Another five interesting links out there from the  writing world. I have some New Years reading for writers - productivity tools within four out of five of these.

Link 1 : 50 Useful Google Apps for Writers

The Learn-gasm blog lists 50 google applications, including everything from the desktop facility to google docs. Note: Lively, which was Google’s 3D environment similar to Second Life, was due to be turned off by the end of 2008.

Link 2 : 7 More Productivity Hacks for Writers

The Renegade Writer listed (back in August) some more productivity hacks for writers. I like the thought of productivity - in fact it’s one of my key phrases or values for my writing resolutions or goals of this new year.

Link 3 : Are You an A-List Writer?

Simon Whaley asked this question back in April 2008 on his tutoring blog. And he’s not talking about actors, he’s talking towards using lists as a productivity tool for writers.

Link  4 : Write This Moment.net

Write this Moment is a newish UK membership site, containing a Freelance Writing job board. For details on these hiring jobs, you will need to pay for the membership, which is reasonably cheap (in UK pound terms) at £8 per three months or £24 for a year.

Link 5 : 100+ More Ways to Organize Your Life

Mashable’s December post lists over 100 web applications which are (mostly) free - organise your life, stuff, media, shopping, lists, school life, ideas and everything else. 

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Today I spent a fruitful day planning out all my writing and other resolutions into some 2009 goals and objectives, and setting them into a series of mindmaps. Together they make up a Life Dashboard MindMap.

For 2009 I have several personal goals, some large family tasks (such as adopting another child into the family), some work and study goals and many writing goals. Organising all of these takes a lot of planning of dates and impacts. My months and weeks of tasks are planned through the central 2009 Life Dashboard Map.

In this post, I discuss quickly how I planned out my goals for this new year today, and show you some of my own goals and strategies opened up for you within the two mindmaps.

Sources for the original mindmap templates which I used to create this suite of maps are linked to, for your own reference. You will be able to use these if you are a user (as I am) of  Mindjet MindManager Pro Version 7 or above. Happy planning for your own writing goals this year also.

1. 2009 Goals and Objectives

This was the starter base, and I’ve used January 1st as a day to put this together. I had already many of my writing goals for the year in mind, and some obvious personal goals. I have shown you the details (task info includes milestone dates) on one of my writing goals also.

This Mind Map is a combination of two mindmap templates which are available free from BiggerPlate.com.

• The first is the Setting Smarter Goals and Objectives mind map template by Micheal Deutch, which includes SMARTER icons and a guide to setting Smarter objectives, and a simple template where you can fill in business and personal goals. I have extended this into further goals to match the Life Map you will see shortly.
• The second is from the Goals Mind Map by ericblue76, which provides all the colourful icons and sub-topics I have placed under personal goals (physical, family/home, rest/play/hobbies, mental/emotional, spiritual, finances, career, contribution). Again, I’ve changed this original template and extended several categories to fit my own needs. Additionally, I’ve taken out the Long-Term goals set under each personal category into a separate Main Topic. These goals are broken up into 3year, 5year, 10year and Lifetime plans.

2. My 2009 Life Dashboard

The goals have then been copied over into appropriate projects on my central mindmap - my dashboard. This template is again available from BiggerPlate.com or off the Mindjet MindManager website also. The Personal Organiser mind map template is copywrite of Mindjet, and it is this which I used to setup my own life dashboard.

From this central mindmap, I have html links to all required files (and folders) and sub-mindmaps (which includes the 2009 Goals and Objectives mindmap as above, and several other working project mindmaps.

The original Personal Organiser template comes with a Weekly topic, with each day for planning. I have added a Monthly one, and you will see January opened up on this view, showing all the project tasks I have set for January. These dates were set originally in my Goals and Objectives mindmap, but seeing all the tasks I’ve assigned onto January gives me the ability to work out exactly if I’ve over-comitted my time and some of those dates are unachievable.

You can see some of the file links to additional mindmaps created for this year’s use in several areas on this mindmap. Clicking on these little icons opens the mindmaps I need directly.

Now that I have my goals and objectives, and milestone dates (with smart-er objectives), particularly for my larger writing goals, I can finish off my planning and strategy to achieve these, along with all the other goals on personal levels.

Note: Both the mindmap images above are thumbnails. Open these as images on a new page, and you can then view them full size by clicking on them with a magnifying glass icon (instructions apply to those using Firefox browser).

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New Years greetings to all out there.

This is being written at 7pm on the New Years Eve, with another five hours to go until the next year. My home country of New Zealand clocked over into 2009 eight hours ago. As I’m tired, I wish a little that I had. But we’ll see if I can make it through to midnight.

As a final wish from this year into the next, I will tell you a little sad story. Being the silly season, my family has spent quite a few days doing “stuff” - family stuff. Yesterday it was post-Christmas sales shopping, and we watched a pantomine. Today we went to the movies. We are also playing a lot of electronic games which arrived under the tree for all family members.

In shopping, I went looking for what I thought should be a simple writing pleasure - my first moleskine journal. In our county capital city, I never found one. How sad is that? I had the good intentions to start a proper writing journal for the New Year, and even developed some thoughts towards decorating it, and organising it, and had finally persuaded myself to try out that holy grail of many writers - a moleskine. And no shops sold them. Not even the proper stationery shelves of “proper” reader’s havens like the two good bookstores in the city. I’ve seen them previously there, but no longer. Not when I really had set my heart on one, anyway.

So, I am bereft a moleskin, and therefore a writing journal for the first of January - tomorrow. But my search will perservere, and I will not be scuppered in my desire for the moleskin.

But before I go - I started pondering why they are called moleskins, and worrying about the plight of actual moles - there are plenty of mole hills scattered across the roadside verges in my surrounding countryside, and I actually like the little creatures.

How Did Moleskine Notebooks get their Name?

Answer 1 : Edmund80 :

There’s an ordinary English word, moleskin, which, as you might guess, originally referred to the skin of a mole. About a century ago, the term was extended to apply to a type of cotton fabric that looked and felt a bit like natural moleskin. Strictly speaking, the oilcloth that’s used for covering notebooks is not moleskin—it isn’t fuzzy—but for whatever reason, that’s what it’s called.

See further at http://itotd.com/articles/565/moleskine-notebooks/

Answer 2 : zbeckabee :

Moleskine is the heir of the legendary notebook used for the past two centuries by great artists and thinkers, including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.

It was produced by a small French bookbinder, that supplied Parisian stationery shops frequented by the international literary and artistic avant-garde for more than a century.

In the mid-1980s, however, it no longer became available. In his book “Songlines”, Bruce Chatwin tells us the whole story of his favourite notebook, which he nicknamed “Moleskine.”

