Welcome to the Roaring Twenties and the New Year’s Resolutions for one of them. The collective edition. I don’t have any stellar writing resolutions for the new year or the decade. Write some more. Finish current WIP. Listen to some old RWA sessions for motivation. For the decade, definitely joining the ranks of the 8LW sisterhood who are published. But I noodled around on the net to see what other writers have on their lists. Many of them are the same we all know. Butt in the chair, words on the page.
Penquin Random House has a list of 8 from 2017. It was, however the first one that popped up in my feed. Interestingly, one of the resolutions is to improve your social media skills so having something pop up from 3 years ago can remind those of us who are savvy enough to do those tricks (and I don’t know what they are) to get YOU AND YOUR STUFF at the top of the feed.
The Happy Guy Writing Services has 10 for 2020. He’s hilarious (not) and not creative at all. The same old list. I take issue with ‘start making money’. Love to pal. Not there yet.
Goins, Writer has 17 (from 2013). #6 is ‘write when you don’t feel like it’. I like that one, although I know that isn’t on Elizabeth’s list this year. #14 is ‘make money’. I don’t see that happening for me this year.
The Writer’s Cookbook has a whopping 52 (from 2019). I really like the bonus resolution: read 52 books in a year. I’ll probably get that done in one quarter of a year.
Proedit has my favorite: Improve my fiction by having one conversation with an imaginary person each day.
Wordcounter has one close to Justine’s heart. Back up your data. And another personal favorite: sleep more. Oh that I could. I am much more creative when I get a good night’s sleep, or several in a row, but that doesn’t happen much these days.
What are your resolutions for this year? This decade?
Eight Ladies Writing 
In haven’t thought too much about writing resolutions yet this year, but I did love the “get rid of one thing a day” calendar you shared over on FB the other day. That’s definitely in my plan for this year and I have, in fact, already started on it.
The one-thing-a-day thing was transformative. I have 5 empty drawers in my bedroom and a completely de-cluttered mud room. That is why I’m doing it again this year. Now if I could just find a simple way to do that with my writing.
When you find a way, please share 🙂 In the meantime, I’m looking forward to empty drawers and a de-cluttered garage (since I have no mud room).
Boop-boop-boopty-doo! Roaring Twenties! To tell the truth, I haven’t thought very deeply in terms of decades so far. The 2010s seemed so stagnant in a lot of ways, and I’ve avoided thinking about them. But the Twenties do seem like they hold the potential to be a bit glam, a bit fun, a bit out of the ordinary! Looking back and reflecting on the 1920s seems like it could be a great way to bring some of that energy a 100 years forward. I’d like to write stuff that’s light and gay, and brings delight to my readers. Cole Porter, P.G. Wodehouse and Dorothy Parker, all that jazz.
(-: I might as well make the most of it if I can, because the 1930s were . . . depressing. Skidamarink-a-dinky-dink, all! I’m going to try it out for 2020 — put a little boop into my writing.
I think you would be great at writing stories set in the 1920’s – like a steam punk kind of thing – you have such a creative mind.. Maybe you could have some fun with that. Happy New Year!
When I first started reading this post, I thought you said, “Write some more Finnish.” Maybe my resolution should be, get more sleep!
I don’t have any resolutions per se, either, but I have good intentions, which I have every year. They’re the usual ones. Let’s see if I can keep up with them better this year than I have in previous years.
Good luck with your intentions. I hope we all have a good writing year.
I like the Proedit one–having a conversation with an imaginary person every day.
This holiday season was hideous for me this year. I was president of my RWA chapter, so the meltdown at National impacted my Christmas–and that gift is still giving, even though I’m not president anymore. Then on Saturday night, my developmentally disabled brother wound up in the hospital and I spent the next three days there, trying to advocate for him. And then I topped that off with my annual New Year’s Eve overnighter with my grandkids (which was great, but exhausting).
So I’ll start this year by swearing up and down I’m not going to allow my other priorities to suck up all my writing time this year, knowing they will anyway.
On a less grumpy note, I’m thrilled to pieces with where Book 3 of my series is finally going. My goal for the year is to release two books–that one, and a Contemporary that I just got back from my editor.