I’ve never given much credence to the ‘first day of the rest of your life’ stuff, but here it feels like it applies–it matters. I am starting a new phase and I think that matters as well. Today I am determined to write, exercise, and just be a better human in general. I’m moving towards a greater sense of purpose and belonging and I am starting to behave like I am on the clock, as I in fact am on the clock.
We all are, but we rarely act like it. Each day matters, and I want to end each day by reflecting on what I did and realizing that what I did held value. I need to do something that matters each day (I need to stop the vagaries of something, but that is another post indeed).
So here on year one, day one the idea is for me to move forward with my plans and start to get everyone involved. I’ll start slow. I’ll make sure the kids all exercise a bit. I determined that if we lock into 40 pushups a day, we can move to 100 a day by the end of the year. In fact, I will make my personal challenge to move to 100 a day from day one, breaking it up in less and less sets over the course of a year. 40 is good for the littles though.
As for the writing, it is a big deal to fall into a novel. What often holds me back is not knowing a character well enough to slip into his mind and tell his story or the stories of the people around him. This one is the story of a kid who stopped a terrorist attack and paid a terrible price for that and of the people around him who treated him as a hero for a moment and then didn’t know how to treat him after. It is about the truth of their feelings coming out in times of panic and the truth of his path being illuminated.
It is also a cli-fi novella, so there’s that.
I know the character well enough now to get into the principle writing, but I cannot promise it will go well at first. There will be drafts, and maybe that is what I need for this sophomore effort of sorts.
Regardless of how it goes, this year is about the journey and this journey is one I’ve long been ready to make.