See further : http://www.moleskine.com/eng/_interni/storia/default.htm

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Firstly, I’m not a business plan writer by any way, shape or form. I used to work in I.T. and was a very good writer of Test Plans and Strategies, of juggling budgets (which weren’t really mine) with bodies, and facilitating a compromise over the overall business product sales goals with the time given to me to achieve quality in that product (normally in direct disproportions).

What I wasn’t was a small business holder or self-employed contractor going with cap in hand to my bank manager wanting to provide enough evidence to convince him that I was worth a gamble on, and that I really did need to invest in some more stock, and perhaps also needed another staff member to help out.

I figure some of both a regular old Business Plan and some of an I.T. Software Development strategy might give me a shot of producing my 2009 Fiction Writing Business Plan. Or maybe not. Time may well see…here is my own steps to building a business plan / goal plan or career plan for 2009’s Writing Efforts…

Introduction to my Writing Business Plan

Here are the Components of a Writing Business Plan, the elements of which are work in progress, much as my fiction writing work continues to be.

This business plan is designed for the purposes of my own writing plans for a year of time. This will include mostly longer fiction writing plans, but with some non-fiction work also. Additionally, as writing remains a part-time and hobby-istic business for me, the Business Plan and goals can not be taken out of context with the rest of my own life.

This means that such a career plan must be designed concurrently with planning sessions for other aspects of my life such as other hobbies, family and work commitments. Each will provide events and problems - and opportunities - which will both impact this Writing Business Plan and could alter the navigation and strategies through it over the year. At the same time as strategising this Writing Plan, I am also thinking more holistically about what else I want to achieve over 2009.

I may share my actual 2009 Goal Plans with you in a later entry - this won’t be in a structured document as you might expect. I intend doing all of these goal or business plans or strategies via a mindmap with additional attachments of supporting documents and notes.

The Components of a Writing Goal or Business Plan

1. End-Goal and Year-Goal - The Objectives

What exactly am I planning for? What can I reasonably expect to strategise and achieve over the course of the next year of writing?

The answer to the first is probably obvious, and shared by many others. I’m not after being a black swan in this world, a JK Rowling or Stephen King. I just want to be published enough in my genre of choice that I can “make a living” out of writing - enough to not tremble should one of those rainy days come along, or my husband find himself made redundant.

How much is enough, though? And what proportion of this is feasible in my first year of strategising? What smaller objectives must I plan for to get to the ultimate goal?

These short-term and long-term goals aren’t just monetary either…

2. Product and Customer

What exactly is my product? That’s easier to work out if I’m a business owner - or a corporate puppet for that matter. But some evidence can be found already in my own definition of why I might be writing this business plan in the first place - for Fiction writing. Fiction, not journalistic or blogging, non-fiction or even poetry for that matter. My heart - currently - lies in Fiction. However I must not discount the non-fiction work - which should also be included as a secondary product of mine.

That secondary product has been at the forefront in my writing world this last year - this blog, and my non-fiction but associated products for writers - ebooks, reports (and not just in writing). Perhaps I can still fit those secondary products into the Business Plan for my writing year. Perhaps those will be part of the overall strategy…

So, in deciding what my product - for 2009 - might be, I come down to perhaps defining the type of fiction, maybe even some genres. Short stories - no, not really. Probably novels. And probably some ebooks or reports too.

What we’re talking here is - Wordcount. Length. That makes up a product of some writing type. I just have to decide what it is. That’s the fun part.

And lastly, on this subject, I’ve got to remind myself that a Product is not a product without a customer (that’s not me!). If I choose a such-and-such-a product, then who are my potential customers? What are their needs and wants - what service am I about to offer them?

Customers to me mean several different people - from the People section of my plan (family, and possibly external contacts) to something else - my market. If I have a business plan to get a novel published, then I need to understand the market for that genre - there’s no point writing the country’s greatest novel, if nobody actually wants to buy or read it.

3. SMART Goals

So, I might have some end goals, and a product or two, but there’s no point without some performance factors. How else do I know that I’ve achieved my business plan if I don’t have some way to measure my success or not? And to measure - well, I need to have those goals set out in the first place.

S = Specific. What specific products and goals will I have for 2009? How many novels - twenty? Or just the one? And at what state- finished, or a figment of my imagination?

M=Measurable. How do I measure the state of my achievements, my products or goals? Can I get someone else to? How will this be tracked? (See No. 10)

A=Achievable. Twenty novels might be technically achievable, but possibly not of the quality I might expect and owe any poor reader of my product(s). But sitting on my laurels writing just one novel per year probably won’t get me that working salary I need as an end goal, either. (Nb: A can also stand for Ambitious, Adjustable or Active, depending on interpretation).

R=Results Orientated. What exactly will a year from now (December 2009) look like if my objectives have a successful outcome? (Isn’t this the point - the goals should support outcomes or results which move you steps forward to your longer term goals). What factors make this vision up? Is it money, a contract, a book written or a book published - or at least an agent interested in you? And what if these results aren’t achieved - what if my big submission fails to make it through the slush piles of my world? (Nb: R can also mean Rewarding, Relevant, Related, Realistic or even - Recyclable, depending on what Smart system you are learning).

T=Time. What time am I prepared to invest in performing my business plan? Is this SMART in itself? Will it produce? If I don’t have the necessary time, how will I create or negotiate for it? What other things can be sacrificed to provide the time needed? (NB: T is often interpreted as Time-bound or Timely).

4. People

Originally I fell for the old chestnut - I’m the writer. It’s just me. I’m the only “people” in the plan. There’s nothing like that old martyrdom of being a self-dependent business person, striving against the turning of the planet to produce a work of wonder and glory, pulling it from the herbit’s cave I live in and blinding people with my independent creativity. Unfortunately this dismisses the other people in my family, and other commitments which the business plan for my writing activities will have to work with - not against, as much as I quite fancy that hermit’s life. 

Of course, even including my family and other work commitments washes over a bigger more important element - having to get out there and contact agents, publishers, magazines or whatever. Scary stuff - the stuff which stops me from ever striding ahead. I would much rather stick my ostrich head into the sand and pretend none of those people exist. Hence People becomes a large component of my plan for next year. If it’s written down, I can’t be such a bird.

5. Budget

Okay. I have none. Not one penny. But every plan needs an investor, and for mine - I’m it. So any budget comes from me, even if it means I have to save up three months from my part-time work to pay for an investment in entering a contest or something. These little things count, and so does a strategy to deal with the big stuff. Say an agent gets excited about me (who said a business plan can’t dabble in a little fantastical “what ifs”?) and wants to meet with me in London. Where’s the babysitting coming from, and where’s the £35 off-peak train fare down there coming from also? Every budget and business plan needs a little contingency planning.

And if I do make money from the plan  - what should I do with it? In fact - let’s not muddy this with taxes and registering with the government. Although that idea has to be planned for, doesn’t it?

Budgets should, at best choice, at least acknowledge the external side of this plan. I have a blog site, for instance. Should hosting fees be thought about? Why, yes. And then there’s the asides - expenses - paper, printing ink, laptops, software, Blue Ribbon fully-caffienated ground roast coffee beans (the later for bringing out the muse within). And what about acquiring knowledge - books or courses?

6. Training and Knowledge

I’m still a newbie. That’s pretty much one of the few guaranteed elements of this whole plan. I’m both staff, personel, my own customer and my own service. Add to that a mother, wife, part-time child worker and general domestic goddess and you have enough roles to tie up two gravestones should I run under a bus accidentally. Just like most newbie writers.

How do I get out of this newbie thing? Enough to at least make a go of the business plan without feeling rubbish about it within a month’s time from the new year?

Well, probably training. Whether this is simply reading writing magazines, or taking some courses, or joining up with an online group - something towards training should be incorporated into my overall business plan. It’s only fair.

Plus, training and learning is actually a nice incentive plan for the business plan also, a reward for the hard work of the year.

To make training a working part of any strategy I shall have to be reasonably professional about it, however. Coming from the corporate world, I am well aware of the propensity of employers facing harder financial times to always drop the training budget for employees as a first-off. I’m also aware of many employees demanding training just for the sake of a staff perk - training for the sake of training. I, like many people, can easily fall into the same trap.

To identify my own training needs, I need to strategise the elements of what knowledge and skills I need, yet do not yet possess. In my business plan I have to identify what I do not have. Great. That sounds like fun. Not.

7. Execution of the Strategy and Milestones

The actual Business Plan wouldn’t be a plan without - well, a plan. It’s all well and good having a defined product and smart objectives, but I’ve got a year to fulfill them, and doubt seriously, despite that new year resolution sparkliness of January, that I can do it all in that first month. I have to distribute…

[Heck, it would be even better if I could delegate the plan, but I'll work on distribution as a more plausible option for the time being]…

What are my milestones, and when will I action the goals and ideas which will get me to them?

One of my milestones should be measuring and adjusting the plan over time - things change. 2009 is guaranteed to give me some of those changes, despite - and because of some of my best intentions. A good plan has plenty of contingency built in. (No. 9 deals with this).

8. Mission Statement

Mission statements, oh how I hate them. These first came out in my corporate world over twenty years ago. Staff would spend half a year having to come up with some pat commercial statements which made the executive board happy, and were printable in one sentence on a corporate poster. You would - and still do - then see the same phrases peppered over every single corporate office on the same street. Human Resources staff ran black markets off them.

My favourite is “Just Do it” - thank you Nike. Or the equally obnoxious expectation of all staff members to have a “Can Do attitude” which is always brought up to hit you around the head with when you point out that the highly implausible ideas of the new chief executive are not only unrealistic, but would take the entire workforce five million hours to achieve, thus reducing the ability to actually produce anything tangible which customers have actually asked for, if he’d only spoken with real people, and not yes-men hovering around him like some grand-master champion of the world, hoping for a bigger Christmas bonus. Sometimes a little “No” can do the world a whole lot of good. If only our world’s Banks had been told no a year or so ago, then we’d not be in this economic position we find ourselves in right now…

Er, still…

My Business Plan deserves a simple mission statement - a one sentence definition of what I’m trying to achieve for the year. What would make me happy. The Mission Statement is sourced from that holiest of grails - the New Years resolutions of this writer. Maybe even from before that - the Christmas wish. A Business Plan just puts it into a form where it has a better chance of becoming a reality.

9. Contingency and Alternatives

I’ve already acknowledged the need for contingency plans throughout this initial diatribe. Part of the whole plan is also seeking out alternatives - whether it’s different ways to achieve my end goals, or different strategies to move into if something “goes wrong” or more optimistically “goes so right it’s like living a dream”.

Risk Assessment

My Business Plan therefore needs an assessment of risk - what might go wrong, and how should I deal with it.

Prioritisation

And what goals or end goals are less of a priority (and are therefore expendable) if I need to do so? What are the top priorities, and which actions and activities are simply nice-to-haves? Which should have my main focus on? In project management terms (it’s a good idea to think of your short-term goals as projects, and to manage them) we are talking about analysing and deciding on which of your products and goals are on the critical-path (and which ones aren’t, no matter how exciting they might be).

Alternatives

And what alternatives are there out there? How does the industry change - or my own needs and desires over that year? Over the year there is bound to be something which produces an alternative path, and something else which requires research to assess.

10. Tracking & Management

Finally, whilst putting the strategy into action seems relatively easy - if I’ve got the objectives and timeframes correct; there’s no point if I don’t know how I’m doing. Measures should be thought about when making the little goals SMART, and one of the easiest is setting milestones, deadlines and dates - once set, it becomes obvious if those objectives aren’t met in time. But…not meeting a deadline for a goal doesn’t give me the reason why.

Perhaps tracking - of all the activities leading towards those goals (or against them, in some cases) is as simple as keeping a writing journal, taking down daily notes of writing activities and thoughts. Writing down these activities, putting pen to paper, is evidence of management - and ownership- of the plan.

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It’s that time of year again - the time of good hope, and even bigger intentions. Below I’ve wound up the best New Years resolutions for Writers I could find - sources of others are listed below. Many are slightly more specific goals than the Top Ten Christmas Wishes I wrote of previously. That’s the nature of New Years resolutions - they tend to make a little more specific those good feelings brought about by seasonal good will.

From a personal viewpoint, I don’t share some of the following goals - but then, there’s always room for the personal…mine are about to be actioned through the writing of a 2009 Writing Business Plan.

I am going to make some of my own News Years writings goals actually work by writing them out as a Business Plan and Strategy. My next entry will take you through the Components of a Writing Business Plan.

1. Write Every Day

What writer doesn’t promise themselves that they will write every day? Even if it’s only for ten minutes of free-writing, or in a journal? Writer’s Write - and all that. So, top of the hit list for writers is this one. Write Every Day. That’s 365 times in the year.

Some actionable components of this might be -

Make time to write, consistently.

• Set out a “writing space” - whether it be a desk, a time away from the family, or a comfy armchair.
• Source writing prompts to provide inspiration for the daily writing exercise - you can even get books with 365 of these, one for each day of the year.

