30 Ready-Made Writing Resolutions

Attention procrastinators!

Do you still need to make some New Year’s resolutions about your writing or illustrating? If so, you’re in luck! Here is a list of 30 resolutions. Choose a few or let the list inspire you to come up with your own. Click the link(s) in each suggestion and you’ll go to a related blog post or website. And if you already have a resolution, check out these suggestions to help you keep your resolutions.

In 2018 I resolve to:

1. schedule my time for writing or illustrating
2. support another writer or illustrator
3. attend a book launch (or 2 or 5 or…)
4. host a blog tour (for bloggers)
5. write a guest post (for bloggers and non-bloggers)
6. buy a new book (or 2 or 3 or 10 or…)
7. read books by writers whose backgrounds are different from my own
8. review 1 book a month and post my reviews on Goodreads
9. go to a conference, and while I’m there, meet another writer or illustrator
10. go to an online conference, like The Manuscript Academy or The Picture Book Summit
11. join an in-person critique group; join an online critique group, too
12. improve my critiquing
13. try co-writing
14. try plotting (for pantsers) or try pantsing (for plotters)
15. try a new genre
16. push past my comfort zone, even if I’m already published
17. learn about new publishers
18. learn about new agents and editors
19. query 10 agents/editors (or 20, or 30) and do my homework before querying
20. query during a Twitter contest, like #PitMad or #PBPitch or #DVPit, and make my Twitter pitch the best it can be before querying
21. learn to use a new writing tool
22. identify my book’s audience
23. revise a manuscript; REALLY revise it; be BRUTAL about revising it
24. polish up my punctuation
25. do an online challenge: brainstorm ideas with Storystorm, write picture books with 12X12 read mentor texts with ReFoReMo, write a novel with NaNoWriMo, complete a #100Days project, start the day with #5amWritersClub, or find another challenge to meet my needs
26. make a marketing plan for my book, even if it isn’t published yet
27. master a new-to-me social media platform, like Twitter or Pinterest or Instagram
28. seek inspiration and motivation
29. regularly read Publisher’s Lunch, Publisher’s Weekly, and/or Writers’ Digest
30. join SCBWI and visit the SCBWI message boards regularly

What’s your New Year’s resolution? Do you have a great resource to help others keep their resolutions? Share in the comments!

With thanks to Laura Fineberg Cooper and Kirsti Call for inspiring this post.