Five Years For Writers

Our grandson, Cole, turned five on Saturday. A family friend made his cool birthday cake pictured above. I got to thinking about what Cole has accomplished in his five years. He learned to sleep through the night, roll over, sit up, crawl, walk and run. He figured out how to eat from a spoon, chew solids and eat a variety of foods, both healthy and not-so-healthy ones. He can write his name, count to 20 and more, recognizes most of the letters in the alphabet. He learned to play soccer, has the basics of swimming and can fish. Quite a lot of learning for five short years.

How about you? What have you accomplished in your writing life in the past five years? Would your list be as long as Cole's? Writers need to keep learning and grow just like infants who  become kids. What if you started writing and never moved from stage one?

2006 was five years ago. What have you written in that period of time? Have you had anything published? Have you increased the amount of time you spend writing? Or has it gotten less and less? Look back at something you wrote five years ago. Do you consider yourself a better writer today?

I know that Cole will keep growing and learning over the next five years. How about your writing life? Will you keep growing and learning during that amount of time? Take a look back over the last five years and then make a list of what you hope to accomplish in the next five. Don't get stuck in 2011.