2. Read More

I guess reading newspapers and gossip magazines might not count - but if going from no reading to some reading, then perhaps it should. This goal is a little non-specific, however. How much exactly is “more”? And what quality of reading is actually suggested here? But most writers will acknowledge that reading in the genre of one’s own work - then outside of it also - has a positive impact on our own understanding of the market, and on what makes “good writing” - for us, anyway.

3. Keep a Journal / Start a Blog / Keep a Diary…

I’m not sure if the world of social networking pertains here - but if we’re mentioning a blog, then we’ve got to think about what we’re trying to achieve with it. If it’s just to write down our daily activities (today I took the drycleaning to our normal drycleaners, and found that they were closed down…) then perhaps it’s not that beneficial.

I think perhaps the general aim here is to document our lives and writing activities, and to - like with No 1, Write Every Day. However if the goal is to promote an aspect of one’s writing life - as in creating a blog or writing website for marketing and communication purposes, then that’s an entirely different objective.

4. Finish a Project

An extremely popular writing goal. Which tells us that all of us have unfinished projects aplenty, and need a kick to get them done. This one feels to me, like the typical (or stereotypical) personal goal we all have at New Years - to lose weight. If the project stopped half-way through the year, there was probably a reason for it, and maybe it might be better to start afresh elsewhere. If we started it late this year, then maybe there’s room for some movement into the New Year.

5. Submit or Send Work Out

There must be a lot of us show-stopped by a certain shyness in risking our egos or the very core of our beings by submitting our work. There must be a lot of “closet” writers out there.

This is a legitimate writing goal for my own New Year, to face that hurdle of upcoming rejection, and get through it. And to try not to take it so personally. Good luck to all of us on that one. But I can’t get anywhere without sending my work somewhere.

6. Try Something New

Around about No. 6 on most Writer’s list is the thought that new = fresh = inspiration = hope.

Trying a new genre, subscribing to a new organisation, joining a new book club, or writer’s group, changing our writing median, maybe even signing up for an expensive new writing course to “learn something new”.

7. Conquer the Non-Performing Muse

Many writers have a goal of beating Writer’s Block or Procrastination. Many even blame their block on somebody else - their muse. This is, like many, an interesting non-specific little New Year’s goal. I’m not sure how the passing of the year will suddenly make us capable of beating a block that was there the day before, but perhaps it’s the alcohol or parties?

Maybe we’ll put some actions into effect, however. Maybe by choosing this resolution, we’ll decide to tell our muse off, and take responsibility for non-performance onto our own shoulders.

Maybe we should just rewrite this one to something more reasonable like -

Feed our Mind / Muses with Inspiration Consistently During the Year.

That way, I’ve got an excuse for a lovely holiday in the Yorkshire Dales or something.

8. Socialise with Other Writers (or Seek Support from Other Writers, or Connect with Other Writers)

Depending on your values, you may be all into socialising, or putting it into politically correct-speak, supporting other writers. This might be virtually - via online forums and groups, or in the real world if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where there is a local writer’s group. Or the goal may be as simple as attending a Writing Conference and listening to some speakers. Maybe even something like this blog? Creating a blog on a subject draws in others interested in the same subject.

It’s an interesting situation, this one. Basically most human groups welcome the interaction and support found in like-minded people. Even if, sitting underground of that, is the fact that the same people are competing with you in the same business, and ultimately may be the cause of your own failure in it. Only so many wannabes can find success, afterall. But we all live off hope and a dream (or a wing and a prayer), and sharing those dreams is something worthy of a New Year’s goal. And if you looked at these people as “competition” you’d never raise your head above that initial underground cave. We can all learn from each other here.

Share Your Work With Others

This is a sub-goal in many respects to that of Submitting Your Work, or Socialising with Others Writers. Writing groups - both online and real-life often provide critiques of your work. As do editors for that matter. And many of us are those fabled “closet” writers unable to show their work (ie themselves) to the light of day, for fear of rejection or criticism.

This is a simple goal for me. I’ve not yet even got anything I’ve written into a state where I’m even letting my family read the stuff. But I have to acknowledge that another pair of eyes, at least, is actually a “good thing” and something I must work towards and quickly.

9. Improve Your Writing

There’s always room for improvement and all that. I sometimes wonder if authors like Stephen King (who couldn’t recreate his phenomenal success under the guise of Richard Bachman, afterall) ever thought to himself - why yes, if only I spent some money learning how to improve my writing, then I’d be ever so much more successful. Taking a look at some of the world’s bestselling novels, you sometimes also wonder how the heck the author got to be so successful, given the grammatical errors and style chosen, if chosen at all. Some (okay, quite a few) best-sellers aren’t relatively well-written books.

But that’s not the point, is it? Because we owe it to our own customers (or readers) to be the best kind of writer we can be, to make their own reading as easy as possible. To do that, there’s always room for improvement - for understanding language, or grammar, for choosing even better words to form the story. To Practice, and Learn, and read more.

10. Go Easy on Yourself

Reward yourself, inspire yourself. Don’t reject yourself because you don’t meet the goals. It seems that these days New Years resolutions always come with this final caveat - giving us the chance to acknowledge in writing that we probably won’t succeed at every resolution on the list, as much as we try to set achievable objectives, maybe even action plan them. Good intentions and all, No 10 on everyone’s list is a resolution acknowledging that it’s probably not all do-able. So there.

In a less negative manner, the goal to reward minor successes with an award, or to simply celebrate what goals are achieved over the next year seems a nice one to end with. I think mine might be a list of possible rewards - from small stashes of chocolate to giving myself a lovely holiday away with my family. Or maybe giving myself something from the Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for the Writer which I posted a week ago.  Every resolution list should have an accompanying incentive plan, don’t you think?

Some Other Top Ten New Years Resolutions for Writers

• New Years Resolutions for Writers by Jennifer Jensen at Suite101.
• New Years Resolutions for Non-Fiction Writers by Sharon Hunt at Suite101.
• New Years Resolutions for Writers by AuthorHouse.
• Top 10 Resolutions for Writers by Ginny Wiedhardt at About.com

More on Setting Attainable Writing Goals

• Setting Effective Writing Goals by Moira Allen at writing-world.com
• Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals by Mridu Khullar

Other Complimentary Articles to This one

• Top Ten Christmas Wishes for the Writer
• Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for the Writer
• Top Ten New Years Resolutions for Writers (this one)
• The Components of a Writing Business Plan (coming soon)

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2008 in My Writing Life

Before I go off on a lovely sparkly New Years goals kick, to be fair to myself - I have to work out what of this last year worked, and what could have worked better. That’s how I get to my goals of next year, right?

Right.

Review then…

[A minute or so later...]

Um, it’s not that much fun, really. To go back and think about everything that I have done writing-wise this last year. I’m more a future-forward make-a-wish kind of person, but must be practical about this.

