New Year’s Resolution #3: Get Involved

Resolution #3 is to take the time and energy to be actively involved with my creative communities. I’m a little hit-and-miss on that one. It’s hard to find my local creative community, and being quite honest, a little harder to find common ground with them. Well, I’m taking the effort. Will track them down. Will take brownies and chips. We’ll see what happens.

I’m a little better with online communities, at least in part because I can cherry pick the parts I like. No one on the internet has ever asked me to help them move, for instance. And finding people who are working on the same challenges I am is sooo much easier.

So, I’m working with some groups to get to where I want to be.

I’m taking on the 52 Week Writing Challenge (Found it on Medium.)in 2017. The challenge is to write one something every week for a year. There’s no specific something it has to be, but something. A poem or a book chapter every week. I’ve already talked about my desire to write and publish more short stories, so **surprise** I’m going to commit to writing one short story every week in 2017.

Fifty-two short stories. That means four for the A-to-Z Challenge in April, and four for the StoryTime Blog Hop. Probably one or two for my blog during the Holidays. That leaves forty-two that I can submit to magazines or contests. Which, all said and done, would probably do wonders for my career.

I’m going to hold off on committing to NaNoWriMo until closer to the date. I might be ready for a new project on November 1st and I might not.

As always, I’ll be jabbering away at the Holly’s Writing Classes Forums… Which are really one of the most supportive and stable writers’ forums I’ve come across. (You can go take a quiz or two and start a basic forum membership for free.) And keeping up with this blog (which may or may not be less solipsistic in the future. Prob’ly not.)

And I will be jumping back into my revision with both feet in the new year. Hoping to start annoying agents–and eventually, the unsuspecting public–with my work as soon as possible.

So, what challenges are you taking on for 2017? What are the best communities to push you forward? What’s made you a better writer?

4 Comments

  1. Reply

    Good luck with the local creative community. I hope that you find some common ground. I am sure that, with brownies, you will be welcomed with open arms ๐Ÿ™‚
    I love the idea of a 52 week writing challenge, so I think that I will join you! Other than that, I shall challenge myself to continue networking, blog regularly, and finish my WIP in time to plan and participate in next years NaNoWriMo!

    • Reply

      Yes! Do join us! I’m always grateful for a familiar face when I’m doing things like that. And all your goals sound like things I should be working on, so you’re my new good example.

  2. Reply

    I want to finish my WIP. It’s been in progress for too long now and needs to be finished.
    I like the idea of the 52 week writing challenge as well. The online writing community I am a part of is similar to that in that they request you post one piece a week and give feedback on three others. I’ve missed the last couple of weeks due to the holidays and judging a writing contest, but with the new year upon us, it’s time to kick it back into gear.
    As for NaNoWriMo, I guess it all depends on if I’ve finished my project by then. I have a hard time working on multiple stories at the same time because then nothing gets finished.
    Happy New Year and may your 2017 be filled with many words and few edits ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Reply

      I didn’t see any rules on the 52 week challenge that said no double dipping, so maybe you’ll come join us from time to time?

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: