The 'New' in New Year

Posted by Postado por Dulce on às 18:39 | |

The 'New' in New Year

The 'New' in New Year

Posted: 04 Jan 2011 02:02 PM PST

Well, we made it. We have crossed the thresh-hold into another year. What does this year have in store for us? What do we have in store for this year? What's the difference between the two?

Before we move forward we should take a brief look back. What did you accomplish in 2010? What did you learn in 2010? More importantly, what did you bring with you into this year from last year? I accomplished a fair amount this year. I managed to get a massive overhaul of my second novel completed before the end of the year and that is now being read again. This moves me directly into what I learned. I learned that writing and being an author can sometimes be polarizing in such that a group can hate your work while another group will embrace it. I always knew that not everyone would like a book but it is both sobering and interesting when the feedback is defined by groups and not individuals. That lesson learned developed a thicker skin and the new resolve I brought over into the New Year. Yes, a thick skin is required but we also need a strong resolve to battle self-doubt and a direct hit to our confidence. To get your feelings hurt is one thing, to have your confidence shattered is another.

That is all water under the bridge; we have started a new year and with it bring new opportunities. I'm sure that many of us are still very much in the hunt for publication so I will count that as an automatic goal for 2011. What else is out there? I have two friends on Twitter that have accepted my challenge to write one million words over the course of the New Year. Yes, one million, and no not everything can be counted toward that goal. I am eager to see how far they go with that one. I have the goal of completing my third novel this year. As a piggyback to that, I have hopes to get novel number two polished and published. I have also made the goal to blog more. I kind of slacked off last year and to be honest I haven't started this year off very strong but I do intend to try. I don't know why but the days seem to fly by and before I know it the day is over. That, of course, is no excuse but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

However, all of the things I mentioned above are not really new. Many of those goals are made year after year so how do we put the 'new' in New Year? Well, for starters we can broaden our scope for publishers. Maybe we should look at the small publishing companies or even the brand new companies that are trying to make it in the industry. What about the publishers that only publish E-books? Maybe that is our gold ticket to the show. Truth be told, we really never know what that one thing will be that opens the flood gates for us as authors or anything else in life.

What about writing that next novel? Many hesitate to switch genres; especially if we are still learning about the one we are writing in currently but what about some aspect of the book? What if you are not very strong at writing settings or character development? Your goal could change and become new if you were to say "I'm going to write my next novel with a focus on (fill in the blank)." Goals should be based on things we enjoy and are passionate about but they are also meant to expand and teach us things either about ourselves or about the things we enjoy doing.

Be bold and insert the 'new' in your new year's goals this year. You could very well be pleasantly surprised by the outcome and what you discover.

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