Writing Resolutions for 2013

So, 2102 is over, 2013 is here – what are your resolutions for the coming year? In some ways, 2012 was a bumper year for me in terms of writing. I published my new novel, Dark Dates, and followed it up with a couple of digital short stories to keep the readers’ interest up, and I spent a lot of time building my fledgling consulting business. So the bulk of my resolutions would be – more of the same, but better.

But since it’s always good to have a list of goals – and some of these might help you spur on your own writing this year – here are my Writing Resolutions for 2013.

 

Remember there is never the perfect time to write: one of the biggest mistakes people make, I think, when it comes to writing is they put it off until they have ‘the time’ to do it, which is always in some mythical future. If you can’t spend the whole day writing, what’s the point? But the fact is, you’ll never have the time to do it – life will always encroach on your writing time. So snatch moments when you can. Writing half a page a day will soon add up. I found last year that if I forced myself to do ‘just one page’ or ‘just 15 minutes’, that was often the push I needed to get lots done, and it turned out to be remarkably easy to fit in around the demands of my other jobs (which are pretty bloody demanding at times). Try it in 2013 – you might be shocked by how much you can do!

The Avengers think you should be writing

 

Don’t wait for inspiration to strike: while I do believe that sometimes it’s worth thinking about something before you write it (depending how your thought processes work – I often ‘carry round’ stories in my head for a while, then write them all in a rush) there is nothing more ruinous to productivity than waiting for the ‘right moment’. Your muse is more likely to come visit if you’re already writing – and remember, if it’s rubbish, you can always rewrite it later!

Don’t get hung up on reviews: the thing that shocked me this year was how much I was bothered by reviews. I might have expected the bad ones to sting (and they did – there were occasions when I was sorely tempted to point out just how much someone had misread my books), but I was surprised to find that while I loved the good reviews, obviously, I also felt like they were putting some kind of pressure on me, and would spiral into a panic about people hating the sequel. This year I resolve to recognise my irrationality, and avoid temptation by not reading reviews. Or most of them, anyway. OK, look, that’s a work in progress… [Post script: I just went to get the link for my book from Amazon ot add to this article and found I'd got another 5 star review. So I read it. Like I said, a work in progress...!]

Reach out to bloggers and readers: one of the delightful things about this year was connecting with a whole bunch of lovely book bloggers. I was intimidated at first about approaching them – why the hell should they be interested in my little book? But most have turned out to be really nice, and I’ve made some great connections with some fantastically fun women. I’d like to do more of this in 2013.

Listen to feedback: I just sent my new book to beta readers, and while I feel ridiculously precious about it, like all writers, I do know I have to take on board feedback. I have already had a couple of things pointed out to me that I know I need to fix…

Keep going: the most important thing of all. It’s really easy to get discouraged when you’re operating in a saturated market and feel like what you’re doing is insignificant or pointless, or will never make you any money, or will always take a lot of time while yielding very little reward.  But the last year has made me realise that, above all, writing makes me happy in a way that nothing else does – and I’m thrilled to have found readers who enjoy my work and like my characters. Whatever the challenges of 2013, I don’t want to give that up.  

Buy more notebooks: because you should always set at least one resolution you know you'll keep...

A girl can never have too many notebooks...

 

New year, new goals

Those new year resolutions always go out the window, don't they? Quit eating too much chocolate, start going to the gym at least twice a week, drop two dress sizes and so on. To be honest, I never bothered with them for precisely that reason. Besides, if a 'new year' resolution is worth making, it can be made when it pops into the brain, whether that be July or October.

However I'm breaking with my own (self-imposed) tradition of non-new year resolutioning, and making a few goals of my own. My first is to never buy, or to be talked into buying any sort of e-reading device, whether that be the Kindle or the Sony Reader. Sorry, the luddite in me says if I want to read a book, I want it printed on paper (apologies to the Amazon rainforest!) I do not want to read it off a screen. That's too much like sitting at a computer which equals work. I want a colourful cover which I can run my hand over, and I do not want to have to rely on an electronic device which may break down. Thanks anyway, but I'll stick to Waterstones.

My second is to read more books. Last year I managed a grand total of 12 which is poor to say the least. However there are only so many hours in the day, and juggling a job with own writing projects can be difficult. Once we get the dreaded Christmas onslaught of sleb books out of the way, I can't help but get excited at a new reading year, wondering what the publishers will throw our way. (And congratulations to you if you have a book coming in 2011!)

