Why can't I keep this blog?

1. Everything I know tells me that journal keeping - of any kind - is good for you, as well as being essential for creative people. I know this. So why don't I manage to keep one? I can't be that busy - I think to be honest it's more about lack of confidence on the page. I see my words and cringe. I think about writing and cringe. I think about myself and cringe. No wonder I have problems finishing my novels, plays, poems... So, I have decided that I will keep this blog every day. I will stick to the three creative thoughts/ideas formula that was working for me before - and I will think of a suitable punishment for myself if I don't keep it. Probably to do with cleaning. That should do the trick.

2. That's my first creative thing for today: a promise to myself. And behind that is an ambition to get my work finished and out there. And behind that is a need to keep myself afloat in every way. I have been thrown on my own resources for the last ten days or so in this ongoing cold 'snap' that has blocked my car. I am living in a beautiful frozen world, a time of purification, of cutting back to the essentials, of keeping going, on my own, and not letting myself slip into a deep drift of dangerous darkness. I know January is my dark time - this year I am going to resist it.

3. I've sent off 10,000 words of my novel to a competition. I am preparing my poems for printing. I am going to finish my play. These are all practical, possible projects. I will start 2011 open to new ideas. This blog will help me find out what they are.