Making New Year’s Resolutions has never been a top priority for me. I commit to goals all year long so waiting till the beginning of a new year to change a bad habit or create a new, healthier one doesn’t motivate me. I tend to change bad habits when I get sick and tired of being sick and tired and I don’t need a significant date to compel me to start making healthier choices. Indeed, it seems logical that many people target certain dates to begin forging changes in their lives. It makes sense. Easier to track success. Easier to remember you stopped smoking (or drinking) on New Year’s Day rather than on August 8th.
While New Year’s Resolutions are supposed to indicate commitment and fortitude, in a way—and in my humble opinion—they are acceptable ways to target procrastination. Think about it. If you really wanted to stop smoking or stop drinking, you could have done so on August the 8th and not wait three additional months to do so.
So, what is it about human nature that induces us (me included) to postpone the things we really want to achieve?
I’ve been pondering this dilemma for the past couple of months, since I went on my birthday trip to Southeast Asia in October. In my case, I had been procrastinating completing a novel I had begun in June of 2020 (yes, it’s embarrassingly true!). Having taken a break from it since mid-October, I told myself I’d resume writing upon my return from vacation. But that never happened. Or more to the point, I never made it happen. Still, I berated myself for being a slug while also telling myself I needed a break to get inspired! What a crock! Lack of inspiration is not one of my character defects. Fear is. Fear of failure and fear of success. Fear leads me to procrastination, which leads me to not remembering what direction I was heading in when I wrote that last sentence back in October.
Procrastination
It doesn’t really matter what you’re postponing—eating more healthily, quitting smoking, joining a gym, writing a novel—because in the end, it’s the same mental attitude at work. The mind telling you that you can get it done…eventually. What’s the rush? I’ve got all month to figure it out. Yet, the fear of doing it can be so overwhelming that procrastination seems to be the only viable solution.
Even though I don’t typically make New Year’s Resolutions, I actually did this year. I had to because I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Sick of procrastinating. Although I did not spell out my resolution—to write every day without fail, regardless of my mental attitude, physical wellbeing or bad time management—I have faithfully been contributing to finishing that novel (Plague) started during the Covid pandemic. Time was running out. The topic would likely be outdated if I waited even another month.
As the Plot Churns
There were a lot of intersecting subplots in Plague that included numerous characters, locations and timelines. Lots of balls to juggle. And when I first laid eyes on it (again) on January 1, 2025, after that three-month hiatus, I panicked because I had to recall how I intended to succinctly wrap it all up. Was I killing off the wicked Angela or the dubious Maria? Or maybe it was both; they both deserved it. But the more I re-read some parts of the manuscript, the more I remembered what direction I wanted to go in. That is, I think I did.
Killing off characters in my novels is standard fare if for no other reason than achieving cosmic justice. Yet, evil characters are essential to any thriller because they drive the plot line. Evil characters are my favorite ones to create because I allow my imagination to run freely. No limits. To admit I meld traits of people I know and have met in my life to create my characters would be a partial truth. As an example, one of my favorite wicked characters—a multi-millionaire philanthropist with insatiable sexual desires in the Persona Non Grata trilogy—was an amalgamation of a former boss and some well-known, real-life narcissists who take whatever they want when they want it. While I won’t divulge if I had him killed off, let’s just say he met the fate he deserved.
Whether I call it a New Year’s Resolution or just a simple goal, I plan to finally complete Plague within the next month or so. If not, I’ll have to change the Covid-25 virus to the Bird Flu. That one seems to be the virus du jour.