by Debbie Burke
The New Year is a time when many writers ponder what we want to accomplish.
I thought it might be fun to see what well-known authors, past and present, think about the New Year. Here’s a collection of advice, musings, and cautions:
1. “Cheer up! Don’t give way. A new heart for a New Year, always!” – Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English novelist
2. “We went nowhere without figs and never without notebooks; these serve as a relish if I have bread, and if not, for bread itself. They turn every day into a New Year which I make ‘happy and blessed’ with good thoughts and the generosity of my spirit.” – Seneca, who lived at the cusp of BC and AD.
Frances Burney
3. “I opened the new year with what composure I could acquire…and I made anew the best resolutions I was equal to forming, that I would do what I could to curb all spirit of repining, and to content myself calmly—unresistingly, at least, with my destiny.” – Frances Burney AKA Fanny Burney (1752-1840), English novelist and playwright
4. “‘A merry Christmas, and a glad new year,’
Strangers and friends from friends and strangers hear,
The well-known phrase awakes to thoughts of glee;
But, ah! it wakes far different thoughts in me.
[…] I, on the horizon traced by memory’s powers,
Saw the long record of my wasted hours.” – Amelia Alderson Opie (1769-1853), English novelist and abolitionist
5. “Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.” – Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet
6. “New Year’s Day: now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual . . . New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever.”– Mark Twain (1835-1910), American author and humorist
7. “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” – T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), American poet
8. “Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.” – Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984), American theatre critic
9. “Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” – Bill Vaughan (1915-1977), American author and columnist
10. “I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.” – Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), French-American author
11. “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” – G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English author
Benjamin Franklin
Photo credit: Wellcome CC BY-SA 4.0
12. “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.” – Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American author and a founding father of the U.S.
13. “I have always loved New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Even though our sense of time is arbitrary and human, it still means something. I love the feeling I always get on New Year’s Eve that I am lucky — that the universe has been generous to me, to have let me stick around for another year, and to now erase the slate and give me another chance. Tomorrow I will be gifted with a brand new year — with no mistakes in it yet, and no heartbreaks yet, and no failures yet. I get to try again. Amazing. You will be gifted with this huge blessing, too. A clean and empty book awaits us all. Maybe we will be able to write things differently this time. Maybe a bit better. Maybe we will be wiser this time. At least we get to try. We have all been given a fresh chance. Let’s close the old book, and open a new one.” – Elizabeth Gilbert (1969-), American author
Woody Guthrie Statue
Photo credit: Cosmos Mariner, CC SA-BY 4.0
14. Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), American songwriter, offers his list of resolutions:
- Work more and better
- Work by a schedule
- Wash teeth if any
- Shave
- Take bath
- Eat good—fruit—vegetables—milk
- Drink very scant if any
- Write a song a day
- Wear clean clothes—look good
- Shine shoes
- Change socks
- Change bed cloths often
- Read lots good books
- Listen to radio a lot
- Learn people better
- Keep rancho clean
- Dont get lonesome
- Stay glad
- Keep hoping machine running
- Dream good
- Bank all extra money
- Save dough
- Have company but dont waste time
- Send Mary and kids money
- Play and sing good
- Dance better
- Help win war—beat fascism
- Love mama
- Love papa
- Love Pete
- Love everybody
- Make up your mind
- Wake up and fight
15. And last from Susan Sontag (1933-2004), American author:
“I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.”
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TKZers: Which of these quotes resonated with you? Why?
Do you disagree with any of them? Why?
Did you make writing resolutions or set goals? Want to share them?
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Charles Dickens summed it up best, short & sweet: “Cheer up! Don’t give way. A new heart for a New Year, always!”
Some years I set specific goals, some not. 2026 is a not. LOL! I have one specific project I’m looking to finish in 2026 and need to decide which to start next. I want to be able to write more than one day a week – a goal which I accomplished last week. But this week a multitude of appointments & chores are looking to derail that goal again so I’m thinking “Okay. Instead of writing one day a week, eek out at least 2 days a week. Some improvement is better than none.”
