New Year, New Writing, New You?

 

What’s that?

 

That crashing noise?

 

Yep, you’ve guessed it: it’s the sound of my New Year’s resolutions shattering into a squillion tiny pieces (as they generally do around this time in January).

 

To be truthful I’ve largely given up on making resolutions, mainly because they tend to disintegrate before you can say “An extra generous helping of chocolate cake, please”. However, I usually start the year with some vague notions of how I’d like to climb Everest, learn a new language, eat more less and exercise less more.

 

My writing also features heavily in my flights of fancy about the year ahead. Maybe this time I’ll finish that manuscript that’s been skulking in a random file somewhere on my computer for the last ten years. Perhaps I’ll claim a top prize in a prestigious writing competition or have my script - for a black comedy set on an alpaca farm - optioned by the BBC.

 

There’s no harm in daydreaming about our pet projects (although it does help if we actually get on and write them). I also think it can be useful to make writing resolutions, as long as they’re realistic and achievable.

 

Last year, I read a book on spiritual formation called 8 Habits for Growth, by Darryl Dash. One of the thoughts that stuck with me was his encouragement to start small. If we want to grow in our faith, it’s much better to make small changes we’re likely to stick to rather than be over-ambitious and then get discouraged when we fail. After all, our faith journey is a process rather than an instant.

 

This feels like good advice for our writing, too. I guess that most of us are keen to develop our writing, but that’s more likely to happen if we set ourselves achievable goals and make small but steady changes to our writing habits.

 

What about you? Have you made any writing resolutions for 2022? Have you any tips for developing new writing habits? And can anyone teach me how to say “no” to that packet of chocolate biscuits in the cupboard?

Fiona Lloyd is Chair of the Association of Christian Writers and writes regularly for Together magazine. Her first novel, The Diary of a (trying to be holy) Mum, was published by Instant Apostle in 2018. Fiona also works for Christians Against Poverty.

 

Twitter: @FionaJLloyd & @FionaLloyd16