With a fresh year approaching, how about taking a fresh challenge: drop your old, worn-out writing habits and adopt a new approach to your craft. You might be surprised at how a simple change of pace, style, and attitude can bring revived life to your writing—along with a year of productivity. Try these eight ideas for starting the New Year fresh, and see how you can unleash a new writer in you that’s better, bolder, and bound for success.
Set Writing Goals
Make this year the one you focus on achieving your writing goals. Start by writing down everything you hope to get done in 2019. You can devise a list of goals for the year as well as monthly and weekly goals. Then keep the lists handy so you can refer to them regularly.
Grow Your Confidence
If you’ve been shy or uncertain about your writing worth, take time to assess your accomplishments. What have you published to date? Have you earned a new degree or attended a conference? Putting together a resume can grow your confidence by helping you see how far you’ve come as a writer.
Learn
What better time to learn than the beginning of a new year? Consider taking a writing course or enrolling in a workshop to improve and expand your skills. Learning can also open up doors for your writing business, sharpen your mind, and offer networking opportunities.
Take on a Writing Challenge
Ever wanted to participate in Nanowrimo? How about submitting to a high-circulation magazine? Don’t hold back. Commit to doing something that gives you reason to work your hardest and produce your best material. Success often comes in the risk-taking and journey rather than the end result.
Get Serious
The month of December can be slow and unproductive for writers, especially when holiday activities pile up. But there’s no excuse not to get serious come January. Adopt a determined attitude and see how it can do wonders for kick-starting your writing for the New Year.
Make an Investment
That is, of time, resources, writing tools—you name it. Whatever you need to do to push your writing to a new level this year, go ahead and invest in it. Making improvements to your writing life may be costly upfront, but you’ll find the long-term payoff to be worth it.
Give Back
Giving isn’t just a nice thing to do; you’ll benefit from the gesture. When it comes to growing your writing career, there are plenty of ways to give that’ll fill the bill. Offer your writing skills to a nonprofit, mentor a novice writer, or donate a percentage of your writing income to your favorite charity.
Start Strong Now
Don’t wait another day to be a new, improved writer. Procrastination won’t move your talent or career along, but action and perseverance will. Shrug off the bad days and the rejections. They’re a normal part of the writing life. Be bold, push through, and strive to be the best writer you can be—starting now.
Let the new writer in you emerge. Try the above ideas, and make it a year of progress, productivity, and endless possibilities.