That will simply have to do until I can get 48 hours into a 24 hour day.
Brenda, I totally agree that “some improvement is better than none.” If our goals are unrealistically ambitious, we’re bound to fail.
Writing two days a week may not sound like much to you but you’re doubling your time. That’s significant!
Let us know when you discover how to do the 48-hours-into-24 trick. 😉
This line from Tennyson:
“Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
Terry, that’s a good resolution for writers that we should renew every day.
To be honest, I didn’t really have writing in mind when that quote hit me. 🙂
Until the last one, Mark Twain’s was my favorite, but then Susan Sontag’s! Hers speaks to me most. “I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.”
My goal since 2013 has been: Turn my book in on time, and then start the next one so it’ll be in on time. I still have that one this year, but a new one is to land a plane. 😉
Pat, I’ve always liked Twain’s also, but Sontag’s felt like a good closing line for this post.
Best of luck reaching your plane landing goal…along with walking away safe and sound!
“A good landing is one you can walk away from, while a great landing is one you can use the plane again after.”
More practical. Throttle controls altitude, the wheel controls speed. Gentle movements. Set your flaps and let the plane settle in, then adjust.
I was on a B737 the crabbed the landing with a full plane. That would be flying into the wind when the wind doesn’t line up with the runway, then at the last second, turning the plane so the wheels line up with the runway,
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RfZ1DgUnSPs
Crosswind landings are the most interesting. 🙂
Good luck, Pat!
Ditto on Susan Sontag’s quote. We need courage to write, and courage to improve.
While I admire Guthrie’s long list, it’s just that, long, and likely wasn’t accomplished because it included so many items. That said, I’m not as much for resolutions as I am for building new habits.
Top of that list is creating a habit for a new writing process and mindset.
Dale, building a new good habit is a wise, realistic, and achievable goal. No doubt you’ll succeed!
Woody’s list intrigued me b/c it was a snapshot of the hardships during the Depression and wartime. I don’t know if he attained hIs resolution to write a song a day but he certainly left behind a significant legacy in folk music.
Great list, Debbie.
Which of these quotes resonated with you? I like Twain, Franklin, and (most of all) T.S. Eliot.
Did you make writing resolutions or set goals? I have 25 writing goals for 2026. The list is taped to a white board on my desk. First on the list: publish the second book in the Lady Pilot-in-Command series.
One goal that’s not on the list, but firmly implanted in my mind: Don’t move to another house. 🙂
Wow, Kay, 25 goals is impressive. Knowing how focused, determined,, and disciplined you are, I expect you’ll achieve most, if not all of them.
Looking forward to the second Lady Pilot in Command book!
Woody Guthrie’s list…because it made me laugh, which I needed just now.
😅
His wry humor tickled me, also, Deb. Humor keeps us going through tough times.
Good list. Mark Twain was my favorite. He always speaks the truth, and makes me laugh.
Elaine, I also like Twain b/c he was wise and realistic while poking fun at human foibles,
Excellent list, Debbie! I normally do make writing resolutions. Didn’t this year. With moving twice and going through a divorce, my only resolution (if you can call it that) is to stay happy and healthy. 🙂 So far, so good, though I wish I had more time in a 24-hour day.
Sue, 2025 was a tough year but you endured and kept your spirit strong and intact. Your theme song could be Elton John’s I’m Still Standing!
Hoping 2026 is a healthy, creative, productive year for you, my friend!
Count me as one of Susan Sontag’s crowd. I made no resolutions this year. Instead, I had an idea for expanding the reach of my 2025 main project and leaped into it feet first before the motivation and inspiration could escape. I’m grasping all the courage I can find that this approach keeps me moving forward for the entire year.
Suzanne, love your image of leaping in feet first to keep motivation and inspiration from escaping! Go for it!