Have a Great 2017

As a new year approaches, I find that–like always–I will not be making any New Year’s resolutions. I’m firmly in the camp that believes failing at them is more discouraging than keeping them would be encouraging, so I don’t bother. However, writing resolutions are another matter.

If you’re writing for money, you have a business. It’s only sensible to have a business plan. You may not be able to write goals like: sell so many articles each month, earn “X” amount of money, or other similar wishes that writers have no control over. There’s not much you can do to make editors accept your proposals or give you go-aheads on your timetable–anyone who’s waited months for an acceptance on a book knows better than that. But you can create goals in areas where you do have a certain amount of control.

When I was a freelance magazine writer, I made it a goal to always have two dozen queries circulating. I had no problem generating article ideas, and I knew that I was bound to get a certain number of rejections. Editors aren’t always prompt, either, so I knew that the odds of my getting ten article go-aheads all at once were basically nil. The great thing about this goal, though, was that I always had a big dose of hope out there in the void where great ideas circulate and look for homes. No matter how many rejections I got, no matter how long it took for answers, I always knew that I had over 20 possibilities out there waiting on me.

I suggest that you take a look at your own writing dreams and start generating resolutions that will help you reach them. Make resolutions only in areas where the outcome is solely up to you. Just knowing that you have a plan you can execute can be enormously encouraging and motivating–and in this business, we need to do all that we can to keep the excitement stirred up.

Happy New Year!