Happy New Year 2025 by Penny Dolan

Happy New Year

and warmest wishes 

for you and yours in 2025

from all the writers of the

Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

Earlier today – New Year’s Eve – someone in the family wondered what resolutions we were making for the year ahead. The mutters showed that any resolutions are for tomorrow, and not of any concern right now. I said nothing but I have, however, slightly started planning.


During December, my mind filled up with list after list. Things to do, or get, or sort or arrange or . .  or . . . or . . . . My head, inside, felt like the arrivals and departures board of a busy train station. No sooner was one list of tasks done and cleared, than another  long list flickered into view. I gave in. Apart from a quick exchange with an editor, and lots of frantic card-signing, writing was forgotten.


However, now, even as a Procrastinator-Superior, I have work and words I would like to get done in the New Year. For a while, for medical, eyesight, and other reasons, I have got into the habit of taking the days as they come. Letting the busy weeks pass by so often I've lost track of my writing time. 

I began to recognise that something does have to happen for me to break this block. I may have found an answer. Nothing very original, just a trick that can even starts with a ruler and pencil.

When January starts, I am going to note down my real-life week and weekend schedule on a sheet of paper. I will note down everything I do do - book-groups, library story-times, clubs & classes, house & shopping, daily meal-times, time with friends & family, etc, etc, and so on. Get those hours down on paper, mark them as they pass.

Then, once I’ve seen what’s there, I will block out some solid, reasonable and regular times when I can work on my art, on my writing. Will this plan work? I don’t know, nor how my timetable will fit into our IRL at home but it’s all negotiable, even paying back a missed ‘art slot’ with an extra session.

When the shops are open, I might get some gold stars to stick on my time table if and when I succeed. And I won’t get too disheartened if it doesn’t work: it’s my timetable and a moveable plan. I can adjust it whenever I need to. The important thing, right now, is to commit to getting art done, not letting the days drift as they were late last year.

I want to get hold of 2025, and make it work for me.

Hope the year works for you as well!


Penny Dolan