4 Tips for Creating Your New Year’s Writing Resolution
By: Marx D.
Tags: Writers On Writing, Writing Tips, New Year, Resolutions, Writing

Write More

This should be at the top of every writer’s New Year’s resolution list. If we’re claiming that we’re writers then it’s not rocket science to know we need to write more. All of us.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been publishing one story every day or one story every month, as writers we should always find time to be drafting, editing, publishing or reading more stories. It’s just like exercising your muscles. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it.

I’m honest when I say I’ve really been slacking in December. I haven’t been writing my normal three stories a week. I just keep telling myself that I will bounce back in 2021.

If you’re in my boat and the holiday season has distracted you from writing as much as you’d like to, don’t feel bad about it. As writers, it’s easy for us to get distracted, experience burnout or even writer’s block. These things happen to everyone.

It’s also hard to focus on good ideas to write about when you want to spend time with loved ones and friends. Any break you’ve recently taken in your writing is OK and it’s important to recognize that in your New Year’s resolution.

In 2021, you will kick ass and write more stories. Write that down somewhere in your resolution as well.

Expand Your Publications

Widening your horizon by attempting to write stories for different publications will help expose your writing to new audiences. These new readers might follow you or start reading more of your stories. This will lead to more success on Medium.

I’ve noticed that on Medium, writers typically stick with the same couple of publications that fit what we’re knowledgeable about. I’ve also noticed that there are tons of active publications out there and there are usually multiple publications for a single topic.

Spending time searching for new publications will help you find more topics that you might be knowledgeable about so you can write about them. Following these publications and writing for them will lead to new readers finding your stories and more ideas to read about yourself.

Don’t be basic and stick to the same three or four publications. Apply yourself to see just how many different places on Medium fit your mind’s database.

You could even make part of your writing resolution to challenge yourself and follow a new topic that you know nothing about but interests you. Then you can do some research on it and possibly write about it yourself.

For me, I’m going to try and write in some of the comedy-themed publications on Medium. I’m sure you’ve been laughing while reading this entire article (yeah right). But seriously, I think I want to try to be more humorous with some of my writing and ideas and I’m always reading comical stories on here so I’m going to give it a try.

Create A Content Calendar

I write about this all the time because that’s how important it is.

Creating a content calendar helps me in so many different ways and it’s something that I will be taking into the new year with me. Basically, I use a calendar to map out what stories I’m going to work on and when I’m going to write, edit and publish them.

This helps keep me on track so much that it’s unbelievable. Nothing will help you stay on track more than big red letters telling you to ‘WRITE TODAY!’ on your calendar.

I like to divide my content calendar up by subject so I’m not always writing about the same topics over and over again.

Starting your content calendar at the beginning of a new year is the best way to do it. It’ll give you a fresh start on planning out what you’re going to write about and when you’ll write it.

Start Something New

It’s a New Year so why not do something new? Investing in yourself is one of the best investments you can make. It’s time to do something that you never thought was possible.

Here are some starting points: