Your New Year’s Writing Resolution

So you want to start writing. Maybe you’ve tried other New Year’s Resolutions in the past and they haven’t stuck–or they have! Maybe you’ve tried more health-related ones or career-related ones.

A New Year’s Resolution to write more is a wonderful thing. Cynic that I am, I think it’s a nice idea to take stock of the year and want to spend the next year learning to express yourself better. If you’re reading this article, you are likely either looking for support or you’re having trouble figuring out how to go from wanting to be better at writing to planning to be better.

Ok first of all I’m not going to try to sell you anything. Yes, I teach writing classes in exchange for money. Yes this is a website that, among other things, caters to those students. Yes, if you sign up for those classes, I won’t actively stop you. But at least for now I will advise against it. There are plenty of steps to starting your New Year’s writing resolution before that one.

Understanding your Resolution, Part 1: Why Do You Want to Write?

Let’s start with the obvious one. Why do you want to start writing? What is the goal? You might not know what your goal is, but if you close your eyes some things might come to mind:

1. You have ideas and you want to put them on paper. Sometimes it’s just that simple.
2. You want to grow your career, and learning to write better is the key to that.
3. You want to be more mindful, and writing is your ticket to that kind of mindfulness.
4. You wrote sometime in the past. Maybe you just recently uncovered some old poems or stories that you wrote a few years ago or a few decades ago and now you’re wondering why you let life get in the way of continuing.
5. You experienced some form of acute trauma that caused you to stop. Maybe the people in your life bullied you about your writing. Maybe you had a physical injury and it was difficult for you to hold a pen or sit at a keyboard.
6. “I’ve always wanted to write a novel.” Or “I’ve always wanted to write a memoir.” A lot of people will preface this by saying: “It’s silly, but…” Let’s pause and say once and for all: It’s not silly.

Let’s also take a moment to notice: a lot of these reasons are negative: “I used to write, but…” Or: “I want to write, but…” That’s ok. It’s hard getting started. Especially something as personal as writing. Don’t run away from the difficulty. You’re doing fine.

The First Step to Achieving your Resolution: Taking a Breath

Why are we starting from this negative stuff–why I haven’t written before now, what silly reasons do I have for writing? Well… we aren’t. Not exactly. Talking about obstacles and difficulties is not negative. The basic fact is that every end is achieved by a special kind of means. If you get injured physically and you need to rehab the area, you need a plan. So you start with an assessment of the injured area. The physical therapist will ask you to take a step, a lunge, will pick up one of your limbs and start moving it to gauge strength and flexibility. Taking stock of your situation, both positive and negative, whether physical or psychological, is a step forward, because it’s the first step towards getting anything done.

In a larger sense, I find that accepting one’s own limitations is a positive step. I know, for example, that writing personal narrative is my natural medium. Does that mean I will never write a novel or poem? Of course not. But perhaps I will approach those differently.

Your Writing Resolution is Like a Chapter of your Life

In a way, learning to write, by which I mean learning to maintain the habit, is like writing your own story. Brandon Sanderson, who has done a lot of writing, says that one must ask about any given character:

-what does this person want?

-what does this person need?

-what is standing in the way?

So that is what you have to do, too. 

I like to think of this initial assessment as taking a breath. When you’re about to do something big–get married, go into surgery, even ride a roller-coaster–you need to take one breath. When you’re breathing in, you’re taking stock of how difficult it will be to accomplish what you’re setting out to do. When you let the breath out, you’re saying: I know it’ll be hard, but I can do this.

Achieve your Resolution, Part 1: Open up

Have you talked someone about your goals? This can be a scary step by itself. Take all the time you need. But don’t skip this step. Talking to someone makes your resolution real. Generally speaking, start with the most literary person among your closest circle of friends. Someone who’s been to graduate school and has had to write a thesis probably has a sense of how to keep up a habitual writing commitment. A teacher might have a sense, too. Same goes for a journalist, obviously. Someone you know who is already on the path–a hobbyist, in other words–is also a good person to consult with. Writing does not need to be a solitary activity. And starting a journey like the one you’re contemplating has a higher chance of success if you strategize, but especially if you strategize with another person.

