Sona Needs A (New) Resolution

th-1Given today’s date, it’s an appropriate time to talk about new writerly beginnings, don’t you think? I mean, blank slate, resolutions and all that. (And also: FREAKING OUT. Debut year is here!)

So let me say this: I don’t have a problem with beginnings. I love the first smitten stages, when you’re exploring the possibilities of a new idea, spinning characters and seeing the whole thing take shape. It’s endings I have an issue with. So much of the time, I just can’t get to the two sweetest words in the English language: “The End.”

All that said, I have a confession to make. Every year, I make grandiose resolutions aimed toward meeting my inevitably pie-in-the-sky goals. I’ve always dreamt big, and my eyes are bigger than my stomach, etc. And every year, well, I mostly fail to meet those expectations. Because always on my to-do list there’s one particular project that I hope to complete. And it’s the one I fail at every time.

This year was no different. For more than a decade now, I’ve been chasing this story — it was once the book of my heart. It’s not so much anymore, but boy is there a lot of old school Sona in it. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to write — I’m not quite that girl anymore. But maybe that’s why I’m so committed to finishing it — she’s such a big part of me still.

So once again this year, I’ll be chasing that goal. I’m resolved to do it. But I’m a sucker, maybe, because there’s that hope rearing it’s pretty little head again. Maybe this will be the year. You never know. So here’s to blank pages, and filling them up with words. May your 2015 be fruitful.

Author: Sona Charaipotra

An entertainment and lifestyle journalist published by The New York Times, People, ABC News, MSN, Cosmopolitan and other major national media, SONA CHARAIPOTRA currently curates a kickass column on YA books and teen culture for Parade.com. A collector of presumably useless degrees, she double-majored in journalism and American Studies at Rutgers before getting her masters in screenwriting from New York University (where her thesis project was developed for the screen by MTV Films) and her MFA from the New School. When she's not hanging out with her writer husband and two chatter-boxy kids, she can be found poking plot holes in teen shows like Twisted and Vampire Diaries. But call it research: Sona is the co-founder of CAKE Literary, a boutique book development company with a decidedly diverse bent. Her debut, the YA dance drama Tiny Pretty Things (co-written with Dhonielle Clayton), is due May 26 from HarperTeen. Find her on the web at SonaCharaipotra.com or CAKELiterary.com.

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