New Year Resolutions for Writers
Perhaps the excuse I make the most often for myself in not writing enough is that I never have the time. But I also know that excuse is not fully truthful: I could always make the time to write.
Whether it is just half an hour while you sip on your coffee at breakfast or before you turn your lights off to go to bed, dedicating any amount of time to writing is bound to help you write more. At first, it may feel like a daily chore, but as time progresses, there will be no exercise more conducive to your writing muscles than committing a little chunk of your time to just pen and paper.
And the thing is, nothing that you write during this time will go to waste. Whether it is a glimpse into your day, a free-flow of thoughts that may seem to make little sense at the moment, or even a single word that you could return to and mull over, writing anything at all may prove to be useful once it sits long enough in your notebook.
If you have been working on a novel all year and feel that you are at an impasse, why not start running a blog, or see if poetry inspires you? Writing is a time-consuming act, and we seem to put our hearts into it when we work for our best craft that it feels difficult to steer to a slightly different direction. But while taking breaks and roundabout roads, we may run into a route that we never knew existed.
For me, the title “writer” seems to bear more meaning and responsibility than perhaps any other profession. Even after ten years of keeping journals, making time to write even amidst a busy schedule, and having a small, yet unwavering group of people who encourage and applaud my writing, I’m hesitant to call myself a writer quite yet. I will never be perfectly happy with any of the writing I produce, but then I doubt that even the greatest writers, who have dedicated their lifetime to the craft, ever stop doubting the quality of their work.
In her collection of essays Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion tells us that it’s not impeccable writing that makes one a writer. She writes, “The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. … Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.” The distinct receptors you have, that let you feel a bit more and think a bit harder about the things your friends let slip, and the urge to turn those mystifying feelings and thoughts into words: that’s what makes you a writer.
So, are you finally ready to call yourself a writer and get to writing this year?
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