This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
By Anna Bell
So it’s that time of year again – resolution time. I’m not talking about the the naff ones like ‘I’m never going to eat chocolate before breakfast’ or ‘I’m only going to limit myself to one glass of wine on a weeknight’ as we all know they will fail. I’m talking about writing resolutions that will see you through the year.
This time last year, I sat down and reviewed my writing achievements. I wracked my brains and thought about what my writing achievements had been. Last year I’d been pleased that 2012 had seen my first full manuscript request from an agent, an unsolicited email from an agent, and my self-published book reaching 150 in the Amazon charts.
Even though they were small achievements on their own, when put together as an output for the year, they were encouraging. I’d had more success than the previous years, and I felt confident that 2013 was going to be a better year. With that in mind, I came up with the following resolutions:
1. I will sub my book and get an agent.2. I will enter competitions.
3. I will call myself an author.
4. I will not give up on my dream (to get a publishing deal).
5. I will break into Amazon Top 100.
6. I will be positive, proactive and perky (not getting down about others’ successes and instead going after my own).
Usually at this point I’d dust off the resolutions, spruce them up and re-declare them for the forthcoming year. Only last year, most of my resolutions came true. The only one I failed miserably at was competitions, as I didn’t enter any. But I have an agent, a publisher, a book that reached number 52 on the Amazon charts, and I’ve maintained an upbeat, positive, perky attitude.
Looking back at my goals for last year, their commonality was my determination. There was something about January 2013, I was in an extremely focused mood. I was no longer content to be ‘aspiring’ or ‘trying’, I wanted to make things happen. It was about that time that I started to gain confidence in my writing and what I was doing, and I’m sure that confidence helped when it came to me succeeding with my New Year’s resolutions.
Which leads me to this year, what do I hope to achieve? At the moment, I’m knee deep in burping cloths and nappies, and I’m wondering if I’m ever going to have time to write another book again. Part of me is tempted to have a single resolution: I will find time to write. But I know this newborn stage will pass, and later in the year I’ll be back to typing and procrastinating in equal measures. Channelling my positive frame of mind from last year, here are my 2014 writing resolutions. I’ve learnt from last year that it’s better to dream big, so here it goes:
1. I will break into the Amazon Top 50.
2. I will start to do the research needed for the thriller that I’ve been wanting to write for the last eighteen months.
3. I will continue to call myself an author, and do author events – book signings or talks (eeek the nerves are rumbling already with that one).
4. I will continue to be perky and positive and proactive. After all, just because I got one book deal, it does not guarantee another one.
Those are my writing resolutions for 2014. What are yours? List them in the comments so we can keep one another accountable.
Photo credit VanhookC