Writing Resolutions and Reading Challenges for 2018

Lists are all over the place this time of year. The best of last year. Lists of ways to follow through on your resolutions. I myself have lists scattered throughout my home and digital life. While making lists does help me make sense of my priorities, wants, needs, etc., my focus in the next year will be to take action on those lists.

These last couple years have certainly made me appreciate the writing craft more. Not only the craft, but the physical activity of writing has helped me in so many ways. This is a list of writing action I will take this year.

1. Personal journal writing. There are some very complex issues I tackle in my own head. Racism, sexism, political issues, friendships, family, grief. I definitely saw an uptick in my personal writing after my father passed a few years back. It helped me heal a lot, especially when the emptiness was particularly distracting. Each year I must write more to unpack heavy stuff. However, I find gratitude writing to be super great as well. I find that when my feelings manifest in writing, I can analyze them easier and address them better.
2. Work journal writing. Oh man. I just got into this in a real way. I always had notebooks and stuff I wrote in, but I never dedicated a journal to specific work-learning. It has been a game-changer. There is something to be said about how different reflective learning is from the traditional learning that bored me to tears all through my childhood. Figure out how you learn best and go with it. Personally, I take obsessive notes. 
3. Taking more obsessive notes! I just moved my mom into our home and a whole bunch of childhood, teenage and college notes came flying at me out from the past. It was hilarious and often very, very weird. My written word is out there, in hard copy. Perhaps not published, though some is, but it is not made of 0s and 1s. Plus, I often say if I didn't write it down, it didn't happen. 
4. Review said notes. One of the actions I want to take in my work journal writing is to actually review and take action on older notes. I have a tendency to write things down and bury them. 
5. Consolidate said notes. Google Keep has been interesting. I'm just a pinch nervous that I'm going to really get into it and Google will taketh away. They have before. 
6. Read more. I'll always try to keep writing book reviews, but right now I'm really trying to focus on just reading more, especially books. I only read 9 books in 2017. While I set my goal at a reasonable book-a-month pace, I truly would like to at least get to 20. You cannot write well if you are not reading.