Achieve your Resolution, Part 2: Partner up

You can also find a writing partner–either from your personal life or a stranger you find on the internet–someone else who is interested in going through this journey with you. Whether you know the person or not, there is no guarantee that they will stick with you, so don’t invest too much. It’s nice to have a writing partner. One of the reasons we started this website, with our Facebook group and all, is to encourage people to write together. But a writing partner is certainly not necessary. As long as you keep this attitude, you can have the perks of partnership while guarding against the depressive slump that could come if/when the other person backs out. And if you decide this project isn’t for you, this attitude will allow you to back out without thinking you’re ruining things for your partner.

Above all, set your goals together. How often are you going to meet? For how long? Will you chat before writing or after or not at all? Write the rules down. If they’re not working for you, don’t be shy about revisiting the rules. Don’t set out to hurt their feelings but also don’t shy away from difficult conversations. A good way to start a difficult conversation is: “I have something I need to talk to you about but I don’t know how to begin.” If the other person isn’t supportive when you open like that, maybe they’re not such a good partner.

Keep checking in. We’ll be starting writing groups after the new year!

Write what you know

Steinbeck famously wrote about his hometown. Faulkner wrote about a fictionalized version of his hometown. Richard Wright and Toni Morrison were both Midwestern transplants from the Deep South, and you can see those influences in their novels. But that maxim doesn’t just mean ‘write stories set in a version of your hometown.’ And George R. R. Martin loved reading popular history, before he started writing York and Lancaster and Zombies. “Write what you know” still means “take risks,” “step outside of your comfort zone,” “do your research,” and so on. But usually we write stories about ourselves; about the burning questions we had growing up; about the burning questions we still have, whatever our time-of-life. If you want to write readable prose or poetry, start with something familiar.

Write what you care about

I have had students I didn’t think were ready to tackle a particular topic; to write about a personal trauma, for example, or to write a story with a lot of moving parts. But whenever that happens, my default response is to encourage them in the direction they are yearning to go, because the kind of enthusiasm that makes someone want to write something translates to the kind of enthusiasm that makes someone want to finish writing something, and then want to spend their energy editing and revising.

The writer’s enthusiasm also translates to the reader’s enthusiasm. Excitement is contagious. If you love writing a book, someone somewhere will love reading it. They can feel your joy radiating out from the page.

Also, writing is a long, slow process. Give yourself the gift of spending that long, slow process on something you care about, with people who can support you.

Achieve your Resolution, Part 3: Set realistic Writing goals

How much do you need to write every day, every week, every month? Part of the answer to that question is: how much time do you have? You might only have an hour a week, in which case, best not miss it. You might have a bit longer. You might also want to write for a few minutes a day instead of a longer chunk once or twice a week. My perspective on this topic is informed by my experiences as a knitter and as a piano-player. If you devote a few minutes a day to any hobby, you will progress over time. You’ll look back and say: Wow. I did all of that? And then you’ll start another piece and the same thing will happen and eventually it won’t feel so weird anymore.

Writing is a slow-and-steady process. Yes, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, burning with the need to write down a story or dream or essay. Even in those cases, I’ve gone back to the finished story many times, correcting little things. And those few sessions–which i could number on my fingers–don’t remotely compare to the number of times I have just sat at my keyboard and moved the cursor a few more lines down the page. As with knitting or piano practice or really any hobby, you have to enjoy the process, not just the product.

Tune in next week for more on getting started on your New Year’s writing resolution. We invite you to join us if you’re looking for support, guidance, or someone to bounce ideas off of. But you needn’t wait for us. The best way to keep your promise is just to start writing.

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