Seeing the start of a New Year and so many resolutions made me stop to think if I was going to make any. That’s when I realized what I really needed to do as a would-be writer was to stick to the same resolutions as last year. Mainly, to stay focused on making writing an important part of my life and ongoing development.
Now, after a year of a lot of stopping and starting, I will say I did learn quite a bit. Not too much to show for it, but this year, even with the same resolutions, I’ll try for a different method. This year, I’m doing my best to plan everything out a month in advance.
In the midst of all the planning – and the future holds so much editing and formatting – I find that I have to also keep my eyes on the inspiration behind writing. I won’t lie, the end of 2021 became a frustrating Groundhog’s Day, as I tried again and again to get formatting to go just right for eBooks. I had to finally say enough was enough, and take a break. Now, though, with no additional holidays for a bit, I don’t have any such excuse. Formatting of eBooks needs to be put back on the radar. But the actual writing, the reason all of us would-be writers do any of this, it needs to stay clear in my mind so that I don’t lose sight of why I do this. Why I put up with arguing with templates and KDP requirements. Why I put up with finding comma errors or missing accents on the sixth read through (only six?).
With that in mind, I’ve lined up two different stories to get me started. One is a sprawling Space Opera that for a moment I thought I might have to write for NaNoWriMo depending on just how Dune would or would not inspire me. (I love writing Space Operas, I’m a Trekkie at heart, but they are never short, and with NaNoWriMo, at least for me, I have to get a beginning, middle, and end down on paper to feel like I’ve “won”, regardless of word count.) And a new YA idea that looks like it’s going to be set on the eve of World War II in the mythical city of Kêr-Is.
Next week, I’m going to go back in time and spend some time appreciating serialized story telling, but until then, still so much to plan, to be inspired by, and to share. Anyone else looking to start the New Year with some new ideas? Dusting off old ones? New resolution? Please feel free to share your trials and tribulations 🙂
Until next time –
L.E.
P.S. This has nothing to do with anything, but I am low-key obsessed with the songs of Encanto – might start looking for some inspiring quotes to drop from them this month.
Ramblings of a Would-Be Writer 
Such a realistic account on the entire writing process. Writing alone isn’t enough. There are so many other things like e-book formatting, cover design, and even marketing to think about. That’s what I plan to do this year. The other non-writing tasks. Anyway, thanks for this post and wishing you all the best!
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Thank you! I spent most of the fall doing the non-writing tasks last year. So this year I’m trying to make sure to include time just for writing, to avoid the frustration that comes with trying to master everything else – Good luck to you as well!
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