Why This Blog?

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

As a new year begins, I realize that these words sum up my usual M.O. I set myself goals, but not a plan to get there, and wind up with few boxes checked at the end of the year. This year the goals are numerous and diverse. I want to get out on the local footpaths to improve my fitness. I want to cook healthier meals. I want to develop my eye for composition by taking photographs of more varied subjects. I want to accomplish more day-to-day because I have finally created a schedule that works. I want to write (with a long-term goal of getting enough practice that I can eventually submit something for publication).

So the plan is this…I will bring all of my goals together under the umbrella of this blog. Each day I will schedule time to post a new photograph that I have taken sometime during the day–could be a new discovery along my walking route, a tasty new creation from the kitchen, the results of some task I finally finished, or something that just plain sparked my interest. Included in each post will be a short narrative, be it a factual account of what’s in the photo, a snarky commentary on events of the day, or a fictional story spun from the image–I’m aiming for variety in an attempt to sharpen writing skills that have become rusty from disuse.

I’ve chosen this approach to practicing prose because of some seemingly wise words I recently stumbled across — “See things as they are and write about them. Don’t waste your creative energy trying to make things up. Even if you are writing fiction, write the things you see and know.” (unknown author at RealLivePreacher.com, 25 July 2006)

In a nutshell, this blog is meant to hold me accountable to my goals each and every day throughout 2013. Slacking will be immediately evident in missing posts, so I’m hopeful that fear of public humiliation and ridicule will overcome my natural tendencies towards procrastination and playing catch-up.