Here’s my summary of my own writing successes and failures from 2008. Warts and all. Excuse my honesty and stupidity.

The Good

1. March 2008 : I Read No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo, and got  inspired enough to outline and plot a novel. Immediately - I couldn’t wait around until November, for Pete’s sake!
2. April 2008, starting 1st April (April Fools on me) - I wrote a novel, my first. 150,000 words and 32 days later, and it was done. And I’ve never gone back to it (see The Bad).
3. July 2008 I joined up on Holly Lisle’s 6 month online writing course, How to Think Sideways. Join up was on a whim, as I was already over-committed on two other online courses starting in August also. But I love the course. It speaks to me just about on every new week’s coursework, and I’ve learnt many applicable techniques which I’ve proven have worked for me. This is the course which restored my faith that I can learn something about writing from others (see, also The Ugly) and can make that approach work for me. This is particularly important as there are no writer’s groups or courses anywhere near my hometown, and I remain relatively stand-a-lone as a newbie writer.
4. July 2008 I joined up on the Blog Mastermind six month course, and the free 30 Day Challenge course, both commencing August. Each has provided some learnings, particularly towards blogging as a profession. However both are expensive in time outlays, and the former is expensive in money. But both have helped me look at the sales side of any of my businesses, including my writing practices.
5. September 2008 - I started this Juiced on Writing blog. Actually I started Juiced on Ebooks first, but that one is basically a no go (see The Bad). Both were opened as a required exercise from the Blogging and internet marketing courses I was participating in, and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning many of the approaches and implementing some of these through my blogging work here. I had previously been blogging about writing on my scrapbooking blog, Scrapability but the two just went separate ways, with my enjoyment of this blog increasing exponentially as I put more effort into it.
6. November 2008 - through the NaNoWriMo 2008 challenge I wrote and completed my second novel, at 120,000 words. Many of the principles came from the How to Think Sideways course I remain taking this month, which both helped me come up with an idea for the story, to outline this quickly (within a week of starting writing) and in coming up with a great ending. This novel  may be a keeper. I am scheduled to revise this in mid-January.

The Bad

1. In January 2008 (at the time we all feel inspired to start something new and inspirational) I joined up with an online scrapbooking-orientated support group going through the 12 step program for artists and writers, The Artist’s Way. As it was, I was one of the one-two members who continued on for some weeks, with many dropping out shortly after starting. Still, the morning pages - daily writing exercises of three full handwritten pages - became beyond me, and one of the reasons I was glad the whole thing died a silent death by around Week 7. These pages were written at the same time I was going through some in-depth training days to do with adopting children here in the U.K., and the emotional depths ploughed in those courses and analysis just didn’t work coming out onto handwritten pages like that. Seeing my pain and anger in writing just didn’t make me feel good about writing and the artist’s way at all. The timing was all wrong, in many ways.
2. The novel I wrote in April was scheduled to have the revision done two months later. This arrived in the middle of summer, with many commitments for preparing our family and the school for the upcoming six weeks of school summer holidays. I just couldn’t bring myself to even pick-up the novel when the revision time came up. This was semi-okay, as I had planned for my first ever novel to be a sacrificial lamb in learning anyway. So, it gathers dust. And the more distance I am from that first ever novel, the less I like the story within it.
3. Through one of those other online courses I created my first wordpress blog, Juiced on Ebooks. And although it brought in some money (which meant I won at the 30 Day Challenge), my heart soon left it. The Ebooks content is yet to be combined into this blog, but is compatible.
4. I started several personal ebook writing projects from July onwards also, and underestimated the time and commitment necessary to write and design two of them. Both important ones remain unfinished, although I have continued to write one as a Writing Guide, and it is near completion - several months past the first promised date.

The Ugly and Expensive

1. The Big Expensive Disastrous Course (for me)

January 2008 saw me with a new years resolution to be a writer. The resolution came after a particularly rough few months in my life, and with me having absolutely no money or income. Despite this, I hiked up a £300 debt on credit cards to purchase a correspondence course in writing from a well-known organisation here in the U.K.

I was keen enough that I did the first send-in exercise within only a few days of receiving the course material. Unfortunately the first exercise was to attend a local event or market and report back on it. I joined up in January, when there were No local events or markets anywhere near me, and none were scheduled for many months. As I couldn’t wait the months to get started, I decided to travel the thirty miles into my local city and attend the January winter sales as an event. Unfortunately (again) my style of writing - on the crowds and feelings in the biggest bookstore in town that day, didn’t come across as “reporting” to my tutor (and correctly so), who’s comments suggested I hadn’t bothered to follow any of the exercise - including going to a local market. Um…

I never continued on with the course, and it’s materials sit on my desk collecting dust. The course features all kinds of writing types, from non-fiction to short-stories to poetry, but it focused on journalistic writing from the start - and I hated it. I learnt that it wasn’t for me, and it was an expensive mistake to make, my most expensive in my own living history.

I had chosen the wrong generalistic course for me, and felt no report or ability to even explain myself with that first tutor’s comments. This is not intended as a criticism of either the course or the tutor concerned - it just wasn’t for me. I knew that with the second exercise which was asking me to go out and report on something else, and to do some research on magazines to sell a short story to. I didn’t want to write a short story. And all I wanted to do was stay at home, and write a big long story. To that end, I started buying how to write books, and within a month was planning my first novel. Everything happens for a reason, so they say…

2. Completely Daily Writing

All attempts at writing daily don’t seem to make me happy or come to fruition, no matter how organised I am in scheduling or providing the time and place for it. They feel like a drudgery.

I actually do write daily - or almost daily, and believe in continuous reading and practicing - but my writing takes many varied forms, and sitting down for ten-twenty minutes just to write something goes against my own grain and work methodologies, no matter how often I try to make that work for me.

Even more upsetting, I find myself going over and over the same worries again and again on paper. I’m a worrier at heart, and giving me actual time to write this down in freestyle writing just makes me worry even more - it doesn’t eradicate the worries, just works them up. Freestyle daily practicing of writing as an art form does not work for me in the literal sense.

The Learnings

1. I am a fiction writer / novelist at heart. Creative writing, novel writing, fiction writing how-to courses and courses on better writing for blogging are good for me.
2. The above needs to be thought about when choosing writing courses - both the coaches / tutors, and the contents need to be looked at more thoroughly by me when selecting.
3. I am not a daily writer (unless you count blogging and other non-fiction writing efforts). I can write huge wads of pages and word counts in a month, and spend another month planning or revising, but I need months of silence and rest between such fictional efforts. I also need my weekends off from all the other writing projects which take up my week. The weekends make me feel more centred and less guilty about my family.
4. I operate better on deadlines and almost over-commitments - three or four internet courses at once really strung me out, but all have added a lot of knowledge. Perhaps not so many at once next time. Setting deadlines in my own personal writing objectives will work for me, however. I’ll call them milestones to aim for and pass.
5. I enjoy the designing of ebooks as much as the writing and research of them. These are definitely a median I want to continue with.
6. Conversely, I could allow myself to focus too much on design detail, and not enough on writing content. I must watch out for this.
7. I need to ramp up efforts towards receiving criticism (and socialising / communicating with other writers and writing groups), improving my writing with practice, and earning actual money from all these efforts.

