I can feel it, this will be the year I actually stick to my goal of writing and posting on here regularly…starting now. I’ll settle for a couple times a month rambling on about whatever it is seems interesting or important to me at the time.
I know I’m not the only person you’ve heard say they don’t make resolutions at the beginning of the year, but here I am saying I don’t make resolutions for the new year, if only to drive the point home. I like to think about all of the things I’d like to make more space for in my life as a low pressure alternative so I won’t feel like shit if I fall short–because I can’t fall short in this case. I’d like 2024 to be filled with nights viewing more movies I’ve never seen, reading books I haven’t read, listening to new music, and most important to me is writing a damn novel (or at least starting one).
We’re halfway through January now and I’ve watched a handful of new movies.
Down • Chungking Express • Apoll0 18 • Self Reliance • The Lost Daughter
The highlight of this bunch was without a doubt Chungking Express. It’s a film I’ve seen pop up on must-see lists and shared by acquaintances as a favorite for years. I finally sat down to watch it on a cold Ohio night snuggled up on the couch with my dog, Mac, while the wind howled outside the door to my front porch. I would say it’s about nothing in particular, with a common thread of the intricacies and forms of human connection we find with strangers, often during chance encounters, spanning across both stories. Chungking Express is a lesson in the illusive nature of love as it often sits just outside of our reach. We romanticize small things until they evolve into something larger and convoluted, until we see them for what they are or lose the feeling all together.
I’ve read a couple books too so far.
Iron Flame • Ring • They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (in progress)
I find myself more often than not drawn toward fiction, so it’s always a goal of mine to read outside of the genre; the difficult part is finding books to spark my interest beyond of the norm. Hanif Abdurraqib is a writer born and raised in Columbus, the same town I call my home, and They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us is my first experience reading his work. Reading essay collections can feel like work sometimes, but there’s a familiarity to Adburraqib’s writing reminiscent of a friend sharing their thoughts with you on their interests and passions. His prose and rumination on music, life, and culture are entertaining and never tedious. Reading this collection is far from a chore.
A fantasy? Really?
Poetry is accessible and something I’ve leaned into more over the years than the big, scary fiction novel I’ve been telling myself I will write since I was a kid. I’ve got to stop being intimidated by the big, scary monster and do the damn thing.
I was sitting on my couch the other day when an idea crept into my mind, slowly forming as I grabbed for my phone and opened the notes app to jot down what I was thinking. It’s the beginnings of a fantasy story with a few important details down on paper and the rest up in the air–isn’t that how all good ideas start? You get the gist of it and then improvise from there. I have no idea where to go from here, but the bones feel solid. I’ll try to write an outline for the first time in my life and do my damndest not to feel like an imposter. I won’t take the easy way out and let the fear win.
I’ll say this year has begun a lot better than the last one and it’s partially due to how different my life looks from last January. I have my very own place, for the first time in my life, made to be exactly what I want it. I have the very best people in my corner and the least amount of stress I’ve had in a long while. Here, stretching before me, is another blank canvas waiting for new memories and new creations and new scenery. I hope you’re carrying optimism and forgiveness for yourself into these next 11 1/2 months. They won’t be perfect or easy all of the time, so create at much beauty as you can.
The Rummy Writer 