writing and new year resolutions

Mike Dale

The big problem with New Year resolutions is that, by definition, they require the presence of resolve.

I have read widely on this topic and it would appear that this is a rare commodity in the oft-published writer, so what chance do the rest of us have? However, undiscouraged and foolhardy as only the ignorant can be, I have presumed to establish the following personal resolutions for 2010.

• I will get a non-fiction article published by someone other than an aspiring web-site publisher who can’t yet afford to pay me.
•  I will begin to write stories and articles for a market that exists, rather than for one that should exist if there was any justice.
• I will not get cross when I am rejected by some spotty youth who clearly does not recognize the next Iain Banks. (NB, not Iain M. Banks – don’t do that Sci-Fi stuff. Good Lord no!)
• I will write a minimum of 5000 words per week and thus complete my novel. No, really. Yes, I know I haven’t but I intend to give it my full and undivided…
• I will stop having one-sided conversations with my muse. Maybe then it will be able to get a word in and the big idea will gallop, cavalry-like, over the horizon.

All that is missing now is a large helping of self-motivation and we are on a winning track. Writing? Easy; don’t know what all the fuss is about…

www.mikedale.co.uk