Showcase posted these resolutions for 2014. We’ve brought them back for 2018 to encourage, inspire, and perhaps see what progress we can claim.
Writers’ Resolutions
By Members of CWC South
New Year’s Day has come and gone. After the confetti settled and reality set in, we compared notes and saw we had all made resolutions. We’ve very informally compiled them below. They largely consist of promises we’ve made to ourselves. By sharing them, even if we can’t keep them all, they might serve a greater good if they can help other struggling scribblers out there.
- I will, without fail, dedicate an additional hour to writing each day.
- I will research at least one new publisher and submit something to that publisher, if only a query letter.
- I will write at least one thing in a genre I haven’t tackled yet
- I will – because I realize that my familiarity with industry standards and practices of the 20th century may have impeded my success – read at least one book about how some aspect of publishing works in the 21st century.
- I will attend at least one writers conference or speaker program about writing.
- I will launch my own blog or website. And I will keep it up-to-date.
- I will develop a writing schedule, with self-imposed writing deadlines, for the year – because the inevitable default is to put off working on projects for which I have no firm commitment from a publisher.
- I will find somewhere lovely to go and write without interruption other than breeze whispering through the palms, coyotes howling in the surrounding desert, or deer grazing in the foothills outside the cabin window.
- I will get more sleep, because lack of it has a negative impact on brain function and metabolism and therefore, on my ability to write. Same goes for physical exercise.
- I will – if I haven’t already signed up – join the local branch of the California Writers Club. If I already belong, this year I will pay my dues promptly so that the treasurer doesn’t have to remind me.