How to achieve your New Year’s writing resolutions
BY Katie Smart
1st Jan 2024
Happy New Year from the CBC team! We all know that sticking to resolutions made in good faith on 1 January is a tricky task… Whatever your own personal approach is to resolutions, the new year provides the perfect excuse for you to reflect on where you're at with your writing journey – and where you’d like to be. When it comes to setting achievable goals to help with your writing practice this year, we’ve got you covered.
Plus, read to the end of the blog to find out about our writing goal themed #WriteCBC challenge.
SET A ‘BIG’ GOAL FOR 2024
Target-setting is something our founder Anna Davis encourages students to do at the beginning of our 30-Day Writing Bootcamps.
Any goal you set should be achievable – and suited to your style of writing. For example, some people thrive off word count targets and for others this prescriptive style of goal might be off-putting. If you already know that trying to write 2,000 words every day doesn’t work for you – adjust your expectations and set a goal that you can feel good about.
Maybe your goal is more project orientated: ‘I want to finish the first draft of my novel by the end of the year.’ ‘I’m aiming to redraft my manuscript and submit to literary agents.’ ‘I want to write at least four new short stories and submit them to competitions.’ Or perhaps your target is rooted in craft and routine… ‘I want to write something (anything) every day/week/month’.
Whatever your ‘big’ goal is, write it down – stick it to a pin board above your desk as inspiration or keep it in your desk drawer / written in the back of your notebook.
Now you can make a plan and work out what small steps you should take to make your bigger goal a reality. Set yourself more manageable goals and deadlines to establish the habits that will help you get a bit a closer to your dream. This could be anything from word count targets, sticking to a writing routine or taking a writing course to help you on your way. Below are a few tips and ideas to help you with some of the smaller steps of your big plan.
ESTABLISH A WRITING ROUTINE
If you’re serious about working on a book, the best way to respect this goal is to find a regular time you can dedicate to it – and then stick to it. Writing a book can be both exhilarating and, at times, a difficult slog. It’ll completely fall away if you don’t keep it up. It’s hard to hold a big project like a novel in your head, so make sure you’re getting the words out regularly. If you leave long gaps between writing sessions and work erratically, you’ll be giving yourself an uphill struggle and you’re much more likely to give up.
What a writing routine actually looks like will vary from person to person. It could be the famous dawn session that many people wake up to each day. It might mean grabbing an hour to write every afternoon while your baby sleeps, or taking your laptop or notebook on your train journeys to and from work. Perhaps you can manage three hours on a Sunday afternoon but none during the week at all. Regularise those writing hours as much as you can – stick to the schedule and make sure that others around you understand that it’s important for you to be able to do this.
READ WIDELY
Great writers should also be great readers. You need to understand trends and know what’s working in the market, as well as learning your craft by examining how the experts do it. Why not make yourself a wish list of books to read this year? Include the latest prize-winners and bestsellers, classics you haven’t got around to yet, novels that have been turned into films and TV shows. Ask friends what their favourite books are and add those to the list. Be sure to read within your chosen genre, but also remember to read outside of it. You never know what helpful techniques you’ll discover and be able to borrow for your own work. Note how language and rhythm is used for effect in poetry, how worlds are constructed in fantasy, how suspense is created in crime/thrillers…
If you're looking for a way to read more on the go – perhaps when you're running errands or commuting – many people find listening to audiobooks a great hands-free way to read more.
FIND YOUR COMMUNITY
When you’re a writer you’ll spend a lot of time alone – but you don’t have to be lonely!
If you’re feeling a bit stuck, writing courses are a great way to find a group of fellow writers who are actively engaged in honing their skills – you never know you might just find a beta reader for life. You could also consider joining a local or online writing group or reaching out to other authors on social media.
As well as providing moral support, connecting with other writers will provide you with supportive friends to hold you accountable to your writing goals. You could even discover a new writing process or gain useful feedback on your work. Receiving critical comment can be difficult but it’s a vital part of learning to write well. Listen to what your readers say they like and don’t like. Ultimately, it’s your work and their ideas might not resonate with you at all, in which case you can ignore them. But if they’re questioning something, it’s always good practice to ask yourself why.
REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN
Take the pressure off writing and return to the joy of it. Take part in fun writing competitions like our monthly #WriteCBC challenge on Twitter/X.
Try some automatic writing exercises – for example, set aside ten minutes a day to write, without the goal being for it to be read by anyone else. You could use this time for anything: you might find that your daily pages become regular journal entries, a place to jot down half-formed thoughts and ideas, puzzle out problems on the page or even the origins of poems or short stories. You’ll be surprised what gems you’ll discover when you write just for yourself – rather than aiming for something polished or finished. Some solid ideas for bigger projects may even start to take form from these daily scribblings. If not, it's still a great way to get the creative juices flowing. By writing what comes to your head without stopping to edit or criticising, you’ll stretch your writing muscles. Daily pages will help lift the filter that sits between your head and your writing hand and will set you up for your ‘real’ writing (a bit like stretching before a run).
If you like the idea of daily pages but don’t know where to start, join our 30-Day Writing Bootcamp for just £35 (and we now have our new 30-Day Writing Bootcamp – Vol 2 for those of you who loved the first instalment). Starts 15 Jan.
#WRITECBC JAN 2024
To celebrate the new year, for this month’s #WriteCBC we’re asking you to share your 2024 writing goal with us on Twitter/X @cbcreative.
We can't wait to read your goals! One winner will be awarded a free short online course place (worth up to £220). Five runners-up will be selected to win a place on one of our 30-Day Writing Bootcamps (worth £35).
Enter by 10am on Fri 5 Jan for a chance to win. Prizes will be announced at 11am on Fri 5 Jan. (Times stated as GMT.)
Terms & Conditions
- Only one entry per person per month, please.
- Over-18s only.
- This competition is just on Twitter/X – there isn't another way of taking part.
- Winner of the course place can redeem their free place for use on any of the short online courses listed on this page (worth up to £220). Prize is not eligible for use on courses that are not found on that web page.
- Recipients of the free 30-Day Writing Bootcamp places can choose between our original bootcamp or 30-Day Writing Bootcamp – Vol 2. View them here.
- Free places valid only on courses/bootcamps running in 2024.
- Winners and runners-up cannot exchange their prize for cash.
- If a winner has already paid and enrolled on all the applicable courses/bootcamps (yet to run), we will refund the £220/£30 fee discount (as relevant).
- If a winner or runner-up has already taken all relevant courses/bootcamps, they may gift their prize (as relevant) to another writer.
Congratulations to this month’s winner - Charlie Rose @Charlierose78 who gets a free place on a £220 online course.
In addition to our usual prize, the five recipients of a place on one of our 30-Day Writing Bootcamps are; Rich Hughes @richhughesesq; Suzy A @writer_suzy, @i_emmellel; Teresa Murphy @MurphyPark40607; and Jutta Rawcliffe @JuttaRawcliffe!
To redeem your prizes please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
We hope you all enjoyed it and see you next month.