Today is New Year’s Eve, the cusp of a new cycle, the traditional time to set goals and promise ourselves that we’ll change our bad habits. It’s a great time of year for workout gyms, smoking cessation programs, and Weight Watchers as we swarm toward self-improvement, borne along by some combination of inspiration, optimism, or self-loathing.

While I generally turn my nose up at the forced and often unrealistic nature of New Year’s resolutions, I have been looking hard at my writing habits, and have decided there’s one good habit I have slipped away from, and that I observe working for the most successful people in my business. So, here’s my resolution and why I think it’s one other writers might consider.

Write every day.

Never mind for now how much, Susan, just write every day, seven days a week. Maybe it’s a blog entry that’s due in a few days for LadyKillers or this blog site. Maybe it’s a piece of dialogue for the novel that’s enticing me away from the sequential telling of my story. Maybe it’s a short scene – something I saw on the street or overheard. Maybe it’s 1,000 words of the next book, maybe it’s 500 words, maybe it’s only 300 words. But, my advice to myself is never to say “Today’s too busy with [fill in the blank], but I’ll do twice as much tomorrow.” For me, that rarely works. If I don’t write today, the chances that I’ll write tomorrow diminish. Sad, but true. I’ll probably write a lot that’s not publishable. But in 2011, I’ll write book #3 in the Dani O’Rourke series, and maybe something else worth sharing. Not bad for a resolution!

Today is Christmas Eve. Whether you celebrate this particular holiday, any of the other holidays built around the winter solstice, or just love an excuse for giving and getting presents, here’s wishing you a happy, healthy, and inspiring new year.

If you’re a writer (like half the people I know), may 2011 be productive, exciting, and successful – by your definitions.

If you’re a parent, may your children be healthy, happy, and safe in your care during the coming year.

If you’re battling illness, grief, or trouble, as several of my friends and acquaintances are, may 2011 be healing, more comfortable, and peaceful, and may I be of some comfort to you.

If you have everything but still aren’t inspired or satisfied today, may 2011 bring an opportunity to reach out and help someone who could use a hand, some encouragement, a simple acknowledgement, or even some funding (think micro loans!).

The holiday season is an odd time for many of us, who miss absent parents, spouses, children, lovers, and other people who have been central to our lives. It’s a bittersweet time. The world’s present to us is the freedom to let us remember them openly, celebrate their lives, and know you’ll understand.

I used to work at a Catholic university, and went to special Masses. I liked best the point in the ritual when people were invited to turn to their neighbors in the pews nearby, shake hands and say, “Peace be with you.”

So, peace be with you as we face the new year together.

Two nights ago, less than a mile from my home, a young man was stabbed to death in a quarrel with one of his peers. The police quickly caught the alleged killer, who was bloodied and who was running from the scene of the crime. The weapon was recovered nearby. The victim’s friends swear he was a good kid, quiet, never looked for trouble, had plans for his future. The alleged killer had had several relatively minor brushes with the law, but early media reports hadn’t turned up anything dramatic. There is nothing else that’s been made public.

People ask writers where they get their ideas. Non writers profess to be impressed that we find ideas in everyday life, with a dose of creative imagination to jazz them up, bend them to our needs, make the crimes less (sadly) predictable. But I think we all bring our imaginations, assumptions, and need for something – order, sense, distance, resolution – to the dangers of the world around us. Maybe writers just have more urgent needs.

For example, this young man. Was one of your first thoughts, “Were there drugs involved?” What about, “Did he live in the projects?” Or, “Was this gang-related?” I’m not judging, because I start there too, far too easily. We’re bombarded by media coverage that predisposes us to assume and conclude the instant we read or hear about tragedies like this one. Our imaginations get to work far in advance of the facts.

This particular killing brings to mind the brilliance of “The Wire,” the five-season T.V. drama of crime at all levels of a city’s life. I think one of producer David Simon’s unanswered questions was, “Why is living in a rough place an acceptable reason for a death sentence?” And it’s the fictional portrayals of killings on “The Wire” that pull me up short as I struggle with this real-life death. I write fiction about people getting killed, and I don’t apologize for it. But my lesson for myself today is to remember the difference between creative imagination and lazy assumptions. Not the same thing.

RIP.

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