Laurel Snyder

So, it’s that time again, when we hang up new wall calendars, stare at them, and wonder… what happens next?

2012 was a good year, a great year!   But (like most of you) I’ve been thinking this week about what I want to do differently in 2013.  Because if things can’t always be better, it’s true that they have to change.

So I’ve come up with two big goals.

The first is obvious and dumb and basic, and everyone makes this resolution.  But now I’m joining the team. I want this to be the year I start taking better care of myself physically.  I want to go back to dance class, and I want to  visit the dentist when I’m supposed to, and I want to drink more water and take my stupid vitamins and eat better food.  Somehow, though I work very hard to take care of the kids, my well-being tends to get set on the back burner, and that has to change.  So I’m putting it out here, on the blog, essentially so that my mom can remind me I committed to it this year.  (Got that, Mom?)  This time next year I expect to be THE PICTURE OF HEALTH.  Roses in my cheeks, lustre in my hair, a bounce in my step.

The second is that I want to make a promise to myself, about my writing.  I want to try very very hard not to think about selling the books I write. I want to scribble poems again, and I want to take bigger leaps with my prose and my picture books, be more daring.   I have two picture books out this spring, a novel coming in 2014, and another picture book in 2015.  There’s plenty in the pipeline, and no excuse not to take some time to dabble a little in the weird.

Recently, I began working on a story for Mose and Lew, JUST for Mose and Lew, ABOUT Mose and Lew.  It’ called THE MAGICAL THAT, and it’s been such fun to tinker with, precisely because in no part of my brain am I thinking I can sell it.  It’s tailor-made for two very particular kids I love dearly, and that’s enough.   More than enough.  It’s so much fun to write for specific readers, to tweak and twist the vocabulary for them, add in details I know they’ll like (ninjas, mostly). I’ve never done that before, and it feels great.  (if violent). I want to see where this leads me, creatively…

I think I need to do this now. I think I need to get back to just playing with words. The work changes when it’s under contract, when a deadline looms, when other eyes are on my drafts. That’s not a bad thing at all, and I don’t mean to seem ungrateful. In fact, I’ve learned a lot from the process.  But it’s different. Right now, I want to play. I want to dream. I want to wander a little.  Make sense?

So that’s me, in 2013. Nothing major, but enough.

Of course, I’d also love for remarkable things to happen to my books already in print.  I’d love for some producer to fall in love with Any Which Wall and make it a movie. I’d love to sell foreign rights to everything. I’d love for my February book, The Longest Night, to get spectacular reviews.  I’d LOVE those things. But they’re beyond my control, so they can’t be resolutions…

What about you?

I wonder– in this strange world we’ve got at the moment, with bizarre weather systems and fiscal cliffs and Mayan doomsdays and neverending election cycles and speeding technology and constant contact, what do YOU want from 2013?

Got any resolutions? Any goals? Any dreams?

 

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2012 at 1:52 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.