The Grinch and New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

Until recently, I was the grinch or scrooge of New Year’s resolutions.

I thought resolutions were cliche, hard to keep, and designed to make you feel bad when they are broken. I didn’t want to get sucked into that, so I stayed away from them.

But here I am, being super-cliche, writing about New Year’s resolutions right after the new year. (I know, I can practically hear the scrooges grumbling.)

What changed my mind about New Year’s resolutions? I realized that resolutions are simply another word for goals.

Goals are necessary for we writers. They’re the pesky, little friends that keep us on track.

The new year is a great time to look at what was accomplished the previous year, and to set new goals.

If you’re a writer looking for goals, resolutions or whatever, check out 8 New Year’s Resolutions for Writers and 52 New Year’s Resolutions for Writers. From those articles, I carved out the following ideas for 2019:

• Set a realistic writing goal
• Improve social media skills
• Set a reading goal
• Submit to contests
• Submit to an agent
• Self-publish a book (and make money from it, even if it’s only $1)
• Build my writer-friend network
• Attend at least one writer’s conference
• Create a vision board

The key will be to create concrete, quantifiable goals from the list above.

For example, I’d like to submit to eight contests and query 50 agents this year. The agent idea scares me a bit; it might be too ambitious. But 50 agents is about one query a week. When I think of it that way, it’s more doable. And if I fall short—sending out only 40, let’s say—it’s still pretty darn good.

So yes, I’m putting aside my inner grinch and embracing resolutions for the new year. Wish me luck!

How about you? Do you have any writer resolutions for 2019?

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash