Writers--Look Back at Your 2022

 

This is the last post for the year 2022. Sunday, we step into a brand new year--365 days ahead of us. What lies down that long road? What do we see if we look back at all of 2022? 

Newspapers and tv news stations spend the last week of the year looking back to what occurred, both the good and the bad. It feels sometimes like there is more bad than good with all the world problems.

But, what about your writing journey in 2022? Now is the time to look at the goals you made for yourself way last January when 2022 was brand spanking new. Did you achieve all of them? Pat yourself on the back if you did/ Very few of us manage to have a perfect record in goals. Did you make more than half? If you did, be happy. 

If you didn't make even one of your goals this past year, it's time to do some soul-searching. Try to be objective, and that's not easy when old #1 is involved. Stand back and look at what you didn't achieve as if you were looking at a perfect stranger. It's a lot easier to see the faults and hindrances in someone else than yourself. 

A few reasons we don't make our goals:  

A. Set too many goals

B. Set unrealistic goals

C. Didn't care

D. Didn't put in the amount of time needed

E. Didn't try to continue learning our craft

F. Didn't bother to submit anything you wrote

G. Felt discouraged on a frequent basis

Use this list when you make your 2023 goals. Turn some of these negatives into positives. 

Besides goals, take a look at your submission/acceptance/rejection record. Hopefully, you've kept a record and can do this easily. If you didn't, make that one of your 2023 goals. Records of all our writing transactions are important. It shows us where we were, where we are, and where we need to go. If your rejections far outnumber your acceptances, don't despair. That's quite normal in our writing world. Some say that a 10% acceptance rate is pretty normal. As bad as that sounds, it's probably about right. If you get more than that, preen your feathers a bit. 

Whether your track record was good or bad in 2022, it's yours. Yours to ponder. Yours to work on. Yours to accept or reject. After you've done your 2022 assessment, it's time to take that first step on the 2023 writing path. Stand there a bit and start putting together a plan for this next year. 

I look forward to changing the page on my calendar each month, and when it begins a whole new year, even more so. My wish for all writers is that 2023 will be a banner year, one in which you achieve a great deal. It takes patience and perseverance and some hard work to do so. Ever onward!