Have you made any writing resolutions for 2020?

Any goal, including a new year’s resolution, needs committed action, discipline and planning.

Below, I give you a couple of my own writing resolutions for 2020. These may help you formulate some of your own and keep you on track with your writing.

Commit to Taking Writing Courses

Just like any job, career or profession, regular learning through writing courses will help hone your craft as a writer.

My #1 Writing Resolution for 2020

Having published my first novel in November 2019, I really wanted to keep up my writing momentum. So before 2019 ended, I registered for the Queensland Writers’ Centre ‘Year of the Novel’ workshops. It’s a multi-part workshop held across five Sundays throughout the year. At the end of it, we will have drafted a full-length novel. Curiously, as we’re on the subject of writing resolutions for 2020, the course description states, ‘Year of the Novel returns in 2020 so you can follow through with your New Year’s resolution to get that book out of your head and onto the page.’

As it happens, I don’t yet have a ‘book in my head’, However, I’m working on it so that I’ll have a clear(er) idea before the first workshop.

Commit to Entering Writing Competitions

Competitions are a worthwhile way of testing your book out on the market. It’s best to approach competitions with the mindset of first putting on your big girl or big boy pants, being prepared for possibly not getting placed. The more competitions you enter, however, the more likely you are to achieve a placing eventually. Make sure you have your manuscript professionally edited before submission, and that it meets all the requirements of the competition.

My #2 Writing Resolution for 2020

Each time I’m researching competitions for my fortnightly newsletter, The Lonely Writer, I find a competition or two that captures my attention. The thought, ‘I’d like to have a go at that’ comes to me often. And, well, until now, that’s as far as I’ve got: just thinking about it.

All that’s behind me now since my zest for writing resolutions for 2020!

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Writing Competition for Published Writers!

…and for unpublished and independently published writers.

Over the Christmas break, I had lunch with an old writing friend of mine. He congratulated me on publishing my first novel, and said I should enter it in a competition. All the competitions I’ve researched so far for The Lonely Writer have been for previously unpublished works.

So I was very excited to discover a competition for published writers also. The condition is that you must be a self-published or independently published writer. You are also eligible to enter a previously unpublished manuscript.

The competition that has me so excited is an international one, from the UK. It’s the Bath Novel Award 2020. You can read all about it here.

I encourage you to set a couple of achievable writing resolutions for 2020, more if you can realistically accomplish them, and then take committed action towards achieving them.

Happy and productive writing 2020!