New Year (Writing) Resolutions

Hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday season! I wish every day of my life was filled with tinsel and lights, like so:

Alas! It’s on to the New Year. Which brings to mind resolutions, especially of the writing variety. As an author, I actually don’t start fresh on January 1st. Instead, I use a system of constant goals. For example, I have a standalone mystery that I’ve been tinkering around with since last year. Except I didn’t quite make my personal cutoff date for constructing a coherent structure for it.

Then again, that was much of 2021 for me. It was a win to just keep on writing sometimes. A few of my plans took flight, but others plummeted. In the end, everything turned out fine.

Here’s a recap from last year:

PUBLISHED:

1 novel (Mimi Lee Cracks the Code; Sassy Cat Mystery 3)

1 anthology (Midnight Hour)

WROTE:

3 short stories (on submission)

1 novel (Death by Bubble Tea; L.A. Night Market Mystery 1)

SHELVED:

1 YA manuscript

I’m not sure what this says about my planning skills that I have both hits and misses. I suppose it means I should leave room for surprises. (That’s been much of my writing career. I wouldn’t have predicted my trajectory with the Sassy Cat stories or even the anthology.)

Well, I’m still plotting and crafting in 2022…but maybe I’ll cut out the rigid goal-making.

Cheers! Let me know how your 2022 is going and what your plans are!