What Writers Can Review At The End Of 2018

Farewell To This Year

I suppose you might expect to see a New Year's Eve photo or a Welcome 2019 image. Nope. Today is December 31st, in the year 2018 but it is time to say farewell. Am I going to make New Year Resolutions? No. Will I look back or ahead? 

For the most part, I tend to dislike looking back and reviewing the year when we reach its end. In fact, it irritates me when the papers and news stations inundate us with what happened during the present year. They show us news about disasters, celebrities who passed away, numbers of homicides and who won in what sport. Yes, it all happened but it's over and done for me. I much prefer looking forward. More than once, I have mentioned one of my favorite quotes here:  Don't look back; that's not where you're going!

It makes me happy to turn the calendar to a new month. It feels fresh and new. I wonder what it will bring. Even so, as writers, there are some things from the twelve months of 2018 that we should look at--not to reminisce but to take stock and to learn, as well as prepare for the new year coming up.

We should review our writing records from January 2018 to December 2018. What do we want to look for?

• How many of the goals we set for this year did we accomplish?
• How many submissions did we make?
• How many of our submissions were accepted?
• How much money did we make from writing? 
• What regrets do we have in this year's writing journey?
• What joys came to us on our writing journey?
• Did we ever feel burned-out?
• What new writers did we connect with on social media or personally?
• How many books did we read--both for pleasure and to learn?
• What major writing project did we finish? Or did we finish one? Or start one?
• What did we do to grow as a writer?
• How did we increase our knowledge of writing? 
• Did we attend any conferences or writing groups?

It's wise to assess this year of our writing journey and then give thought to the goals we want to make for 2019. Next, say Farewell to 2018 with either a fond smile or an I'm glad that's over!