I resolve to make this my finest year yet. I vow to learn the lessons of the previous year. I will eat less cake, write more stories, leave Facebook alone, be courageous, visit sun-filled landscapes and master the headstand.<\/p>\n
I have always made New Year’s resolutions. When I was 10, I made a long list in January. The first two points were written in blue biro: \u2018Do well in French\u2019 and \u2018Practice Violin every Day.\u2019 Fairly modest aspirations. Others were more elusive, and noted in pencil, such as \u2018Be Cool and Popular\u2019, \u2018Half break-up with Sally\u2019 and \u2013 my personal favourite \u2013 \u2018Draw the Dot on the \u2018i\u2019 as a Circle.\u2019 I was all about personal development.<\/p>\n
Over the last few years, I have shared these resolutions online through data-collecting, story-writing, self-imposed projects.<\/p>\n
During 2009-10, I found a decision made in a previous year, to talk to more random people, had caught up with me. So, I started a blog<\/a> called Speak to Strangers, consisting of 100 hundred-word short stories based on these chance encounters with Londoners.<\/p>\n 2011 was the year I intended to relax more (and escape the strangers). I set out to explore the quiet bits of London in an urban walking project, Look up at the Sky<\/a>. This involved strolling along the Thames week by week, bridge to bridge, and writing about the experience.<\/p>\n In 2012, I\u2019m preparing for adventures and will no doubt build for a digital platform for the journey. Making a resolution is simple, disclosing is harder. But doing so in the guise of an online writing project – one with a precise set of rules – gives an opportunity to face the challenge in public.<\/p>\n So I say, make a resolution to make a resolution in 2012. Remember your 10 year-old self, who only wanted to be cool. Reinvent yourself. Make a positive change. And frame it creatively. What\u2019ll it be for you?<\/p>\n xxx<\/span><\/p>\n Gemma Seltzer is a writer and literary blogger. Her book, Speak to Strangers<\/a>, is available for \u00a39.99. Find out more about Gemma\u2019s work at her website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I resolve to make this my finest year yet. I vow to learn the lessons of the previous year. I will eat less cake, write more stories, leave Facebook alone, be courageous, visit sun-filled landscapes and master the headstand. I have always made New Year’s resolutions. When I was 10, I made a long list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16205,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/16205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}