I’ve been writing a lot about creative intentions and thinking about my own for 2012. Now that the new year is settling in, I’d like to share some of what I’ll be up to over the coming 12 months.

1. PUBLISHING. It’s no news that I’m a convert to indie publishing, and have taken my rights back from Penguin so I can publish my own work as ebook titles and print-on-demand (POD). Just before Christmas, I republished my first novel (originally Lovers’ Hollow), giving it back its original title: After The Rising. It’s early days but I can already say that I’m finding independent authorship a more rewarding experience than traditional publishing. So this year I’ll be carrying on with that: in January, a sequel to the first novel, called Before the Fall ; in Spring, a nonfiction book, How To Create Anything. And two more novels before next Christmas.
2012 INTENTION #1: To self-publish at least three more books.

2. POEMS. I’ve come to think of poetry as the purest form of writing. The poems rise in a different, much less conscious, way than the longer prose works and, for me, having enough space in my life to to be receptive to a poem means I’m living right — in balance and not too busy.
2012 INTENTION #2: To organise life so that I stay open to poems.

3. BLOGGING. From your feedback I’m hearing that what you most want from this blog is short, regular pieces about the creative process — and some more insight into my own process. So that’s what I’ll be aiming to provide over the course of 2012, three times a week or so.
2012 INTENTION #3: To hone the Go Creative! Blog.

4. READING. 2012 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’s birth. In honour of the master, I’m reading everything he wrote. I downloaded a complete works to my kindle – a lot kinder on the wrists, and pocket, than a print version would have been – and began at the beginning. But they’d arranged the books alphabetically, beginning with American Notes, the account of his trip to the US in 1841.  I prefer reading them in chronological order  and so (with a quick detour to read his last, unfinished novel, Edwin Drood, prompted by the BBC’s dramatisation) that’s what I’m doing.
2012 INTENTION #4: Make every second book I read this year a Dickens book, until I’ve read them all.

5. WALKING. Dickens was a great walker and he adored the streets of London, as do I. Now that I’ve settled in this great city, I want to get to know it better. And I also want to walk more, for the physical and the creative benefits. So I’m going to combine the two.
2012 INTENTION #5: To walk to, and/or from, work (six miles approx), taking lots of different routes [and, as always, stopping en route for coffee & FREEwriting ].

There is one other biggie that I’m not going to tell you about for another two weeks. Let’s just say a website is in preparation and a lot of you are going to like it… a lot.

In the meantime, research shows that writing our intentions down makes us more likely to deliver so I’m opening comments on this blog post, for you to put yours in writing below.

What do you intend to make happen in 2012? How’s it going so far?