New Year Writing Resolutions

A quick thought today about New Year’s resolutions related to writing.

Did you make any and have you stuck to them?

Personally, I’m certainly more writing-focused after vowing ‘to do something connected to writing every day’.

I made very little progress in the second part of last year, and by the time December came, I put it off, like everything else, until after Christmas. But I’m happy to say I’m getting back into a routine again and have found my resolution has brought a pleasing ripple effect in some places that I had not anticipated.

For example, my research now gives me instant content for my social media posts in addition to its primary role of providing the plot lines for my stories. And because I’m writing something every day, I don’t have to keep reminding myself where I was up to the last time I opened up my Word document.

My rules are, admittedly, very generous – ‘something connected to writing’ counts for me in any of the following ways:

·      the actual process of putting chapters together

·      any research behind them (sometimes as simple as reading a magazine article or listening to a podcast about my topic)

·      creating social media posts

·      website updates

·      or anything connected with ASPA (this is a writing site after all!)

And far from being the onerous task I feared I wouldn’t stick to, my resolution has had the opposite effect and shown me some time-wasting things that I shouldn’t be doing anymore.

I used to write lots of lists and tables to plan ahead, especially regarding social media posts, and I would then stress and blame myself for not meeting my high demands. Or I would write frantic Post-it notes and pile them up on my desk when I thought of some clever dialogue for my characters during some random, unconnected moment. Now, I find I can just write the post or the dialogue straight away because the documents remain open on my laptop, and this has helped me tremendously with overthinking and managing my time.

From my interactions with other ASPA members, I’ve seen an increase in many of their social media posts, too (which I’m very much enjoying reading) and more talk of new works in progress. This made me wonder if that is also a conscious choice by fellow writers to build new habits for themselves during January?

If that applies to you, please share what’s working for you and any tips about how your approach to a new writing habit could benefit us all.

We may have missed January 1^st for this year, but we can always make February our month of change. It’s never too late to turn a fresh page and learn something new.

Happy New Year to everyone who’s reading this post, and may 2026 be your best writing year yet!