Happy New Year! Wishing you joy, health and peace as we step onto the pathway of another year.
I’m sure many writers will be setting out goals, or perhaps continuing with projects already begun. Once again, I’m aiming to finish all the half-written stories, novels, poetry and articles that have never seen the light of day. In between, I’ll be submitting any completed work that is ready to find a home.
I don’t worry about non-acceptances as that’s all part of a writer’s life, but if I’d given up trying, writing new material and submitting it, I would never have had so much published. Procrastination is one of my biggest enemies, which is self-defeating, as too often I ‘can’t be bothered’ getting on with the work in hand (like writing a blog post!).
Hence the reason I now want to spend more time finishing everything. I might even be as ruthless as last year, when I threatened to delete a whole (almost finished) novel that had been on the go for far too many years. It worked as it’s now ready to submit or publish!
So my first completed task of 2024 was to organise each kind of writing into the following online files:
Ready to Send or Publish
Rewrite then Submit
Needing Work or Delete
Snippets and Ideas
Already, this feels doable as I can concentrate on those items that are ready, between tackling the others one at a time. Will it work? I’ll report back half way through the year!
Meanwhile, here are a few quotes from my growing collection to inspire us all.
“Do not fear going forward slowly…fear only to stand still.” Chinese Wisdom
“When we wait for the moment when everything is ready, we shall never begin.” Ivan Turgenev
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu
“Nothing happens unless first we dream.” Carl Sandburg
And because I have a big birthday coming up later this year:
“Carpe Diem! Rejoice while you are alive, enjoy the day, live life to the fullest – it is later than you think.” Horace
May you accomplish all your dreams.
Rosemary