365 Opportunities for Writers

 

This past week, I've seen Facebook posts that tell us this next year gives us 365 opportunities, the same as the number of days in this new year about to descend upon us. A year seems a long time if you're waiting for something special like a graduation or a wedding or a house to be built. But if you look at that year as 365 opportunities, it might not seem quite so long. It could be that you'll be looking forward to 2022.

Think what those 365 opportunities mean to those in the writing world. Wow! You have 365 days to pursue your craft in the best way you know how. Each day of the year is a gift that we're given. It's up to us to decide what to do with each one. 

The days don't come wrapped in sparkly paper and topped with a big bow. Each morning, when you wake, the day is there for you. It's yours to do whatever is necessary and whatever calls out to you. If you're a writer, writing should be somewhere in your daily plan. Even if you do nothing more than a ten minue freewrite exercise or spend half an hour on research for your next project, it's alright. 

Some days will be filled with writing projects and anything related to them besides the actual new writing--research, editing, revising, submitting, and planning come to mind. 

What are you going to do with these 365 opportunities about to come your way? Maybe today is a good time to think about your goals for 2022. What do you want to accomplish this next year? Start a novel? Put poems into a book? Submit to bigger publications than you had in the past? Try a new genre? Be a better editor of your drafts? Finish projects that have been sitting in your files gathering dust? 

2022 brings us to the beginning of the third year of living and dealing with the pandemic. If I've learned nothing else during the past two years, it is that despite the dire circumstances we're living with, life goes on. Clothes need laundering. Groceries must be purchased. Meals prepared. And, for those of us in the writing world, words must be written.

For this next year, I wish you joy in your writing world, that you grow as a writer, and that you have many successes. Don't forget that you have 365 opportunities to accomplish all of them. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!