Still keeping those NY Writing Resolutions?

January 18, 2011

I’m not one for New Year Resolutions, mainly because I know I won’t keep them and that just gives me another reason to think ‘Fail’ 🙂 I don’t smoke, don’t want to give up chocolate or wine and I already go to the gym four times a week (because otherwise I wouldn’t see a human being!) so the traditional promises were a no-no.

But this year I did decide to make one resolution and that was to have more fun with my writing. Not that I haven’t had a lot of fun already, but in today’s rough-and-tumble world of publishing, it’s easy to lose sight of the reasons you enjoy doing it in the first place.

I started thinking about a way to revitalise my enthusiam before Christmas and followed it up with a ‘motivational session’ with The Coffee Crew. Coffee and cakes always oil the wheels and writers need friends… boy, how we need friends…

Everyone has different reasons for writing; mine is to lose myself in a completely different world and to revel in the joy of creating characters and seeing where they lead me. If I can entertain readers and make them laugh and cry along the way, that’s great.

You don’t have to be published, of course, to enjoy all of the above, but once I’ve created a story, I can’t wait to share it.

So, where is all this leading? Well, in the past few weeks, I’ve tried some new ideas and looked at things from a new angle – I’ve definitely had a lot of fun with my writing and also got quite a bit done (partly by keeping off the Internet and having writer buddies crack the whip!)

The upshot is I’ve got definite ‘yes’ on a small scale fun project and on another one, it’s fingers crossed.

Have you kept your Writing Resolutions? Have your goals changed since last year or are you trying a new genre or story type? Have you any tips for revitalising your writing enthusiasm?

Comments

1. On January 18th, 2011 at 5:09 am
   Amanda Says:
   

   Totally sounds like you’ve got some mojo back!!!

   I spent most of last year second guessing pretty much every word I wrote so my main goal for the book I just finished was to enjoy it and not worry about what my editor/agent etc might say. I ended up having so much more fun and I was able to take the book where I wanted to take it rather than worrying. Of course there’s a good chance that I’ll have to do major revisions, but I’m okay with that – I’m just happy that I enjoyed writing this one so much!!!

2. On January 18th, 2011 at 6:13 am
   Phillipa Says:
   

   Amanda – let’s just say I’ve started to tentatively rediscover my mojo…

   Glad you had a blast with your last book. The best time I ever had was writing Just Say Yes but I’ve ended up loving books I’ve had a hard time writing, too. ‘It’s aw a muddle to me’, as a Dickens character once said (Stephen Blackpool in Hard Times, my least favourite Dickens book.)