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Here in my family we have a few Christmas traditions, but one of my favourites is the Christmas Book Box. This was started a few years ago, for my daughter, who still couldn’t read at that point, but has been brought up being read to since she was a month old baby. This year at school, she’s shot ahead in her own reading, but despite this, nothing beats the family custom of reading at bedtime together.

I thought, as a final Christmas item I would share with you our Christmas Book Box custom.

On December 1st each year, our family traditionally gets into the loft and pulls out all the boxes of Christmas stuff. The tree goes up and is decorated this day also. December 1st is also the date our village switches its Christmas Lights on the small High Street on. It’s a special day all around.

Pulled out with the Christmas decorations is a black plastic box, full of Christmas story books. Every year we add one or more new books to this box, and in the nights leading up to Christmas Eve, our daughter pulls out a new book, and we read it before bedtime. The books are age-appropriate as she has grown. We’ve got Christmas Board books for her younger years, storybooks for now, and everything from traditional Nativity books, and Christmas stories, to the latest and trendiest stories about character fir trees, dinosaur santas or the Chicken who Saved Christmas. There are Mr Men Christmas books, and several collections of Christmas stories, and for this year we added a Horrible History of Christmas encyclopedia.

The box needs updating to something a little nicer than black plastic, and decorated in more permanent Christmas-sy fashion, but no matter what it might look like, the contents and tradition behind spending time just reading together and in the Christmas spirit is something that is absolutely priceless.

On that note, I would like to offer all the blog readers here a Very Merry Christmas or Seasonal Greetings to those celebrating Hanukkah or other important customs and religious events. I hope that your own book box and family traditions bring you as much joy as mine.

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Iain’s first post is entitled, “Writers, abandon your muses - they’re a work of fiction!” The blog goes on to argue that a muse doesn’t exist - it’s just a way of releasing blame for procrastination or non-writing productivity onto a voiceless entity rather than accepting it from within ourselves.

The blog gives some good reasonings behind this, but with the second comment is already refuted by one writer, Joanna Young. Writer’s don’t want to give up their muses that easily, and I’m not that surprised.

I’ve just written up a post myself where I refute the term “writer’s block” as existing. I don’t believe in writer’s block. It would be unacceptable in many other practices and professions (and I don’t want my surgeon stopping in the middle of any operation of mine, because he’s “blocked”), but the concept of writer’s block seems well interlinked in the creative nature of the writer, and their muse.

As a hobbyist and sometimes professional scrapbooker, I remember having published a series of articles some years ago in an English scrapbooking magazine, based on the premise that scrapper’s block existed and there were ways around finding more inspiration to continue scrapbooking - designing layouts and pages.

The term “scrapper’s block” had been coined right off the “writer’s block” term by uninspired scrapbookers years earlier. But scrappers altered the “muse” term to change this to stating “I’ve lost my mojo”. Mojo for Muse. But we still lost them all the time, whether our inner-creative was based on some greek semi-goddesses or some kind of American cocktail. The little blighters went walk-about on us all the time.

This is no new thing - this human propensity to personalise every concept - and our pets and sometimes inanimate objects for that matter - we name our family cars for instance, and my cats have been accused of plotting my terror on many occasions. So personalising  that portion of ourselves which is creative is not a surprising trait for many of us, and in some fashion allows us some control over thinking about it.

I use the term “muse” because I happen to like greek and roman history and myths. Although at some point I urbanised and updated my own muse - I even drew her once - and have dug out that years old picture to share here for you. She had kick-to-death black boots , flaming red hair, and an extremely low-cut cleavage, and for the sake of clarity at the time of drawing her, I even gave her a name.

Recently my muse had a sex change. I don’t know why, but I suddenly found myself dealing with a man - quite a good-looking and young man, I understand. Perhaps he’s just the natural outcome of turning 41 and beginning to wonder if I’m middle-aged or not. My own mid-life crisis.

An author I read recently suggested her muse was a little bird (as in “a little birdie told me”?) and the spirtual guides in animal form which Native Americans have offered also could be considered muses. In fact, if we look around, the whole world seems full of them.

I like to keep the muse around as a concept, but I don’t hear his/her voice over my shoulder, or even imagine them living any kind of life. When inspiration strikes, it doesn’t feel any different to me than the sudden remembering that I have to add those special lightbulbs to the shopping list, or to times when I have the answer to a particularly tricky test question. It’s all me - my mind, and my thoughts.

Still, although I don’t believe that muses go and get lost (or go on strike unless you feed them with lots of inspiring reading) - I still like to think that inside of me somehow, there is another personality and a great creative one at that.  Even as  I do acknowledge that I am the owner of my own creativity - and lack of it at times, and that lack of inspiration is down to other factors in my life, or just needing a breather.

Does this make my muse a fictional creature or figment of my imagination? You betcha. And I prefer it that way. It’s nice to think that we’re not alone in all of this, It’s nice to put a face to the concept of creativity, and it’s nice to have a muse in the first place. And a car called Vicky.

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Gifts for the writer don’t necessarily have to be expensive but can be very thoughtful. Both are important in this time of economic hardship for many of us.

Here are my top twelve gifts for writers, plus another twelve options below.

1. Books

“How to Write” Books, “English and Style” Books, “Reference” Books (Dictionaries, Style, Encyclopedias, Medical or Genre Reference Books); and for the fiction writer - books in the genre of choice.

There are many lists of the best books recommended for the writer out there. As a gift giver, give your writer a choice of what books they need or want, and then give them those books. Job done.

2. Writer’s Supplies

Reams of paper, printing ink (for the home inkjet printer), blank journal books, notebooks - many, and some lovely pens.

Now, I’ve not yet been introduced to the qualities of a good moleskin notebook, so for me - cheap vinyl is just as good. But as this is Christmas, we may as well concentrate on the properties agreed by many writers to bring out the best in them, even if it’s in writing a quality shopping list. So let’s just suggest moleskin all the way.

And for those who don’t already own one, I’m not sure if this legitimately comes under the ’supply’ category, but a Coffee Machine - one that does frothy lattes and espressos within seconds - now that’s what I’m talking about!

