The New Writing Year by Allison Symes

I enjoy reading Brian Bilston’s poems on Facebook. One of my favourites is his Mnemonic, where the last line implies January goes on for ever and ever, amen. He has a point! January does drag. How is the New Year going so far ? 

 It took me a while to resume my usual writing routine after a lovely Christmas break but equally that gave me a “soft start”.

January is when I book my place at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, which is a major highlight of my year. It is held in August at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire. I enjoy a wide range of workshops and courses (with full board accommodation). Naturally I meet old friends, make new ones, and hear wonderful evening speakers. I’ve led courses here too. Booking Swanwick cheers me during the dark days of January.

It matters to have something to look forward to writing wise, whether it is booking a conference, or knowing you will finish the first draft of a project by X date. (Seeing the finishing line is always a good encourager, I find). I have one project I would like to submit this year (and another one in draft form. Don’t yet know when I’ll get back to this).

I do know, whatever happens this year, I plan to continue to enjoy my reading and writing. Both make me feel better in myself (though I give dystopian works a wide berth. If I want that, I’ll watch the news!).

There are competitions I always enter so will be working on those in a month or two. But I look forward to giving these another go. As the advert says, you’ve got to be in it to win it. I hope this year to try to get more flash and short stories submitted for competitions. 

Once I start a story, I see it through. It can be getting started which is tricky, especially with other calls on my time. But the process of writing helps. I love all of it, including the editing, so I know I just need to do what P.G. Wodehouse always advised writers to do - apply seat of pants to seat of chair. The man wasn’t wrong!

Whatever your writing plans are, I hope they go well. I like to look back at the end of each year and see I’ve made progress. It doesn’t have to be a massive amount. For example, if I can see I entered more competitions or got to judge some, I see that as progress.  

What matters is enjoying writing (most of the time) and steadily working on my projects. I know by applying myself regularly to writing, I will get work done. I’m not in the position of being able to work 9 to 5 on my writing but I have got better at using what time I do have. That’s progress too. 

I hope this new writing year proves to be an enjoyable and productive one for us all.