It's a New Year. Yay? (Penny Rader)

Joël, Evelyñ, François
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I have a secret, one I've never admitted to anyone.  Not even myself.

I dread the new year.

Sounds silly, doesn't it?  A new year should be, well, all fresh and shiny…and new, filled with anticipation and all sorts of possibilities.

I do wish I felt that way.  Instead, a new year brings new expectations.  It means I have to set goals for the year.  Goals I know I won’t reach – I haven’t met many goals I've set for several years.   I keep telling myself “baby steps.”  And I’ll occasionally make one or two of those baby steps, but they’re very few and far between.

Since negative people are such a drag to be around and I don’t want to be one of those people no one wants to be around, I work hard to keep a smile on my face and have a positive attitude, to be kind and non-whiny (yeah, big fail on that today), yet here I am in the new year:

• Still not organized.  

• Still not healthy or slender.  Mostly sick and tired of being sick and tired.  Have lost a few pounds, but still have quite a few to go. Blood tests always come back as normal.  Migraines and tummy issues flare up at really inconvenient times.  Sometimes medication helps, sometimes not.   Would love to have steady amounts of energy instead of almost constant fatigue, instead of looking at upcoming events and wondering if I’ll even have the energy required to participate in whatever family event, etc, is approaching.  I’m embarrassed by how relieved I am when there’s nowhere I have to be on the weekends or after work.  Too bad energy can’t be conserved and stored for withdrawals later.

• Still haven’t finished another writing project.  Have barely made any progress on writing at all.  I've had one book published…over four years ago.  If I were a Harlequin author I would've been expected to have written 8 -12 books by now.  If I were a single title author with one of the big NY publishers that number would mostly like be 4 – 8 books.  At the minimum I figured I’d have at least another novel drafted by now (I am a slow writer) and working on polishing it (which is my favorite part of writing).  Writers write and I haven’t been.  

• Still haven’t defeated my nemesis: fear.

So now that I've thoroughly depressed myself (and probably you, if you're still reading), I went hunting for some quotes to lift me out of my funk.  I figure if they inspire me or make me smile, then maybe they’ll be helpful to someone else.

Conor Thaxton
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“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. ”  ― Joss Whedon

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.”
— Lawrence Block

“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”  —Ray Bradbury

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.”
―  Barbara Kingsolver

Jennifer
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“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”
―  Jane Yolen

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten, --happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”
―  Brenda Ueland

“This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never end.  Keep believing. This is also for published writers grown jaded by the process.  Remember how lucky you are.”   ― Terry Brooks

"Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Claus. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will?" ―  Jon Bon Jov

avrdreamer
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“A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.”
―  Tony Hillerman

“Don’t forget – no one else sees the world as you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.”  ―  Charles de Lint

"Don't look back. Write a page, turn it over, and move on. It's easier to make changes to a book that's finished."  ―  Mario Puzo

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.” ― Elbert Hubbard

Teresa Robinson
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“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for later, something better.”  ― Annie Dillard

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun”
― Mary Lou Cook

“No one can tell the story you can tell. No one knows it. No other human can feel the emotions swirling around your characters or feel emotion on behalf of those characters unless you put those characters on the page…. Have I convinced you that if you’re a storyteller who’s not telling stories, then the rest of us are deprived?”  ―  Beth Hill

BK
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What do you do to get yourself out of a funk and rediscover the joy of life, of creating?