What You Can Do for Your Writing in One Year

On New Year’s Eve 2012, I didn’t expect that in 2013 I would move across the country to advance my career. It was something I wanted, but I didn’t think I’d have the guts to make it happen if the opportunity came.

But the opportunity did come. And when it did, I threw myself into it 100%.

Was this you in 2012 before 2013 began? Did you doubt that the one thing you wanted would happen yet still worked hard to make it happen?

I forgot about my 2012 perspective until New Year’s Eve 2013. Why do I only give myself one day a year to reflect on what I want to achieve, what I have done to achieve it, and celebrating that achievement?

Am I that busy to pause?

I don’t have an excuse. I can choose to reflect and to make a lot can happen in one year. That’s 12 months, 365 days, 8766 hours of writing time.

So why do we think that time goes by so fast when we can do so much in one year?

Maybe it’s because in one year’s time we haven’t done everything that we wanted to achieve.

Think about your writing in 2013. Did you write as much as you wanted? Did you submit your work often? Were you published? Were all your writing goals achieved?

It’s easy to forget your writing goals not long after January 1. We’re motivated for the first month of the year to stick to our New Year’s resolutions. When February or March hits, we let the everyday tasks take precedence over what we really want to achieve.

So how do we bypass this? How do we stay true to our writing while balancing everything else in our lives?

We make time to reflect.

Schedule an hour appointment with yourself one day each month to think or journal about your writing progress:

What have I done this month for my writing? Am I proud or disappointed?

What were my fears? Are they still fears I hold?

What has happened this month? Is it affecting my writing?

What have I learned about myself as a writer? What have I learned about my writing?

What do I want to achieve with my writing by next month? What are the steps to make that happen?

That’s 12 appointments, 12 New Year’s Eve moments you can have throughout the year to keep you on track with your writing goals and evaluate yourself as a writer.

And that’s something worth celebrating.