My third is to do something I haven't already done before. And I'm four-fifths of the way there. After much deliberation, I decided one of my unpublished novels was more 'visual' and would better serve a television audience, so I've re-written it/slashed it to pieces and plan to enter it into a screenplay competition. Wish me luck! Having previously dabbled in screen/scriptwriting at school, I decided it was time to re-live my teenage hobby (which is hopefully much improved!) I'd love to hear some of your new year writing resolutions, whether you intend to follow them through or not. Happy 2011 and may all your publishing dreams come true.

Resolutions for the Aspiring Writer

Once more, it’s time to take stock of the past twelve months and work out how to make the next year count – in terms of being more productive, more happy or, like me, by finally understanding that five-a-day doesn’t apply to units of Chardonnay or mini Twix bars. It’s that time of year when we writers resolve once again to… Simply improve? To network on the, er, Net? To get to grips with the position of the apostrophe after a name ending in S?
Well that’s all well and good and bravo to anyone who hopes to achieve the above. What you don’t want to do is make the resolution I have written down every year, since embarking on my quest for literary success:

THIS YEAR I SHALL GET PUBLISHED.

I suspect at this point some of you are cringing – but don’t. It’s an obvious goal for a writer, just like a forty-year chain-smoker resolving to give up the fags. Only a stash of rejection letters will make you realize such grand declarations are pointless and a bit like me resolving to be the next Bond girl à la Ursula Andress. Even if I spent the next six months in the gym, got the obligatory boob job and pumped my face full of Botox, I would still need to kidnap Barbara Broccoli, hold her to ransom and only then might I be in line for an audition (failing a prison sentence). Resolving to get your book published in one year is like wishing yourself to the top of Mount Everest before you’ve planned your trek. Without wings, there is no quick way up – the only way is to take it step by step.
And what a trek it is. Finishing your first ever chapter and eventually your first draft, learning how to edit, striving to create empathetic characters and produce a page-turner of a plot. And then there's coping with rejection, learning to accept critical help and bracing yourself to abandon a much-loved project. In this era of reality shows where apparent nobodies win huge talent contests, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that these winners have usually spent years learning their craft.
So what should the writer in you resolve to accomplish in 2009?

1) Firstly and most importantly, find some writing friends on the internet – join an online writing group, get some constructive feedback from people who know what they’re talking about. Without the support, inspiration and humour of my virtual friends I would probably still be scratching my head, wondering why my fantastic prose hadn’t resulted in the equivalent of JK Rowling’s success.

2) Read in and out of your genre to learn how it’s done – or how it’s not. But do not mimic or aspire to write like another, I say, as someone who for a year or two wished herself to be the next Sophie Kinsella. In the words of Agatha Christie:

We are all the same people as we were at three, six, ten or twenty years old. More noticeably so, perhaps, at six or seven, because we were not pretending so much then, whereas at twenty we put on a show of being someone else, of being in the mode of the moment… As life goes on, however, it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself every day…
I wonder if the same holds good for writing. Certainly, when you begin to write, you are usually in the throes of admiration for some writer, and, whether you will or no, you cannot help copying their style. Often it is not a style that suits you, and so you write badly. But as time goes on you are less influenced by admiration. You still admire certain writers, you may even wish you could write like them, but you know quite well that you can’t… I have learned that I am ME, that I can do things that, as one might put it, ME can do, but I cannot do things that ME would like to do.


3) Develop a thick skin – we’re talking rhinoceros hide at least. Release and then mop up the tears whilst savouring each word of a rejection letter that isn’t standard. You are in good company as almost every author from George Orwell to Dr Seuss has felt your pain. Do your best to minimise the risk by researching your agents and selectively subbing.

4) Write and write and write, as frequently as you can. Practice is everything. Enhance with How-to books and creative writing courses if desired.

And finally…

5) Never lose hope. There are those who’ve been published with their first book, who’ve been taken on by the first agent they rang, who’ve rarely faced the lows of writer’s block. And remember, the main difference between a published and unpublished author is that the published one NEVER gave up.

As for me, I’m off to Google Barbara Broccoli’s address and do some press-ups…