A New Year In Your Writing Life

Happy New Year, Happy  Writing

I love December and all it brings but I'm always happy to wave good-bye when January begins. You've probably received a gazillion Happy New Year greetings but let me add mine but for your writing world.

It's a new month, a new year, a new beginning for us with our writing. Yes, we have a lot of history behind us but there is, oh so much, future ahead in this year of 2017. 

It might be too soon to write your goals for this next twelve months but you can certainly begin thinking about what goals you want to pursue. I'm still assessing this past year--what my goals were, how many were accomplished and what I want to do next.

I've started the year by taking an online course to look at myself as a writer, to determine who I am as a writer and where I want to be this year. There are about 200 people signed up for the course. I am a bit fearful that there will be far too much chatter and emails zinging back and forth. Hopefully, it will be a controlled situation. I joined a facebook writing page awhile back and was absolutely inundated with emails from the group. Very few were helping me in my writing life so I backed out of the group in a hurry. 

Some groups are great while others will irritate you no end. Give it a try, however, to find out if it is a manageable group, if it is beneficial to your writing life and if it appeals to you. If it does, that's great. If not, move on in a big hurry. No harm done. Some people love lots of messages from groups piling up in their inbox. I have a feeling that those people don't get a whole lot of writing accomplished. 

One of the lists you might want to consider making soon is a deadline for dates to submit holiday stories of all kinds. You've probably missed it for Valentine's Day of 2017. Those stories should have been subbed in early fall. But you could make it for Easter, Mother's Day and those special days we recognize through the year. It's difficult to write  a Fourth of July story when the wind is howling and the snow piling up in your driveway but writers set their minds to the task and do it. Yesterday, while in church, I started thinking about a Christmas story that I've wanted to write for years but have never gotten it done. I vowed right then and there that this is the year I will write it. And it will happen this month so I can submit it far ahead of time.

Maybe you had more rejections than acceptances this year. Tear that page off and dump it in the nearest trash can. Start thinking positive after you've given yourself a fair and honest assessment as to why you might have had those nasty rejections more often than you would have liked. 

There are many things for writers to consider this month. Take your time, make some lists and do some thinking. We have a whole new year ahead of us with many possibilities. They'll only be possible if you are willing to put your heart and soul into your writing life this year. It's up to you.