A New Year, A New Promise, A New List (Maybe) by Allison Symes

 Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

It’s amazing how quickly twelve months go by, isn’t it? It seems only five minutes ago I was writing my January 2025 piece for More Than Writers. 

I used to stay up to see the New Year in but don’t now since I realised I appreciated sleep more! There is a lovely old hymn which has the line “the storms may roar without me”. Indeed, they can, and the New Year can come in without me being about to witness the year change at midnight!

What is promising about a New Year is it is a new start. I don’t make resolutions. I do take time out to review my writing life and then work out what I’d like to achieve (or make progress towards achieving) in the next twelve months. 

A review of where your writing is at can be a great motivational tool, even if you have nothing published yet. Why? Because I’ve found the simple act of writing down what you would like to achieve means you are more likely to do something to try and achieve it. You are making a promise to yourself here. 

Seeing it written down can bring it home that, yes, there are things you can do to make progress on your wish list. So you start working your way through that list. I start by going for what are the easier items on my list. Ticking them off as I get them done feels good and encourages me to keep going. Breaking writing (and marketing) tasks into more manageable “chunks” helps a lot too.

Items on such a list can include things like:-

Writing regularly (whether that’s a regular 50 words a day or significantly more - it’s the regularity here which matters most as smaller amounts build up over time and quickly).

Posting regularly on whatever social media channels you use.

Remembering to visit the ACW website and More than Writers more often.

Carving out time to work out what marketing you would like to do (and have a reasonable chance of enjoying it as that helps you to keep going with it), whether or not you are published.

If you are published, you need to do this to draw people’s attention to your work. 

If you’re not published yet, it still pays to work out now the kind of marketing you would be happy to do. Years ago, long before I was published, I would work out how I would answer questions in author interviews if they were put to me. It made me think about how I would talk about my writing should I be asked, and that has paid off.

What would be the best ways for you to engage with other writers in the coming year? I’ve always found I’m inspired and encouraged by getting together with other writers, whether in person on or Zoom. I’m looking forward to the ACW Connect session coming up in 2026 too.

Happy New (writing) Year!