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. 

And So It Begins...

I love starting a new year. I also enjoy turning my calendar at the end of each month. It's on to new things in both cases. Sure, we do bring some of the old baggage along with us but we look to the horizon ahead and consider what we can do in this next twelve months.

Goals

It's a time to consider what our goals for this year will be. Some writers set goals on a regular basis. They like to keep a list and check each one that comes to fruition. Others have a mental list. Still more never set any goals at all. Should they? I think setting a few goals for ourself is like getting a nudge each time we see the list. It helps to spur us on, to inspire us. 

If you don't accomplish every goal you set, it doesn't brand you a failure. Keep your list relatively short. Set too many goals and it might be a wee bit overwhelming. You're likely to do better with a shorter list.

clean and Organize

The beginning of a new year is also a perfect time to do some cleaning and organizing in your writing world. Start with your writing space. I see a few stacks in mine that I need to go through. It's save or toss time. Next, consider the files in your computer. You know there are things you've saved for a long time that no longer have any relevance. Get rid of them! 

Records

What about the records you keep of your submissions, rejections, acceptances and pay amounts? Now is the time to go through all from 2017. Take a good look. What kinds of things did you submit? With what types of writing were you the most successful? Maybe that's an area that you might concentrate on in 2018. 

New Projects List

As we go about our everyday chores, snippets of what we'd like to write someday flit through our minds. If you've been vigilant about jotting them down in a small notebook, now is the time to expand on those notes and make a list of what you'd like to write this year.

Conferences

Are there conferences that you attend regularly? Check to see what the dates will be this year and start planning now. Set aside a little money each month to pay the fee when the time comes. Write the dates on your calendar and work other things around them.

May we all have fewer rejections this year. To do that, we need to put forth our very best writing. Maybe that should be Goal #1 for 2018.