That’s right. I said it. It will all soon be over. The end is coming faster than you think. And there will be no way to stop it, and no way to save yourself from its coming.
The end of 2019 is just a day and a half away.
And when it gets here, you are required by tradition, and by your anxious nature, to take stock of your declared resolutions and admit failure and defeat.
It’s okay, it happened to all of us
The thing is that you didn’t fail so much as you miscalculated.
You swore you’d have written that book. You resolved to have submitted a short story every month. You decreed that you would create a schedule and then stick to it.
There’s your trouble
No, not that you made resolutions. Your trouble is that you worded them wrong.
Listen, you’re a writer. How many times have you rewritten some sentence or paragraph or even just a phrase or a word?
It’s time to edit
You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?
But it isn’t just because I’m also an editor that I’m saying this. Okay, yes, that’s part of it. I feel that editing is something that should never end.
But the deal here is that you can change failure into success by simply editing your resolutions.
For instance …
“I’m going to finish my novel!” is not a resolution. It’s a death sentence, either for you or the novel.
If you decide to put that kind of limit on yourself you’re going to grow to hate the thing, to hate your life, to hate … everything.
The correct wording of this resolution is all it takes to create success.
“I’m going to work on my novel as much as I can this year. I hope I actually finish it, that would be great.”
Things happen
“I’ve decided to create a schedule of competitions and work on a story for submission to one each month, so long as nothing comes up to stop me. If I miss a month, I know I’ll have another chance the next month. This is going to be great!”
If you resolved to submit a story every month and you missed February because of some family crisis, you’ve broken your resolution, and then the wheels fall off.
This year I swear …
“I swear I will get up at 5:30 every morning and write, as often as I can. I’ll try to do that at least three or four days a week. If it becomes a habit that will be great, but if I miss a week or two, I’m okay with that. A writer has to rest sometime.”
You don’t want to swear or resolve to do something on a schedule that is likely impossible to keep. Once you’ve failed, you’ve failed.
And how much good does failing at your resolutions do you? How much good does it do for your writing?
In my opinion it does you no good at all. If you can tell me how it does, I’m all ears.
Oh wait, this is the last post of 2019, I guess I have …
