Change it: “I want to write more”

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad that you’re here, joining me in the new year! I’ve been writing in here for so long that I couldn’t even remember how many years I’d been blogging, and I had to go back and check. I started in ­­­­2014. Can you believe it?! But I wanted to say a very special thank you, to all of you who’ve stuck around from the very beginning. I’m so glad you’re around, and I’m extremely thankful if I’ve been able to give you even a tiny little bit of advice or help through the years.

I do have an announcement to make, which makes me a little bit sad. I’ve been thinking about making a change here, for a long time, and I believe that time has finally come. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be around, still be giving you weekly posts on topics I find useful or helpful to writers everywhere. But that’s just the thing: I’ll only be writing in Too Many Books to Count once a week. Why? Well, because for half of the year, I’m also writing in the RADblog, where I’m sharing very similar content. And because this year, I’m stretching myself to delve into many more creative avenues than I’ve had in the past, and something had to give. So, from today forward, you’ll only see blog posts from me, here in Too Many Books to Count, on Tuesday afternoons (if you’re in Mountain Standard Time).

Never fear, however! I’m always around, and you can still reach me via Facebook or email, or even by commenting on my blogs, if you ever have any questions or want to chat about writing.

And on that note, I have a really good series in mind, this month.

I know last month was all about new things that I’m going to be doing, in 2020, but this month, I want to talk about you. I want to talk about you, my writer friends, and the writerly resolutions I’m sure you made for yourself.

And I want to make those resolutions better.

Don’t worry; most people stick to their resolution through the month of January anyway, so you won’t be worse off by not knowing these before the year began.

Let’s change some resolutions!

Change it: “I want to write more”

I’ll be the first person in the world to tell you that this is not a bad resolution. Wanting to write more is a good thing, and a good stepping stone to get yourself where you want to be. The problem is, wanting to write more isn’t enough information. It’s not quantifiable, and it’s easily forgotten about, because, let’s face it, there are a lot of things we want to do, that we don’t do. There are a lot of things we should do, that we don’t do. And we know it, but we don’t often do anything to alter the issue.

So, wanting to write more is good. I also want to write more. There are days, admittedly, where I wish I wasn’t an editor and that I could write day in and day out, like I used to do while I was in college. But I’m not in college anymore, I haven’t been for a long time, and I’m down to just wanting to write more. I’m sure some of you are in the same boat as me.

But how do we make the resolution better?

Start with asking yourself why. Why do you want to write more? What’s your vision for the future, based on your writing? Spend five minutes and really think about it, really ponder why it is that writing is so important to you, and why you want to do more of it this year.

Now that you have your why, let’s quantify it a bit:

What do you want to write? If you’re a short story writer, maybe you want to write at least one story a week. But maybe you don’t have that much time, and you’d rather commit to one story a month. If you’re a novice, maybe you want to actually sit down and finish the novel you’ve been working on, you know, the one that you keep shelving because things come up and it gets too hard. If you’re a novelist, maybe you want to beat your record, and write more books this year than you’ve ever written in a year.

Whatever the case, it’s important that your resolution be quantified, so it’s not limited by the word more. More could just be writing a couple words a day, which for a lot of us, will dwindle down to nothing by the end of a few months, because we didn’t quantify how many a couple is, or how much more should be.

Point is, I’m glad that you want to write more. I’m super glad. But for your resolution, maybe take some time this week and decide just how much more you want to write, so you’ve given yourself a goal you can attain.

“I want to write more.” Great! But let’s change it to something like, “I will write two novellas, in 2020.”

[love]

{Rani Divine}