Musing on The Old Year and The New

We are about to enter a new month, new year, and a new decade. That's a lot of 'new' for us to handle. The newspapers and tv news reporters are all looking back at the events of 2019. I prefer to look forward to what might be happening in this next year. 

Not that looking back doesn't have its merits. It does. For one thing, it helps us see where our country or our career or family interactions were positive and places that we might have done better. That goes for our writing world, too.  If looking back helps us do better in the coming year, then I'm all for it. But if retreading the past is a downer, then let's forget it. 

I do like to look over my Submissions record for this last twelve months. How many times did I submit? How many subs were actually accepted? What are my feelings about those two things? Will checking this record help me in 2020? I think it can if I pay close attention to my questions posed to myself. 

We'll leave the actual goal-setting for next year until January is actually upon us, which is only hours away.

If you're a list maker, try the following. For your title, use My Writing Life in 2019. On one side put Things I Wanted To Do and Things I Did either next to it or underneath. I find that lists are helpful when making an assessment. You can see at a glance where you need to improve and where you should feel satisfied.

Give some thought to what you hope to do differently in your writing life in 2020. Does that number make you sit up and take notice? It does for me. The 1920s were a time of peace, prosperity, prohibition, flapper fashions and more. Look at the list of well-known authors from that era

• Ezra Pound.
• Gertrude Stein.
• Ernest Hemingway.
• Langston Hughes.
• Edith Wharton.
• T.S. Eliot.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald

How many of them are you familiar with, have read their works? Their style of writing might be quite different from the current literature we read, but they will always be known for good writing, for having made a mark on the literary world, and for entertaining untold thousands. Who will be our top writers of the 2020s? An unknown at this point. A few familiar names perhaps and some we've yet to hear at this point.

I have already set one goal for 2020, and it's a big one. I'll need to focus and push myself to accomplish my objective. I'll also need to continue on my everyday writing journey, as well. 

I wish the best of all things in your writing world during this brand new year coming up, oh so soon. I hope the rejections will be fewer and hurt less, that your acceptance rate will climb, and you find that you are still passionate about writing.