Welcome to the Year of the Maze Rat

My Writing Goals for 2026

This is for me, more than anything. I do want some sort of “Declaration of Intent” for the year. I think it’s something like this:

“Be happy, not productive.”

That may sound like a cop out, but it’s designed to reorient how I think about my writing projects, because I often feel guilt for not doing them and they become a chore, which causes anxiety, and guarantees I avoid them for longer. By viewing them as a pastime and hobby, I’m more likely to do them.

Of course, that has the effect of belittling their value, their supposed worth to others outside myself. But that’s a toxic way to view the world, that hobbies and pastimes are not important while “work” is. I had that; I’m don’t with it. Make art, be happy, leave the profitability to the misers and oligarchs (and we’ll deal with them elsewhere.)

As far as my specific items I want to accomplish, I’ll keep it simple:

Diary of a Maze Rat

Maybe venting here will be more healthy than ripping into randos on social media. After all, those messages get deleted or lost in the ether. At least this way I can log it.

So how about a post a month? That’s an easy goal.

These are things I want to write about that will hopefully bring me some joy (instead of angering up the blood):

• My updated thoughts on generative AI
• Why Hypocrisy Doesn’t (Always) Matter
• The Media Bias Grift
• The Republican Playbook

Also I want to automatically archive things, like on Substack, or whatever, so I’ll need to figure out how to do that.

Lexington Poetry Month

Every year I administrate a website that gives hundreds of folx a space to express creativity, and I flip-flop on whether that’s a blessing or a curse. (So it’s a blurse.)

I want to write my stance on generative AI and also create tools to improve the community feel of the site. I’ll need to research what this means, but I don’t think it’ll be too much work, just things like having emotes (snaps) that are visible to the users and the emoter. (I don’t want any incentive for attention to be competitive, so allowing all users to see all emotes is out of the question.)

I think forums aren’t actually a bad thing and would like to bring those back if we can keep them moderated adequately.

I think it could be ok to open the Discord, but only to people above 18.

Kentucky Writing Resources

Get at least one entry added a week, so 52 throughout the year.

Check emails once a week.

Find a way to sign people up for newsletters, or to get newsletters automatically posted and archived.

PDF

This is an abbreviation for the private writing group I attend. It is not “my” group, in the sense that I didn’t start it and don’t run its private Discord, so I won’t go into specifics about its nature or members. But it does help me get my personal writing finished, which is why I mention it here.

That being said, I have the same two goals I’ve had for years, and fingers crossed this is the year:

• Finish my novel.
• Query my novel.

Let’s Get [Redacted]

So, as we watch our fascist nation start a war with an impoverished country, all while supporting multiple genocides across the globe, let’s sip champagne and focus on our first world problems while slowly poisoning the Earth.

Happy new year, everybody!