Happy New Year!

Happy New Year TKZers!

Welcome to 2018 and whatever new (or used) resolutions you may have made. For me, after a difficult year health wise, I’m ready to face the new year with both resilience and hope, at least where my writing is concerned. I’m not so much into resolutions for 2018 as I am into consolidating what I learned about myself and my writing process last year.

Despite everything, I feel pretty good about what I achieved – especially the fact that my agent now has three new projects to play with/submit:)  As you know from many of my blog posts, I’ve expanded into YA and MG as well as adult historical fiction/mysteries, and while this has meant a lot of time and commitment, learning and angst, I’ve learned a lot about my writing process as well as my resolve.

In 2018, I plan to continue to apply what I’ve learned and try to be a little more forgiving as far as my writing process is concerned (no more NaNoWriMo regrets for me!). Although I have delved a little bit into social media, I realise that my presence is a little erratic and unfocused so another goal of mine is to reconsider how I approach online and social media – but not to the detriment of my writing (which continues to remain the focus of course!). I also feel that, in the spirit of expanding my writing horizons, I should begin to embrace what I call the ‘difficult’ projects…those ideas/proposals I have avoided so far out of fear that they are too ‘difficult’ to successfully pull off. You know the ones – they continue to buzz about in your brain, demanding to be told, but that little voice inside (the one that hates failure) keeps telling you to wait…keeps telling you your not good enough to write it… Well, I think it’s time to embrace the difficult – be bold  as well as brave – and tackle at least one of these projects this year.

So TKZers what do you plan on focusing on in 2018. What did you learn in 2017 that you can consolidate and use in the coming year as far as your writing is concerned?

 

26 thoughts on “Happy New Year!

  1. No resolutions. I try to set small, measurable goals. Daily word counts. 500 words by 10 AM, 1000 by noon is reachable, although I’ve learned that ‘stuff’ happens, so the bottom line is the end of the day count.
    With my blog, my goal is to have posts scheduled a week in advance.
    My word for the year is Patience, followed closely by Breathe.
    Happy New Year.

    • Word counts are a great goal – though not one I’ve ever managed to master (but I’m letting that go this year too!). Love the patience and breathe approach – definitely something I need to work on in 2018!

  2. Happy New Year to you & all the contributors and commenters at TKZ!

    2017 was an abominable year for me writing wise. I wrote more in this blissful week between Christmas & New Year’s than I have the entire previous 51 weeks of the year! 8-0

    Usually I sit down at the end of each year & painstakingly create a list of goals that are far too ambitious. I didn’t do much goal setting for 2018 at all, largely owing to the fact that I didn’t want to kill the creative buzz I had going this week.

    Besides, goals for 2018 aren’t really different then what I want for any year–a good balance in my life. Around the day job I want a balance of all the creative things I’m interested in–writing, drawing, painting, & several more distant & less urgent creative pursuits.

    If there is one thing for 2018 I am purposely aiming to do it is building guilt-free fun into my schedule. Because time is so precious & so elusive, I tend to push myself every hour of every day to be working (on whatever, be it a creative project, a chore, etc.). In the end, it tamps down on the creativity.

    I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it was this past week–casting aside every other task and care, leaving behind tension & stress & just being free to sit & think, research & create. I need to create micro-moments of that throughout the year, & also have fun, to keep recharging my batteries.

    Hope 2018 is creative for all!

    • Thanks BK! I love the idea of focusing on micro-moments as mindfulness is an ongoing goal of mine. Wishing you a great writing year full of balance as well as creative, stress free, productive micro-moments:)

  3. I’m one of those irritating people that make resolutions (or goals and call them resolutions). In 2017 I learned learned that I need to block out, or corral, chunks of time for the non-productive stuff like, I dunno, watching silly cat videos. Otherwise my non-productive activities take over! My writing goal is to have the first draft of my horror novel finished by 3/31/18. I worked three hours on it this morning, so at least I started the New Year right.:-)

    • Sounds like you have a great goal of finishing that draft! I definitely need to structure my time better as I find my non-productive online time soon acts like a black hole sucking everything in!

  4. Happy New Year. This year, I want to make more time to see my friends. I’ve lost too many during 2017, and I’m learning the terrible (and obvious) lesson that life is short. I want to continue writing, I have a hard-working new agent, and I’m excited by my projects.

