Janet Fitch always said when I was in her workshop, that you must write an hour a day, no matter what. If you didn’t exercise the muscle it would atrophy. 2014 has tested that theory to the extreme for me. It’s been so hard to even sit at the computer and stare at the blank page, so I didn’t bother sitting there. I would use my phone to access emails and then I wouldn’t feel guilty about doing nothing. But that’s no way to achieve anything. Sometimes you just have to fake it until you make it. That’s my new mantra. Start a sentence and you’ll make a paragraph. Keep going and soon there will be a page, maybe more. I don’t feel alive if I’m not writing, creating some new world, inhabited by flawed, challenged people. Stop looking for answers, just get to work. It’s successful in any situation, not just writing. No more complaining, it’s the beginning of my new year. Forget January and February. They were just test months. The real year is just starting. HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVERYBODY!