Writing Resolutions 2018

I promised I was going to write this blog last year and never did, and I’ve tried to write this year’s a couple of times and failed at that too. Why am I hesitant? Because of what I want my resolutions to be and the repercussions of someone as stubborn as me ensuring that I follow through with them…

Writing Resolutions for the year 2018

The first one is nice and simple. To write a play. I only recently noticed that my favourite classes at university were often the drama-centric ones, and that a fairly large percentage of my reading habits are made up of plays. There’s obviously nothing like seeing a play dramatised on stage, but I take a surprising amount of pleasure in reading plays (probably because I perform them for myself like one-woman shows – I recently did this with Fleabag). So yes, in 2018 I would like to write a play. Long or short, tragedy or comedy – whatever, I’d just like to give it a go.

The second and final resolution (less is more, right?) is to publish something. Whether it be this as-yet unwritten play, the novel I wrote a year or two ago (Project 27) or the novella I am in the process of finishing, I want to publish something. The latter novella is something I’ve been meaning to mention. I accidentally wrote it in November and have been tweaking it since. Dare I say I think it’s actually alright? Anyway, since I keep jabbering on about the fact I have now written a couple of things, my family and friends are getting (understandably?) frustrated that I won’t let them read any of it.

Half of my feelings on this are “it’s my novel, piss off,” which is obviously a very mature and diplomatic response. A quarter of them are “I will share it but it doesn’t feel like time yet,” which translates as “no literary agents or publishers have taken the bait yet and I’m not ready to self-publish”. And the final quarter of them are “well go on then, what’s the worst that can happen?” At which point I begin to imagine all the possible horrible things that could and might happen in the event that I publish either of these fictional works.

But these are all issues I need to get over and I think 2018 might be the year to get over them. If no publishers or agents have expressed any interest in the works by the end of the year and I still think they’re good, then I will seriously consider self-publication (talking myself out of it already aren’t I?) I’m hoping my unyielding fear of doing it myself will motivate me to really sell one or both of the books to the winning agent or publisher this year and that something might come of all my time cooped up with this computer. For Christmas I received the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2018, which I hope will help with my search for my agent OTP.

As gratifying it is for me to know I’ve written fiction that I think is good and being chuffed with what I’ve achieved, it doesn’t make me any money, it doesn’t shut my family up, and it doesn’t satisfy a huge part of my motivation to write – to be read.

On that rational note… Happy New Year, again! I hope 2018 is going well for you all. Let me know what blogs you’re interested in seeing this year. More or less #Periodically, for example? Head over to my Instagram to see what I’m currently reading and what other books I got for Christmas.