Christmas and Hanukkah have passed, and I hope your celebrations were happy. Now is the usual time to start thinking about resolutions for the New Year.
I haven’t made any, and don’t intend to. Last year I decided my only resolution would be to take baby steps into the future. I think that’s probably one of the few resolutions I’ve ever kept!
What I need, I suppose, is motivation!!! With that in mind, here are some words of wisdom from famous authors of the past:
When you’re as old as I am, it’s always nice to hear that it’s never too late. But actually, I found this bit of advice more in tune with the author and the upcoming holiday:
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Share it in the comments below.
You can find more suggestions for your New Year’s resolution prep at Parade.com.
Image credits: Depositphotos.com
Happy New Year, friends!! I hope the first week of 2021 was a beautiful surprise, with more peace and more joy and more hope than you expected. (With one glaring exception, that’s how my week went.)
I emailed my list this week and encouraged them to believe that each of us can change the world with our books and writing. I shared what a nurse friend told me, that when she loses a patient all she wants when she comes home is to escape into a story with a happy ending. Now, more than ever, I want to be part of encouraging those with necessary and difficult jobs to keep going.
And I want to encourage you to keep writing stories that help people feel connected, stories that give them hope, or nonfiction books that help people where they need it. If you’ve been stuck in your writing, if 2020 seemed to have stolen your artistry or creativity, maybe my Finish Your Book one-to-one book coaching can help. Reach out to me (kitty at kittybucholtz dot com) and let’s talk. Finishing your book and getting it out into the world is a worthwhile use of your time this year!
You may know that I always have an Encouraging Words episode on my podcast on the first Sunday of every month. This month’s episode is a great boost to get 2021 on the road to being a great year. I hope it encourages you!
0 0 Read moreHappy New Year. I thought that title would capture your attention.
I ended 2015 on a high. YEAH!! Not to sound preachy, but my getting a BookBub ad, truly was a blessing from God. I was hoping to share the details, but the ad didn’t end until January first and I’m still sorting through the “tails” or results. I’m truly amazed at the effect a BookBub ad can have for an author. I hope to be able to share the details with you next month.
Back to that extremely long and strange title. I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions or Intention Lists or Promises. I tried to be diligent in creating a list, but failed to follow through beyond making the list. What does that say about me? I have my hands full with my daily To Do List. It’s funny, a vast majority of people spend the last week of the old year or the first week of the new year, scripting these elaborate lists. For those that are dedicated to this ritual and sticking to the lists, I say congratulations.
As it is, I’m wondering if I over shot the rainbow when I made my production schedule for 2016. We are only five days into the new year and I’m already starting to second guess my ability to complete the schedule.
See, I decided to finally be pragmatic and craft a detailed chart of my proposed titles for 2016. When I made the chart a few months ago, it seemed logical that I would be able to put a title out every month. What the crap was I thinking? And to make things worse, I scheduled January’s title to release two days before going out of town. I have been so tempted to push the release date, but if I do, my entire production schedule gets shattered. So, I “m going to muddle through and hope to stay on track.
In spite of me not having a sacred New Year’s Resolution List, there are a few things I hope to get accomplished this year.
That third thing on my list is huge and is full of innuendo and really only makes sense to me. Hey, it’s the first of the year and I’m allowed to be a little deep, strange or still high from sugar. Smile. Besides, I think my daily To Do List, would be a little jealous if it wasn’t the center of attention.
Since I don’t have a Resolution, Intention, Promise or Whatever List, I want to share something I read on Heather Clawson’s HabituallyChic.luxury blog.
It’s a list of 45 Life Lessons by Regina Brett, the New York Times bestselling author of God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours. I highlighted the ones I really like and might add to my DAILY To Do List.
45 Life Lessons:
If I was going to make a New Year’s Resolution, Intention, Promise, Goal or Whatever list, it might look a little like this one.
Here’s hoping you plan your year wisely and don’t over shoot the rainbow, but shoot higher than you did last year.
Happy 2016!!!!!
Tracy
Tracy Reed
www.readtracyreed.com
Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
We could do that in April or October just as well. For that matter, we could do it today. So what’s the big deal about a new year?
Ask anyone who’s made some significant life change — getting married, choosing a new job, deciding to publish a novel — if they were inspired by a new page on the calendar, and chances are good they’ll say no.
Even so, most of us like the idea of making SOME kind of change as a new year begins. And for writers, it makes sense that the change is frequently related to what or why or how we write.
What do you write?
Do you still love it? Have you tried other kinds of writing? What would happen if you did? How did you choose what sort of writer you wanted to become?
Why do you write? What got you started? What does it DO for you — aside from making you elated and making you frustrated, depending on how the story’s doing? Why are you writing instead of, say, fly-fishing?
(For anybody who explains that it’s because their favorite fly-fishing stream is covered with ice in the winter, that’s a perfectly good explanation!)
Finally, how do you write?
Aside from being a plotter or pantser, do you have rituals? A love or a fear of deadlines? A preference for plot or character, setting or action, description or dialogue, process or product? A particular place or time you like to think up plot twists, interview characters, get your outline or paragraphs down on the page?
Some of what you’re doing right now, some of what you’ve been doing ever since you began writing, works beautifully for you.
Some of it, maybe not so much.
Which is where we get into the idea of New Year, New You.
If there’s anything you especially love about your writing, or if there’s anything that bothers you about your writing, here’s a good time & place to look at that.
The past seven times I’ve taught this class, last-day messages have ranged from “it’s such a relief to discover I’m not the only one who works that way” to “I never realized how much I needed this change” to “finally, I’ve discovered what I was missing!”
Everyone’s reaction is different. Some writers are inspired to switch genres. Some might decide to take up fly-fishing (although no one’s reported that yet). Others report a breakthrough, like those who’ve mentioned this class in their first-book acknowledgments.
If you have any questions on whether “New Year New You” can help with some issue in your writing life, let me know here or privately at Book Laurie Gmail Com — you can figure out where to email, right? — and I promise I’ll give you a straight answer.
Meanwhile, whether or not you use the upcoming new year to inspire any kind of changes in your life, here’s hoping you love the results!
An OCCRWA Online Class with Laurie Schnebly Campbell
January 2 – January 29, 2013
COST: $20 for OCCRWA members, $30 for non-members
If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com
Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassJan13.html
COST: $20 for OCCRWA members, $30 for non-members
Coming in February 2013
Plot Doctor: Fixing Your Story Problems
with Kara Lennox
A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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