I have my writer’s resolutions for 2024. I also had plans to see my first movie of the year on the Big Screen this past weekend but the movie seemed to be missing. 

The ‘Missing’ Big Screen Film

I was getting ready to see “Distant”, the new science fiction film by Amblin Entertainment that was supposed to release last Friday January 19th. However, when I tried looking for it on Fandango, it wasn’t listed anywhere. I did a Google search for it and checked the movie’s official website which stated that its release date was January 19, 2024. Other results that came up from the search seemed to be contradicting information of when it was due for release and in what venues, such as theatres and streaming video. Of what I had read back in December, the movie was supposed to release on the big screen. 

Then I came across an article about “Distant” on Wikipedia. It said that, ever since 2022, there had been several planned releases but it kept getting postponed and that it most recently had been taken off the January 19th schedule. So, why was it postponed again? As far as I know, that’s as much of a mystery as its next planned release date. 

Well, there goes the first big screen movie of the year that I had planned on seeing. I had been debating whether to see “I.S.S.”, which also released this weekend, but that’s barely science fiction in my opinion because, although it’s set in the near future, most of the science and technology in it seem to be today’s. The real science fictional element seems to come from geopolitical issues in the film. Also, there’ve been so many mixed reviews of it that I’ve been inclined to just wait until it comes to streaming video. 

3 Writer’s Resolutions for the New Year

Well, if I can’t find a big screen release to watch at the beginning of this new year, I do have something else: my new year writer’s resolutions of course! I have three of them:

1) Slow Down

This resolution was actually inspired by a pop song by Leonard Nimoy (“Star Trek” the original series). It was one that he performed in a video and is of the music genre, what we call today at sci fi and fantasy conventions, filk. The song is "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" and so is a commemoration to J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". But it was specifically a line in the song that goes "Hobbits . . . are never in a hurry." 

To a big extent, this is true. In Tolkien’s Middle Earth books, hobbits like to live quiet, down-to-earth lives (in a way, literally, since they live inside hills!) and don't like to speed through activity such as their daily work and chores. They like to experience each moment of their activity no matter how mundane that activity might be. Yet, they still get work done.

Here's a video of Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins". It's a poor quality picture but it's the only uncut version I could find.

That said, after listening to this song several times on a collection of pop songs by Nimoy and William Shatner called “Spaced Out”, I realised that I need to slow down in my life more. Not just in my writing. In fact, not in my writing at all. So then why am I calling this a writer's resolution? I call it that because, during 2023 and before, I was (and still am but am working on doing different) always rushing myself through all my daily activities, such as washing the dishes and cleaning the house, to get all of it out of the way so I could write. 

In doing so, however, I would either make mistakes that would slow me down or, when little insignificant things stalled me (or seemed to), I would get really frustrated, tense up and complain to myself. This often caused a chain effect because when I would get all these things done and then sit down to write I would be exhausted and not as ready to work as much as I should. The same types of complaints that I made in doing my household chores would carry into my writing because I would make mistakes in that. 

I've been working on just slowing down, by not complaining about the little things and just experience the activity of the moment. The ideas for my stories, for all us writer's stories, comes from life itself. And so I'm going to slow down like the hobbits to experience that life more. 

2) Go to Bed Early

This second new year’s resolution is even less a writer’s resolution than my first. However, I think it will help me write more productively. This resolution is specifically referring to going to bed early on those nights when I don’t have to be at my day job the next morning. Throughout all of 2023, I was going to bed way too late on those nights and getting up too late. This would drive me to write into the late night/early morning hours and by then I was exhausted. 

I was already going to bed early enough on those nights that I did have to be at my day job the following morning. I went to bed early enough to get some writing done in the morning even though had no more than a half-hour work on it. However, I felt more energized and ready to write than when I write in the evenings. So, if I go to bed on those nights when I don’t have to be at my day job the next day, I think it will help me to get my writing done earlier in the day when I’m feeling more fresh and alert. 

3) Make a Monthly Reading Goal

This may sound more like a reader’s resolution to some. It definitely can be a worthy resolution for some of you who don’t write but love reading. But for us writer’s it’s also a resolution that can improve our work because to be a writer you have to read even more than non-writers. I’ve been losing count so easily of how many books I read a month, which may not be many since I’m a slow reader to begin with. So, I’m going to set a goal for reading so many a month and keep track by recording the date that I start reading each book. Maybe I’ll even join a reading challenge. 

So, those are my writer’s resolutions for the new year. Do you have any writer's and/or reader's resolutions for 2024? Do you hope that a final release date for “Distant” will be established soon?

Until next time . . .