Writer’s Resolutions {with Loopholes}

It’s New Year’s Eve and you all know what that means — it’s time for our last minute New Year’s Resolutions! My personal opinion on New Year’s Resolutions is that they’re not really designed to help you reach your goals. Mostly they are put in place to make you feel bad about what you didn’t do this past year and give you things to beat yourself up for not doing next year. As a result, I don’t set New Year’s Resolutions. I know not everyone is like me {gasp} and will insist on setting at least one resolution. Being the helpful gal that I am, I decided to give you four popular New Year’s Resolutions for writers AND corresponding loopholes to help ensure you don’t fall into that trap of just making yourself feel bad for not accomplishing your resolutions for yet another year.

Resolution 1: I will write every day!
Loophole 1: Every day, open your WIP and write one word. If you know you can’t open it tomorrow, work ahead and write two words. That’s it. You’re done. 

Resolution 2: I will finish my current WIP!
Loophole 2: Most writers refer to their current manuscript as their current WIP. However, WIP is actually a pretty generic term. If you’re struggling to finish that mammoth 100k novel, quickly start a 500 word essay. BOOM — you now have a new WIP that’s feasible. 

Resolution 3: I will win NaNoWrMo this year! 
Loophole 3: This one was a bit tougher to get a loophole in place, but I worked it out. Just tell people that NaNoWrMo stands for National NOT Writing Month. Now winning NaNoWrMo will be easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Resolution 4: I will set SMART goals!
Loophole 4: For those who might not know, SMART in goal setting stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. So here’s your SMART goal for accomplishing all your 2019 Resolutions: I will write 1.5 words per day in my current WIP, except during the month of November. In November I will write 0 words per day. There — you now have a SMART goal to finish that 500 word essay in 2019! And since you’re guaranteed to achieve all your resolutions for the year, you can cruise through 2019 feeling great about yourself :D

Of course, if you actually want to get any work done then I suppose that last resolution on setting SMART goals is the most important. And remember not to beat yourself up if you fall off track. Just pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, rest those SMART goals, and get back to work.

Anyone have a New Year’s Resolution they’d like to share?

Happy New Year, everybody!

~ Carrie