3. Writing Novelties - the Writer’s Mug

Okay, not your normal Christmas wish - to get another mug. It’s kind of down there with a pair of thick woolen socks or new pair of underpants, or handkerchiefs from Great Aunt Agatha. But mugs are to writers what tutus are to ballet dancers - an emblem of the entire darn business. Mugs equal coffee, and what writer doesn’t need more coffee?

Combine it with a witty writing-orientated phrase (”Will Write for Coffee” or  “Keep Out, Writer in Progress”) or even something as seemingly innocuous as simply a mug emblazoned with the word “Writer” on it, and you’ve given them something to remind them of what they are trying to remember to be.

4. Computers, Hardware and Software

Oh yeah, baby! Who wouldn’t say yes to a new laptop, upgrade to their software, a gift of the latest greatest writing software out there, or a - can I even venture to say it without embarrassing myself - a new laser printer instead of spending two days printing off a manuscript page by page on an old inkjet.

As we’re talking technology, consider also a decent digital voice recorder - one with as big a memory stick as possible, and which can be turned on with one click. If this has to be under the guise of the latest whiz-bang mobile phone, so be it. At least people won’t look at you like you’re out of your mind talking to yourself in public if it looks like somebody else is at the other end.

  5. The Gift of Support

Not something you can buy. And unfortunately something in short supply in some writer’s lives. But if you’re a family member, spouse or partner to a writer, then offering your support doesn’t even have to cost you anything. Anything but a gift of time, and belief.

Make up some vouchers if you want to - promise the writer in the family an hour each day of distraction-free writing, do some domestic chores during this hour, baby-sit the baby (or the dog), and ensure they get the time promised them.

Other ways to support, with little cost - give them a subscription to a writing magazine. Read it yourself so that you understand some of the industry they are working within, and can hold a decent conversation with them - at times when they need it.

And most priceless of all - believe in them. Even when they don’t believe in themselves.

Some Other Gifts

A few more, basically because I quite fancy the following. Okay, so they are for me - but you never know - your writer in your life might well appreciate these also.

6. A Lap Table

One of those tables that wheels over your lap when you’re sitting on a sofa, which will hold your laptop at a slight ergonomic angle, and probably holds supplies, notebooks, pens and the all-important mug of java.

7. A Housekeeper

Someone who comes in once or twice a week, and makes the home look like a home again, getting me away from the guilt of my domestic drudgery. On that note, the ultimate might be to also have a cook to provide the nourishment for the family, especially in times of heavy writing or inspiration. Ah, what absolute bliss.

8. A Huge Gift Certificate to a Large Bookstore

And not the kind of gift certificate that you have to hand over all at once. A perpetual gift certificate that works like a smart card and you can simply drop into the bookstore whenever you want, and never worry about payment ever again. Or at least for a year?

9. Subscription Central

Subscription payments for writing magazines, online organisations, writing memberships, writing courses, oh just everything that costs money.

10. Bookshelves

We happen to be a family with enough space in our current house for more bookshelves, but not the money to provide them. And far too many books. Floor to ceiling bookshelves, in a form which matches our current ones. And plenty of them, please.

11. A Presentation Folder

To hold every single rejection letter I ever receive - in archival prissness, ready to bring out and shove into those publisher’s faces when I become successful. No, I don’t really mean that. But celebrating rejection is a good habit to get into. One more rejection, one more step to acceptance.

12. A Personal Stylist

I can’t help to have noticed just how much smoother and blonder JK Rowling got over the years. Everyone knows that a good writer needs to market themselves and go on promotional book-signing tours, even if it’s to your local bookstore. And at this point in time I simply don’t have anything decent enough to wear, and certainly need a hand in “doing my face” and getting my hair in check.

Other Gifts

Think :

1. novelty writing gifts for the female writer - typewriter key bracelets and dangly earrings; printed T-shirts
2. novelty writing gifts for the male writer - T-Shirts and ties emblazoned with witty writing sayings;
3. snuggle rugs which cover your entire body up when you’re sitting writing on the sofa in the middle of a chilly snap;
4. the ultimate writing space or office (or at least a writer’s desk) - this is according to both individual taste and budget;
5. a Massage - especially across those aching shoulders;
6. ergonomic office chairs, in luxury geniune leather if you can afford it.
7. an old (vintage) typewriter in working condition ;
8. small frames and large frames - to hold the published book jackets of a novelist or non-fiction writer, or magazine covers, short stories or articles published or certificates on winning contests.
9. luxury accommodation and event subscriptions for a writing retreat - weekend or week; or to a writing convention - preferably with classes and famous writing speakers, and access to publishers, agents and editors.
10. hand-made family voucher promising full support in the month of November if your writer in residence is keen to do NaNoWriMo next year;
11. an expensive bottle of the best champagne to toast the next success, no matter how large or small
12. a gift of a website for promoting your writer’s work - if he or she is not technically minded to want to create one themselves. Hire a web development firm to do it for them.

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Christmas and Seasonal wishes to all. Here’s my personal Christmas wish list for the writer within. Following up, I’ll have a Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for The Writer and some New Years Resolutions also. Oh, and an actual Business (Action) Plan to make some of these so-called wishes or resolutions come true.

1. To Be a Writer

This is a mind-set thing more than anything. I keep thinking others won’t accept me as a writer unless I have something published. Never mind the thing where many well known authors never found fame until they’d died, or that other thing where being published doesn’t actually produce any income on some occasions.

So, taking away those facts I remain out of control of, brings me back to the inner focus of this Christmas wish - I need to think of myself as a writer. I need to accept that. And I wish for a time when the vocation panel in my passport simply says “Writer”. In the meantime, perhaps a mug might do the trick (see Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts for the Writer).

2. To Be Published

The ultimate wish, to be published. I need not say any more.

Although…

It’s highly unlikely that No. 3 below will come to fruition unless I ramp up No. 2 to being published - often.

3. To Make a Living Writing

Okay, so it’s much more likely to deep down be a wish to be the next big thing, literally rolling in disposable income. But at this point in time, let’s just tone it down a little and go for something slightly more realistic if not just as hopeful -

Make enough money to live off. Comfortably.

4. To Create or Find a Unique Position in Writing.

There was no Stephen King before that first successful book of his. There was no JK Rowling - until that first book of hers. Even then, stories about wizard schoolboys weren’t 100% a new idea when Harry Potter was born. And people were doing horror fiction before Stephen King was born also. But as examples of authors who have succeeded in finding themselves a unique position in the industry, both open up that possibility in this later day for the rest of us.

Maybe, just maybe, that can happen again. Maybe there is hope or room for more Black Swan authors - authors who effect society in larger proportions than their own work might ever suggest it being worthy of.

