2017: The Sunset Year

Happy New Year, Cyberspace!!! It is officially a brand new year full of fresh experiences, adventure, and–of course–magic.

And not only is this year brimming with magic and destiny, it is glowing with the color of a sunset

That’s right, folks. 2017 is The Sunset Year.

Can you see it? The hazy glow of an orange sunset, spiked with swirls of pinks and yellows as the burning hydrogen gas ball we call a sun sinks lower beyond the purple mountains? Can you feel the gentle brush of wind as the sky is splashed with bursting color?

That is what this year looks like to me. Colors. Swirling pinks and purples and brushed orange and soft yellows. This is the year of color.

And it is also the year of creativity.

See, my goals for 2017 are extremely extensive, and my plans for Smudged Thoughts are even wackier, so without further ado, let us talk about all of them.

Arts and Crafts Center

First off, as I’m sure none all of you remember, I am going to be opening up the Arts and Crafts Center.

Actually, that sounds cooler than it actually is… Basically, it’s just a tutorial type thing for making bookish trinkets (but Arts and Crafts Center sounds ten times better, so that’s what we’re going with [and also probably some Doctor Who stuff because I am now officially obsessed with that show, so yeah.])

Poet’s Corner

Second is the Poet’s Corner, which is a place where I’m going to be sharing my poetry. (Which is currently a collection of two rather shabby poems [my hopes for the prosperity of this venture are quickly dwindling])

Photograph Prompter

And third is the Photograph Prompter.

“What is the Photograph Prompter,” you ask? Well, I am so very glad you asked me that.

The Photograph Prompter is actually very complex: it is a writing prompt based off a picture.

I know. Crazy, right? Never would have guessed that.

Basically, every month I shall be posting a strange, seemingly random picture, and it is up to all you writers out there to write a 200 word or so short story thingy-ma-bobbin to go along with it. You can either share it with the whole of Cyberspace on your blog and try to land onto the WINNERS page here at Smudged Thoughts, or just keep it for yourself and look back on it in later years, thinking,

“Hey, I remember writing this because some random weirdo on the internet told me to.”

(I’m secretly hoping this doesn’t already exist. I haven’t heard of anything like it???)

The goal of this is, of course, to keep a healthy diet of writing throughout the year. Maybe you’ve been going through a writing slump, or maybe you’re stuck on a really tough chapter, and you need something weird and wacky to happen to get you through it. This is the purpose of the Photograph Prompter. It is meant to pull the creativity out from the very depths of your skull, and turn a simple picture (or not so simple?) into words on a page.

Pretty cool, right? No?

Moving on…

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait… With all this new–and might I say boring?–stuff going on in the Smudged Thoughts HQ, what’s going to happen to all those ingenious and witty posts we’ve come to know and love?”

Well now, I’m glad you asked that. Never fear, dear Cyborg, as every week I will still be posting my usual Smudge brimming with wisdom and understanding. Sort of.

See, this year is also pretty busy for me, what with finishing my novel, editing said novel, publishing said novel throwing said novel in the trash and starting over, so there might be a week where I post a book-craft tutorial instead of a How To Kill Your Main Character Quickly and Effectively (in five easy steps). But don’t worry, because I’m also not that crafty, so this is a very slim chance.

Rest assured that there are plenty of What To Do When Your Muse Has Abandoned You (and didn’t leave any cookies) posts in the works.

And when I say in the works, I mean that I just made that up. And I am totally writing that post, so you have been warned.

Anyway, I hope that you guys are as excited about this Sunset Year as I am. As this post obviously wasn’t anything more than just telling you all what’s going to be thrown in your face over the next year, I’m happy to say that there is going to be a *SUPRISE* Thursday post! Yay! Woo!

This post will be called, as I have fondly dubbed it,

How To Begin Writing Again After An Extremely Long Hiatus

Because yes. After November, my writing life took a dump and never recovered.

But obviously I cannot be the only one, so come and join us on Thursday as we discover how to claim the glorious title of Writer again.

Hopefully.

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Well, that’s about it for this Smudge! I hope you guys all had a wonderful Christmas, New Year, and are just as eager as I am to start 2017! How has your writing life been? Have you been keeping up with your personal writing goals? Are you feeling like you’re a writing failure (like me)? Are you excited for the future Smudged Thoughts pages??? Are you obsessed with Doctor Who? Tell me all the things in the comments below!

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