Ever since I finished my degree in March 2010, keeping creativity a regular part of my life has been a struggle. Some years I have done better than others, be it in writing, crochet, painting, or drawing. My goals for this year are definitely more in the direction of writing.
One: Start Writing Again – focus on re-sparking creativity
As may be evidenced by the creation of this blog, this is very much an active work in progress. I even attempted a 29-day challenge to be writing-creative every day for the month of February. I didn’t quite make the challgenge for every day, but I think I managed about two-thirds. Considering I had been at a pretty much writing standstill in 2019, I’m still pretty happy with this accomplishment.
Two: Finalize the ending for Lost Uzumaki and start getting it done (Bonus Goal: Finish it!)
In my efforts to re-find inspiration, motivation, and learn potential methods to hopefully avoid falling into future lapses in creativity again; I’ve learned several things about myself. One, I don’t need to limit myself to a single project and finishing it, this actually hurt me in the long run. Let the motivation run its course and the inspiration will feed itself. Two, I’ve been pants-ing my writing and I’m really half plotter and I need to learn to actually plan out endings. Seriously, the only works I’ve ever actually managed to finish, I had end goals in mind when I was in early stages, even if I didn’t know all the filler at the time. Lost Uzumaki never had a solid plot, just fluffy concepts I adored playing with that found one halfway through – it’s not really a surprise I started struggle.
Three: Build a solid project outline for Kitsune no Tsuki, create a world building File.
Kitsune no Tsuki is a Sailor Moon/Naruto concept I’ve been playing with off and on for about fifteen years. I still adore the concept, had three story arcs in mind, my world build and plot exploded in arc 2 and 3 – which was about the time I started to learn what a true world build was (go figure). I also recently realized the entirety of arc one I had written (some 89k words) was going to have to be scrapped and reworked more or less as it no longer met my standards and goals. So we’ll see where this one goes. (smile)
Four: Flesh out concepts for Harry Potter fic idea – something Pendragon/wild fae related.
I’ve actually made a decent amount of progress on this one, and had a few fun Eureka! moments. It’s definetly helping me figure out a few things in regards to what I do and dont have to do. First plot draft – wait this isn’t my story – this is just Harry’s timeline. I dont have to write all this in the story! Then realized this same thought applied to other ideas (see point three project). I look forward to continuing to see where this one goes as I love the Harry Potter/Arthurian Mythology trope and I’m looking forward to putting my mark on it (maybe, eventually, hopefully?)
Five: Revist Ace of Diamond partnership concept – pick an actual story concept from the world build
I fell in love with the Ace of Diamond (Daiya) fandom in the last two years and had a few ideas spring from it that I noted down and started to play with a little bit. Unfortunetly they ran into an idea bounce failure of epic scale which spiraled into a stalling of creativity for me last year in general. Lessons where learned – and it was in part after discussing this with a friend that I started picking up and listening to a few of Keira Marco’s podcasts. These have really helped put a few things into perspective at the least, and given me some direction on how to move foward. (Thanks to Keira and her cohosts!)
Six: Consider a Sentinel fusion maybe?
Before reading stories from the ‘Little Black Dress’ Collection on AO3, or those written by Keira Marcos; I had never even heard of the Sentinel. That all Keira’s writing challenges/themes for 2020 are Sentinel themed has me greatly forward to what all the author’s come up with. This world build that is crossed into so many different fandoms really does have so much potential and I hope to find a bit of inspiration to do one of my own in the coming months.
Will I meet all these, probably not. But if I can build up and maintain a level of creativity in my day to day life through to the end of the year and into 2021, I will consider it a success no matter which of the above goals are specifically met. Maybe I’ll even get around to breaking out the paints and markers.
~ Lillikira
(Silver Dragonfly)
