In the spirit of the New Year, I offer a few thoughts for
2016.
It is hard to be original in generating resolutions. Furthermore, giving
advice to others is easy. A new resolution to exercise regularly does not
happen on a cold morning in January but on a warm day in the fall when a physical
therapist goes to work on a frozen shoulder. In the same way, ushering in the
new year is a good time to assess my work habits and practices, and resolve to
continue the best of them.
The best habits for writers are simple and obvious, and I follow
these every year.
1. Write every day. If you want to write, you have to write.
Scribbling on the occasional weekend will not produce a professional or a
polished novel. Find a place to work, either in a private room or a corner of
another, and go there every day for an hour more or less. The amount of time
isn’t important as long as you’re writing. If you fill a page every day, at 350
words a page, at the end of the year you will have a very long book. It will
need editing.
2. Editing is also writing. Learn to polish your work, and
learn all the dull bits you managed to avoid during English classes. Know the
difference between there, they’re, their, and between disinterested and
uninterested. Make sure you know when you’re using a sentence fragment and when
you’ve forgotten to finish the sentence. Get a good dictionary, new or old, and
use it. Spend time learning new words or deepening your understanding of known
words.
3. Read, read, read. I never met a successful writer, or a
good writer, who didn’t read widely and deeply. And after you’ve read a
particular book, write a review for yourself or a review site and consider what
others have said about it. Read outside your favorite genres.
But what about my personal resolutions for the coming year?
4. For various reasons, mostly lack of discipline, I find
that I begin January with three unfinished mss. One is a collection of Anita
Ray stories, both published and unpublished, almost ready to be sent out into
the world. The second is a Joe Silva ms that I set aside until my beta readers
could get to it. Time passed, and only now am I getting the reports. The third
is another Anita Ray mystery, the fifth in the series, which is about eighty
percent finished. I have until August to complete it. One of my goals is to
complete each of these three projects. My next, and related, resolution is to
not leave so many projects unfinished.
5. Over the years I have come to favor certain outlets for
my fiction, and I’m not alone. We tend to send our work to editors who are
receptive. It’s time for me to expand my options for fiction. I don’t know what
this will lead to, but I think it’s a good idea.
6. After being retired for two years, I know that I enjoy
being around people a limited amount of time. This year I think I can achieve a
balance between my desire to be alone to write and my enjoyment of other people
and activities “in the world.”
7. I have a few ideas for stories that don't match anything
I've done so far. No one may want them, but I believe in trying new things, and
this year I plan to work on them.
8. I have a few other goals, mostly from other aspects of my
life. I studied piano for twelve years, and after all this time away from the
instrument I realize how much I miss it. No, I’m not going to buy a piano. But
I think I will take up another instrument now that I have the time.
I am often reminded of the number of artists, writers,
actors, musicians, scientists, doctors, and others who find success in more
than one area. Perhaps it is the luck of the draw, being born with an abundance
of talent, but it is also equally likely to be the capacity to work hard at
whatever one undertakes. That’s the kind of discipline I’d like to have. I’ll
know better in a year if I have it. I’ll let you know what I discover.
