People tend to get very ambitious and noble on December 31st. All around the world individuals swear they’re ready to shed life-long bad habits. They’ll raise their fourth glass of champagne and cheerily toast the sobriety they promise to embrace tomorrow. By January 2nd the gyms are filled with new members in fresh-outta-the-box sneakers. That same week shoppers fill their carts with cleaning supplies, closets across America get organized…
…and then comes February and the sneakers go missing in the back of the once-again messy closet, a loss mourned half-heartedly with a whiskey cocktail.
When people sneer at the term “New Year’s Resolution” these are the scenarios they’re thinking of. They’re thinking that resolutions don’t stick.
But they could. Sometimes they do. There’s nothing inherently corny about resolving to improve and accomplish. Although personally, I’ve found Improvement to be a nebulous objective. It’s hard to gauge, frequently fluctuates and is almost always debatable. Improvement resolutions are nice, but frequently not all that meaningful.
Accomplishment on the other hand, that’s something else entirely. Accomplishment is solid. It has weight. As a writer, more than anything, I want to end 2024 with a very well earned sense of accomplishment.
How do I do that? I could resolve to sell a certain number of books or to get a certain manuscript placed with a certain publisher with a certain advance…but while I might be able to marginally influence those things they aren’t under my control. If I make those my goals I, despite my best efforts, might fail. And yes, the road to great success is often littered with smaller failures, but the road I’m on is littered enough already. I’d prefer not to add to that mess.
The road to attainable success is to choose goals one has full control over. My writing is very much under my control.
So with that in mind, here are my achievable resolutions:
In 2024 I will write a new manuscript as my agent shops the historical fiction I recently finished. This time I think I want to write another murder mystery, but with a dose of fantasy. I love speculative fiction mysteries and thrillers. I like the dark ones like Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls and I like the light ones like Murder In G Major by Alexia Gordon. But I’ve never written one.
That’s going to change.
I want it to be character-driven and engaging, at turns funny then thrilling. The world is chaotic, there’s a lot of suffering, fear and anger out there…I want to create a book with a little magic and a lot of fun that we can all crawl into and escape.
I also want to start the process of getting the rights back to my 2006 book, So Much For My Happy Ending. When that book came out people wrote to say it gave them the extra little push they needed to get out of emotionally abusive relationships and find their own path. But at the time my publisher wanted to keep the promotional focus on my Sophie series and So Much didn’t get a lot of attention. I already inquired about how to get the rights back which is why that book is currently out of print (a step the publisher has to take to begin the process of rights transfer). I want to change a few things then self-publish it and make sure it’s available in print and digital versions for those who may find it helpful or cathartic. Hopefully that can happen by the end of 2024
And lastly…Sophie. The first Sophie book was published in 2005, the last one in 2018. Despite it being an old series every month or so someone reaches out to ask if there will-be/could-be another installment. Still, I’m having a hard time gauging exactly how many of you genuinely want that.
So next Tuesday’s post will be exclusively for those who have any interest in my Sophie series. I will pick your brains, get a sense of your openness to various mediums and platforms for her stories (audio, ebook, serialized what-have-you) and if and only if there is genuine demand out there for more Sophie I will fill it before 2024 is over.
I don’t know if I will end 2024 feeling successful, at least not in a measurable, monetary or even critical way. That’s not fully under my control.
But a new book written, an old book rewritten and maybe, just maybe another Sophie story? I could do that. Those are achievable accomplishments that I can hang my hat on. Accomplishments solid enough to bear the weight of a whole bunch of my dreams and hopes as well as a handful of disappointments and unfulfilled expectations. Those are the kind of concrete goals that can survive the whims of publishers and marketplace upheavals.
I admit to drunkenly toasting those goals as 2023 came to a close. But I also promise to hold onto them now that the champagne is gone and the coffee is poured. I promise to produce works worthy of admiration and pride
I make no such promises about the state of my closets.
Do you have 2024 Writing Resolutions? I’d love to learn about them. Use the comment section to fill me in!
The a’s have it!!! Attainable, achievable. Love those words!!! Here’s to 2024!!! Let’s all be ABLE!! 🥰
¡Si se puede!