Authorial Resolve

Here at Invisible, we’re trying to keep ourselves honest by putting our resolutions into writing. Now that we’re into the first week of January, here are a few excerpts from our 2016 to-do lists:

Andrew Hood: 2016 marks the first year since I started paying attention to the years passing that I’m not really feeling the need for any major recalibration. I’m drinking just the right amount, writing tons (bad writing is still writing, btw), and horsing/monkeying around with my niece and nephew every chance I get. I’m not knocking it out of the park or anything, but I’m getting enough hits. But I gotta say there’s something comforting about feeling crooked, or fucked up, in need of straightening out. It’s sort of like editing. Overhauling a manuscript is great when you’re tackling the no-brainer stuff, but when it comes to weency tweaks, you can lose your mind over making the exact right moves. And so, in some ways, I feel like I’m starting off 2016 reading the same sentences over and over again, knowing they’re good, but that they could be a bit better. If I have any resolution to start the year off with, it’s the same resolution I have whenever I return to a story or whatever for another edit: try to see the thing like it’s the first time you’re seeing it, but with the experience of having gone over it a hundred fucking times before. Here’s to keeping it fresh in 2016!

Brent van Staalduinen: I have a number of resolutions. First, enjoy my family and extra-writing life as much as I can—with Saints, Unexpected out in the spring, a new teaching-of-creative-writing university gig beginning in January, a new baby who decided to make her grand entrance two weeks in advance of her January due date, and all the other things that life will inevitably bowl my way, I’m going to have to match their intensity with an equal effort to keep myself balanced. Second, I want to read. Not read more, but read, period, and make sure I protect some quality eyes-on time with good literature. Third, there’s a novel that has been bugging me for a number of years to get written and has even sent me to Croatia/Bosnia for research—I’d like to start writing it. Fourth, enjoy the first-novel ride, and promote and tour Saints, Unexpected as vigorously as life and time will allow. Fifth, keep shouting/screaming/singing about how much better we as humans can treat each other. And finally, no matter how red my eyes are and how much my body screams for pyjamas, try to wear collared shirts and nicer shoes more often.

Jeremy Hanson-Finger: My resolution is to balance the effort I put into different aspects of my life, even if that means I don’t do things nearly as well as I know I could possibly do them under different circumstances, and to treat myself with the same level of understanding I show other people.

Leigh Nash: I resolve to make more things by hand, like pizzas and books. I nailed the pizza on Jan 2nd, so now seems as good a time as any to share that 2016 will see the revival of no-longer-comatose The Emergency Response Unit. Look for our sharp-yet-shoddy offerings to hit the ‘net and a small press fair near you sometime in the spring.

Megan Fildes: This is the year of brain health for me! I will meditate more and stare at the wall less. I will remove all social media apps from my phone for at least 1/3 of each month and buy myself a real alarm clock. I will not always put on Netflix in the background while I’m working—instead I’ll opt for music or podcasts. I will read books about stuff I don’t know about already. I will make fun stuff, silly stuff and stuff that is only for me. I will draw and it will be bad at first, but I will get better. I will learn new creative skills with tools I already own but don’t know how to use.

Michael Casteels: For the past year or so I’ve toyed with the idea of starting up a blog. I’ve thought about doing a book review blog, or a blog of one-word poems, or a photo blog… but nothing has really stuck. My resolution for this year is to start up a blog about anything. The only rule I’ll give myself is that I have to post one blog a week. Aside from that I’m going to keep it as open as possible and by 2017 I’ll be able to look back and see what’s happened.

Nic Boshart: I’m resolving to spend much more time in front of screens—iPads, phones, televisions, but also Japanese folding screens, screen doors, and security at airports. All kidding aside, last year I resolved to watch all of Friends, and I did it! Now that I’ve climbed that mountain, I dunno… spend more time with my kid? Eat better? Something like that. Also change my name to Regina Phalange.

Robbie MacGregor: In 2016 I will spend less of my leisure time in front of screens (I’ll read more print, stream less media, and will not be so easily lulled into the dreaded social media ‘click trance’). While I intend to spend less time idle in front of the computer, I am simultaneously resolving to write more, better, more useful code (the cold months are prime programming time, so I’m off to a good start), and to do a better job keeping in touch with distant friends (if we know one another, chances are I owe you an email). Can I accomplish my second set of goals without succumbing to temptation or otherwise sabotaging the first? Time will tell.

Shari Kasman: I’d like to spend more time away from technology and off the internet. I plan on using an abacus and mortar and pestle, and also some clocks. Maybe I’ll invest in a sundial. (Do sundials really work?) I also want to drink more water in 2016.

Stephanie Domet: I love making goals for the New Year. This year is especially exciting because I recently quit my day job and am embarking on a thrilling (terrifying?) journey as a self-employed writer. So my goals for the year are to: develop writing workshops to teach in Halifax, find three new freelance outlets for my work, and of course, to write books! I aim to finish the novel I’m writing, and to write a non-fiction book as well. I should probably get started on all that, huh?

Teri Vlassopoulos: Since I pretty much exclusively read contemporary fiction in 2015, in 2016 I resolve to read books published before I was born to even it out a little. There will be exceptions of course, particularly when it comes to poetry. I think my motto will be OLD BOOKS, NEW POETRY. I’m currently reading Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Dear Leader by Damian Rogers so I think this will work out very, very well.