Luck, great timing, fortune or fate - finding yourself in the unique position of being a best-seller write-your-own-cheque to richness author, and as the accredited author who everyone goes to if they want to read about true-to-life disasters, or wizard schools or bone-chiller thrillers or…this is one of the ultimate secret-wishes of many writers out there.

This wish is not to be mistaken for being the author who got the next big idea (teenage vampire heroes, anyone?) but then is followed by every man and his dog getting in on the act. See No. 10 for that one. No, a unique position means you can continue to write in that genre or theme, even if every man and dog is doing it after you, and you’re still guaranteed some good sales, because you do it well, and you are known to do it well. You are the one (if not the only). That’s a nice wish.

5. To Have a Writing Office / Writing Space

Nothing says “professional” like having a dedicated place to evidence where that professionalism goes on. For some of us, this might be a “proper” office with a real desk, bookshelves, a calendar, memoirs, frames ready for book jackets.

For others it might remain the dining room table, with the daily detritus moved over in a pile to make way for your journal, or laptop.

I have a couple of writing spaces - a proper office which makes me feel too quiet, and a laptop on my lap sitting on one of the family sofas. The later is much more productive. In fact, I can write just about anywhere, so a bed is just as good, as is a cafe, the living room with blaring television sets, and outside if only laptop screens could be seen in daylight. But many of us crave that ultimate of things - an actual writer’s studio, or office.

6. To Find an Understanding Agent / Editor / Publisher

Actually, if you’re lucky enough to have found one, I figure you already have an understanding one. Throughout the lifetime of a writing career, I believe many agents or publishers might come and go. Editors swap out on you, too - moving onto new jobs just in the middle of your latest book publication. Or so I’ve been led to believe, as this has happened to many published authors.

Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I know the difference between finding a kindred spirit, or soul mate in your career - someone who will stick with you through hell and highwater, even if it costs them money. And then I know the truth of it all - that we’re all in it to make money, and as a business. Maintaining a professional and working relationship with that agent, editor or publisher is, I believe, a better Christmas wish - one which requires me to work just as hard as I expect them to be working on my behalf. And letting them do their job is also helpful, without hassling them too often. Whether I like them as people and will make them the godparent of my next child or not.

7. Accreditation and Acknowledgement

I wrote this one down, after thinking back to the Writer’s Strike of early this year, and how ultimately it effected the entire world, especially around television programming and television series from America - and for almost this entire year also.

Writers have long been the forgotten heroes of television series, movies and west end shows. Entertainment. Yet we, as a society, continue to imbibe the actors and producers of such media with many more accolades (and monetary awards) than those who created the ideas, the dialogue and the stories in the first place.

Many writers aren’t used to, or even ready to go out there into the public. The inner hermit of being a creator is, in fact, encouraged in many of us. I personally prefer to sit in the background, shying away from any kind of compliment so I understand this somewhat stereotypical trait of the creative, yes I do. And attending a Hollywood ceremony to receive an award for my own writing would go against the very grain of my ego (If I should be so talented or lucky). But I think it a reasonable wish to ask that Writers receive more acknowledgement of their additions to our society, both in fiction and non-fiction than currently still exists. This seems a worthy wish to ask of Santa.

8. To Be Able to Write - and Have Accepted - Exactly What You Want to Write

Probably not a compatible wish with that of either making a living as a writer (unless you’re a Black Swan author like Stephen King or JK Rowling - and even then, Stephen King couldn’t recreate his success writing as Richard Bachman, could he?) or of finding an understanding Publisher.

But it would be kind of nice to be able to just write that witches and vampires story sitting in my head, even if it’s been done a billion times before. You know what I mean?

Anyway, Christmas wishes away, there’s no such thing as a new idea, but maybe there are different markets and approaches which will work. Being stuck down to one genre is not something I particularly want, no matter how successful that might be for me. So, for the sake of my inner muse, allowing me to look at different genres when I need to may sound like a career problem, but a little wish won’t do me any harm.

9. To Break the Writer’s Block Wall

Just like a real brick wall, simply wishing it away (unless you happen to have a genie in your pocket, perhaps) probably won’t work. So don’t bother wasting a Christmas wish on this one, either.

I have a belief - I don’t suffer from writer’s block in the first place. When I was working in the corporate world, telling my boss I wasn’t going to attend his precious meeting because I was “blocked” would have gone down with a ton of bricks, unlike the wall we are talking about metaphorically. So it’s not an excuse I accept in my own creative life.

Yes, there are times when ideas don’t come when I’m wanting them to. But there are equally times when too many come at once, and those can be saved for that more trough-like day. And in writing a novel, I’ve often struck times where the scene or chapter goes exactly no-where and I have wasted days of my life not producing. I figure my muse just needed the break, and he’ll come back strong some other day. It’s all a negotiation process.

What I refuse to believe exists is the thing called “a block”. There are differences in quality or quantity of work, and between inspiration and procrastination, but I’m never blocked. I might be slower, or less creative than other times. But there’s no wall there.

10. To Find Fame or Fortune with that Next “Great Idea”

Don’t we all hanker to be the next JK Rowling, able to write our own cheques, and stop writing forever if we please. With houses all over the world, and the power to give a small country’s national deficit as a charity payment to any cause we believe in? To pick and choose what work we might bother with?

Still - go back to No. 8 above. There’s no such thing as a new idea. Everything has been done before. The best we can hope is to write in a genre that suddenly becomes cross-over or best-seller, to be that ground-breaker first author having written something a little different around a less popular theme or genre which co-incidentally - and at time of publication, the public seem to suddenly be looking for. And better yet - the creator of a published and copywritten idea that Hollywood might like to make a movie from. Or to write so well we get nominated for a Man Booker Prize, or Nobel Prize or…to become the expert source of knowledge for thousands of students. I dunno. All of that.

The best form of this wish, as far as I can see, given the possible millions of competing writers out there with the same airy-fairy wish (and statistically, a good chance of swiping that “great idea” away from us anyway) is -

To write in the best way possible for yourself and your readers. To know your markets and their rules, but also how to break those same rules. To keep abreast  of trends (in case somebody beats you to publishing that new idea of yours six months earlier than yours will be ready- which is guaranteed to happen). To be willing to try out and fail at those new ideas (just like Einstein or Thomas Edison or anyone else who suddenly had an overnight great idea after years and a lifetime of having rubbish ones). And to constantly work on improving your own writing, so that at least you’ll die a well-spoken literary writer, and the best writer you possibly could ever be. But mainly to write to make yourself happy, and if others fall in line then that’s just a happy bonus.

Merry Christmas Wishes to all Writers Out There.

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