Happy Solstice!
Saturday is the shortest day of the year. In the ‘old’ days (the really old days), people celebrated the end of darkness and return of the light. From now until June, good ol’ Sol will shine its light on us poor humans a little bit longer every day.
I generally spend the Solstice reviewing my accomplishments of the previous year, and developing an action plan to achieve my business objectives and resolutions for the coming year. As I looked back on my list of accomplishments for 2013, I couldn’t help but feel proud of how much progress I’ve made in my writing career.
I wrote more than 250K words this year, resulting in one-and-a-half novels, 11 short stories, and 50+ blog entries. I received more rejections this year than I could have ever imagined, made my first professional sale, earned an Honorable Mention in an international writing contest, and saw six of my stories published this year.
So for 2014, I want to kick up the pace a little and keep the momentum going.
There are a lot of thing’s I’d like to experience in 2014 (hit the best-seller lists, win a major award, sell a million books), but I won’t waste my time worrying about things I can’t control. Instead, my resolutions in 2014 are to meet my writing quota every day, delight readers by writing the best stories I possibly can, finish everything I write, send out everything I finish, and the turn around and do it again and again.
I’ve got some great writing classes lines up, and I’m working on expanding my professional network. I finally got my author accounts set up on Facebook and Goodreads, and I’m learning everything I possibly can about the business of writing and publishing. One of the biggest concepts I grokked this year is that for successful writers, the learning and networking never ends.
Good thing the days are getting longer.
