[From the Archive] Writers and Resolutions
I believe this is from late 2009 or early 2010. It would be a kind of yearly “no resolutions” post…
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2010 begins in just a couple of days. Now is generally the time people start making their list of Resolutions. Discovering all the things they want to do or accomplish in the New Year. I am not one of them. Nor as writers do I think we should make resolutions.
Resolutions are generally things we think we want to do, or think we should do in the upcoming year. These are great and grandiose plans to lose weight, win the lottery, or break a bad habit. Now, these aren’t bad things to strive for, but how long do these things last? We’ve become a people to whom New Year’s Resolutions are things to be admired on a list and then broken or forgotten. Why put your novel, short story, or screenplay on such a list? Resolutions are designed to help you feel good about looking forward to the year and then discarded, so why set yourself up for failure?
Now, I’m not saying it’s not important to come up with a plan or idea for what you want to do in the year ahead. I just want to call it something other than a Resolution. For the past several years, I’ve stopped making New Year’s Resolutions and have made New Year’s Goals. It’s a simple word shift but one that makes a difference. “Goals” are something we all strive for, work toward, and are taken a lot more seriously than resolutions. Don’t ask me why, but they are.
Goals also tend to be a little more realistic in their scope than many New Year’s Resolutions. Whether it’s to get a word count in every day, write/edit your novel/screenplay/etc, it’s a goal. Something to work toward, to strive for, and sometimes even more realistic. That’s the other key – keeping your goals realistic.
I used to set my goal/resolution to “get published”. I don’t do that any longer. That’s not a realistic goal simply because it’s not something you – the writer – can control (unless you’re self-publishing, and that’s another topic). You can write the best work you can, you can follow all the guidelines and submit, but you can’t control whether or not you’re published in a given year.
So, let’s go out and set ourselves obtainable, creative goals for 2010. Mine is to get more firmly in the habit of 250-500 words a day, finishing some of my unfinished projects, and keeping up better with my submission log. What’s yours?