  5. Happy New Year to you, Clare. Your “consolidations” are sound, esp. regarding social media. I consider blogging social media, and TKZ is top priority for me in that regard. Twitter is gravy (or maybe frosting).

    As I’ve done for the past 18 years, I prepared a blank Excel sheet to track my daily and weekly writing, keeping the same goal of 6,000 words/week. I had some setbacks last year (it’s difficult to write with pneumonia, I’ve discovered), so I’m heading into this new year afresh and ready to go. I’ll do my 1k words this morning so I don’t feel guilty watching the Rose Bowl.

  6. No resolutions, just a determination to write more consistently and finish the first draft of my third novel by the end of March. I don’t want to be rushing at the last minute like I have the past two years. Wishing you all the best, Clare.

  7. Welcome back, TKZ. I’ve missed you. This year, during NaNoWriMo, I discovered that I can write 15,000 words a week and complete a first draft in one month. I also discovered that one month a year of that life is more than enough. My resolutions are to devote more time to my friends, to community service, and to staying fit. My goal is to revise that draft, which I haven’t even read yet, into something decent. Happy and healthy 2018 to all!

  8. Happy New Year, TKZrs! Once again I find myself up against the clichéd wall and will have to write 12,000 words a week to meet my February 1 deadline. You’d think I’d learn.

    My goal is to not do this again…but if you know me, you know I will.

    So glad y’all are back! I missed you.

  9. Happy New Year, everyone! Glad to see so many thoughtful resolutions this year. Mindfulness and personal health are hugely important. For me, I have resolved to not read a single book on craft this year. It seems counter-intuitive, but after five years of immersion in the study of craft, I think it’s time to actually produce some work and get it out into the world and I find myself stymied with each new shiny technic uncovered in new books on craft.

    So, no distractions in the world of “if only I could master X technique.”

  10. I spent all of 2017 dredging up every bit of writer’s angst I could find. Day after day, one worry after another. I can’t seem to finish, why do I run out of fresh ideas after the first scene, why can’t I meet my writing goals, maybe I need a new main character, maybe I’ll try writing horror, and best of all I’m just not good enough. I’m going back to something I can actually do.
    But what should I go back to? Photography, yeah photography. I used to be pretty good, but I’d have to buy new stuff. And every book I’d read would remind me that I failed at writing.
    Today I realized that maybe I’m not a writer, but I do write pretty well. Hell dude, you don’t have to compete with Bradbury or Matheson or Lehane or Megan Abbot or Patricia Highsmith. I guess I can toss all that 2017 S–T in the garbage an just write. As long as I like it, what else really matters?
    So for 2018 no goals, no word count, just write every day and not worry about anything else. That stuff will just have to wait for 2019.

    • I’m hoping 2018 can be the year all our ‘angst ridden’ voices inside take a vacation and let us just write what we want, enjoy the process and try not to be too hard on ourselves:) Here’s to a great new year!

  11. Sorry I’m late. In NH, we’re dealing with frozen drain pipes, etc., from sub-zero temps. Happy New Year, Clare!!!

    This year, I’ve planned projects so my summer is free. 2017 taught me that since we only get 12 weeks of fun in the sun, I’m not willing to sacrifice any of them. LOL Hopefully, everything will go as planned, but I’ve said yes to a lot of projects. The rest of the year will be insane.

  12. After enjoying a non-white Christmas in smoggy L.A. (Jesus was born in the desert, after all), I’m about to head back to icy CLV.

    I will continue to work on my novel. I’ve let The Weekly Knob drop out of my schedule to concentrate on the novel. TWK is still kicking out fun stuff every week, though, so I owe them a shoutout.

    Sue Grafton’s death reminds me we need to use now to spend time with people we’ll regret not having spent time with. I’ve always held a fantasy of meeting Grafton, not just because I’ve enjoyed nearly everything she wrote about Kinsey Milhone but because she was apparently a third cousin of my ex-wife. It would have been fun (for me anyway) to compare the family history and links.

    Fortunately no one really close died in the past year. The “Great Generation” members of my wonderful extended family are all gone. I should have spent more time with some of them but do have the excuse of not having lived near them for most of my adult life.

    So I’ll keep plugging–Scrivener modules into my novel, that is–and paying attention to who it is with whom I should be spending time.

    Happy New Year and keep on killin’ the villain.

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