New Year Resolutions - yes or no? By Ann Evans


How are your New Year’s resolutions going? Fell by the wayside already? Mine have. Eat more healthily, do more exercise… yes, well! 

But I will start eating more healthily soon. Nearly all the Christmas chocolates, cake and biscuits have been eaten up. And as the weather starts to improve, I’ll be more inspired to go out for walks and get to the gym... honestly!

Writing aspirations and resolutions are always top of my list. And it helps when you can share with writing buddies. My Monday night writing class has been going for quite a few years now. The photo here shows our core members enjoying a post-Christmas/New Year party last Monday.




In between eating and drinking, we shared our plans and aspirations for 2018. And while lots of people poo-poo the idea of making promises to yourself you never keep, I honestly think it’s a good idea to set yourself new challenges at the beginning of the year. Only don’t beat yourself up if you fail to keep them.

Among the group pictured here, three of them plan on finishing the books they have started. I really hope they do. Two of the ladies, did the ‘novel in a month’ in November 2017, completing their 50,000 words in 30 days – an amazing achievement. Neither had written anything of that length before.

They all planned on sending work out more often. They all enjoy the writing, but sometimes shy away of submitting it anywhere for fear of rejection; or the terror of self publishing and not getting the public reaction you want will discourage them from even trying.

But if you don’t try you’ll never succeed. And so the start of a new year is the perfect time to gather that courage in both hands and go for it.

Margaret (pictured on the left) has been working on the craft of writing articles – particularly memory and nostalgia pieces.  She started to get things accepted in 2016, and at the end of 2017 made a bold new year’s resolution to get something published every month in 2017. Incredibly she achieved this and more, so my advice is go for it in 2018. Set a few challenges and see what you can achieve.

Here’s a few new year resolution thoughts from other authors:


“Whatever it is you're scared of doing, do it.”   Neil Garman.

“Let all the failures of your past year be your best guide in the New Year!” Mehmet Murat Ildan.

“Never fry bacon naked.”  Ray Palla.

“Just because the dates change, does not mean you have to change. The continuous path towards self-improvement is a timeless process.”  Brittany Burgunder.

Here's the best one:




Anyone else care to share their new year resolutions for 2018?


Website: www.annevansbooks.co.uk
Blog: http://annsawriter.blogspot.co.uk/
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Comments

Umberto Tosi said…
Sound advice well put, Ann. Best in the new year. I resolve to write more and fret less, which I suppose go together. Also to make my resolutions sufficiently vague as to include the widest possible range of things I can call accomplishments.
Lynne Garner said…
I'm going to continue with the resolution of 2016 which was to pick up a minimum of 3 bottle/cans per day. Achieved in both 2016 and 2017 so plan to achieve this coming year. My writing resolution is to complete another collection of shorts stories (first one of ten done) and to get a picture book accepted. So fingers crossed.

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