Still Life of a Dilettante Dabbling in Self-Discipline

My writing goals for 2012 are to:

*work 6 hours/week on a larger project

*do 3 half-hour freewrites each week

*write & post 2 blog entries each week

*every week, write & send 1 letter, preferably snail-mail

It's only a couple of weeks into January, and already I'm not doing so hot. Yes, I'm a little closer to meeting my weekly writing quotas than I am to meeting my weekly exercise quotas (my goal of doing 25 sit ups and 25 push ups at least 5 days a week has prompted me to do exactly ZERO sit ups and ZERO push ups this month), but even so: I've hardly hit the ground running.

Aimlessly ambling, maybe. Plodding, pointlessly pigeon-toed.

Shuffling.

Oozing.

Ugh! Hang on just a sec, while I attend RIGHT NOW to those overdue sit ups and push ups....

OK. I'm back at the keyboard – shakier, but on firmer ground.

Now, about those writing goals. Despite my poor showing thus far, I really think I can manage the letter, the freewrites, and the blog entries every week – at least more often than not. It's really just a question of finding (pardon me: making) the time and remembering to make good use of it.

My big concern is that bit about working 6 hours a week on some unspecified larger project.

I have an idea for a book, but it scares the bejeezus out of me – which seems to suggest the requisite probability of becoming obsessed, if I can only get myself to begin.

I've had this book in mind for...oh, probably at least five years now. I've taken a few stabs at it in the past: I have an outline, a bunch of notes, and even a series of short essays in which I began exploring my topic in more detail.

An old high school friend of mine recently read some of those essays. “I hope you're going to write a book,” he told me on the phone last week.

“I know, I know,” I said, “But I just don't know, you know? I mean, who am I writing it for?”

“You're writing it for people like me,” he said. Simple as that.

One excuse down, a gazillion to go....