter books to maintain my whole up. And hey, there ’s nothing mistaken with a good brief book. I’m nonetheless going to occasionally draw a e-book from my random sci-fi/fantasy grab bag fieldâ€"I learn a couple of good ones from that box this yr. I’ll nonetheless keep mixing up genres. I’ll be including some books for younger readers, too, together with my rising collection of the classic Tom Swift, Jr. collection, as well as books about writing, biographies of authors and different artists, and basic non-fiction of all stripes. You can follow along with that, if you like, by way of GoodReads. When I consider that I can accomplish this goal simply by selecting to learn a e-book I’ve by no means learn (or haven’t learn since I was a child) instead of watching all of The Sopranos again while mashing my face full of fat and sugar… nicely, no disrespect to The Sopranos, however that’s an easy trade-off. Good for me! But what does this should do with advice for authors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror? Stephen King said, “If you don’t have time to learn, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” And he’s right! Which brings me to… I WILL GET BACK TO WRITING IN 2018 So, 2016 sucked. It was a troublesome 12 months for my little business for a number of reasonsâ€"and none of it had something to do with the election, and so on. It took me the lion’s share of 2017 to dig out of that, but it got here at the expense of my very own writing. And just like I fell into the simple lazy thing with studying, I’ve crammed my flagging-due-to-unwell-health workday power with work, leaving no time or energy or the psychological will for writing. Well, okay, not no time, per se, but definitely not almost enough time. So back to writingâ€"and writing a lot. A few modifications to my enterprise will help that along, however nonetheless, this is going to come down to a choice between TV I’m probably not all that excited about and that causes me to get fatter or writing I’m really excited about and actually prevents me from consuming. No contest. Advice for writers? Write. It’s the primary principle. And I honestly discover it perplexing that it’s so obvi ous I’d somewhat be writing, but haven’t been. That ends now. Again, sorry The Sopranos. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans In that same Stephen King article you link in your post, he additionally says, “TVâ€"whereas understanding or anywhere elseâ€"actually is about the very last thing an aspiring author wants.” It sounds just like the cursed field is a primary issue in all your resolutions. How about doing one thing daring? Tonight at 12:01AM, take the rattling thing off your wall and shove it in your garage. I got rid of my TV just over a 12 months ago and don’t miss it… something you really need to see, you could in all probability stream online in any case. All the best in 2018! And keep up the good posts/weblog. I absolutely watch method an excessive amount of TV, however on the similar time, I don’t need to throw the infant out with the bathwater. More on that right here: /2015/01/06/learn-extra-but-not-at-all-value/