I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. I’m a believer in if you want to change something, it’s better to start right now rather than waiting for a date on a calendar. To quote Nike, just do it.
Yet, a while back, I joined my local romance writing chapter, Georgia Romance Writers, in the month of January. Since then, I’ve found out that GRW has a spike of visitors in January when a new crop of writers come to see what writing a book is all about and see what GRW is all about. (Sounds a bit like the Hokey Pokey really). For me, it was where I found other writers who wrote genre fiction and loved talking about it. I knew I had to go back, and I did go back in February of 2013. For some, a January GRW program is the litmus test about whether they want to actually write a book, sit down and make that fantasy in the back of their head a reality. Some go on to finish their book; others don’t.
Resolutions come in all shapes and sizes. For some, it is sitting down and writing a book. For others, it’s losing the holiday weight. According to one website (I’m using Martin Armstrong’s list from his article on www.statista.com. If you want to see it for yourself, here’s the link: https://www.statista.com/chart/12386/the-most-common-new-years-resolutions-for-2018/ ), the five most common New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 were eat healthier, get more exercise, save (more) money, focus on self-care (for example, getting more sleep), and read more. Do any of them sound familiar?
For writers, starting a book or finishing a book or increasing their word count are often mentioned in late December as worthy resolutions. However, writing in itself is solitary. When it comes down to it, a writer has to practice BICHOK (bottom in chair, hands on keyboard). So now it’s February, and I’m here to ask. Did you make any New Year’s resolutions and if so, how are they going? How is your book coming along? Are you going to the gym more often?
If you’ve succeeded, great. The question then becomes what made this year different? For me in 2013 (even though GRW wasn’t a resolution, I did join in January), GRW was a great way for me to meet other writers, learn about writing a book, and I felt like I’d found my home away from home. I became involved and I held myself accountable for my writing.
If you haven’t followed through with your resolutions, you don’t have to wait until next January to exercise more or eat healthier or write that book. Figure out what happened. Maybe that flu bug hit your household and you weren’t able to go to the gym. Maybe your dishwasher went kaput and you couldn’t add to your savings. (Okay, our dishwasher is currently broken so it was the easiest savings-busting scenario I could come up with).
So did you make a resolution? Let me know.
Photo courtesy of Alamy Stock Photos.