tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post2437976114427362505..comments2024-03-18T10:29:46.055+00:00Comments on Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff: Let’s Not Do ThisKen Armstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-89683443223702231232013-12-29T13:51:18.296+00:002013-12-29T13:51:18.296+00:00I’m not sure that pausing every now and then and r...I’m not sure that pausing every now and then and reflecting is necessarily a bad thing and ends of years are as good a time as any especially since most of us are on holiday and actually might have a few minutes spare to do some reflection. I’ve never been one for targets though. I know it helps some people to have a goal to work towards and it helps if the goal is attainable but the problem with attainable goals is that there’s the danger we’ll pace ourselves and exert only enough effort to attain that goal. Of course if we set unattainable goals then it’s easy to give up early and treat what we’ve achieved (which may well have exceeded any attainable goal we might otherwise have set ourselves) as a failure. When I worked for the civil service we had annual reviews as you do and part of said review was to set goals for the forthcoming year. I was always awkward about it. “I’ll do my best,” I’d say. “What more can you ask from me?” I suppose others didn’t do their best, did as little as they could get away with but that wasn’t me. My personal goal in every job I’ve been was to be the best, to become indispensable and I pretty much achieved that in every job I’ve done. There’s definitely a competitive streak in me. Which is why Carrie and I have never played a board game or broken open a pack of cards. Neither of us equates games with fun; games are all about winning. <br /><br />This year I wrote a novella and a handful of poems. I’m not even going to count how many poems but it’s certainly less than a dozen. I’ve read nearly a hundred books—and reviewed every one of them either on my blog or on Goodreads—and that pleased me. I’m nowhere near as well-read as I think I ought to be. I feel I have an awful lot of catching up to do. I don’t do New Year resolutions but really my rest-of-my-life resolution is: Read more. Read better. When I think of how few books I’ve read up until now I’m mortified. I would like not to feel that way. Name a composer and I’ll bet I’ll’ve heard something by him and there certainly won’t be a major composer I’ve not heard as many of their works as I could lay my hands (ears?) on. I would like to say that about every important author out there. <br /><br />Having no plans for the future is a bit daft but we’re not engineers, we’re writers. You can’t apply the imperatives of industrial output to the mystery of creation. Would I like to write another book next year? Of course I would! Stupid question. I’ve just written a long article on the Scottish writer William McIlvanney and when asked why he’s not written more in his life his answer is that he can only write from “compulsion”—the word occurs with him again and again. I’m the same. I have the tools sharpened and ready but I need a reason to write and that, much as it irks me, is in the hands of my subconscious. <br /><br />I did my best this year. My best is not what it used to be but I did the best I could with the time I had and by that I mean with the time I had when my head was clear. I will do the same next year. If I can’t seize the day I’ll seize the hour or the fifteen minutes.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com