2024 is going to be a different year for me in terms of resolutions. Past years I would have multiple goals with each of them having their separate own rules, deadlines, and limitations. While this gave me a wide range of things to work on, it meant that I was never really focused on one of them. If I would slack off on one of them, I would just say, “Oh, I’ll just make it up by working extra hard on another goal.” This year I plan to not let that excuse ruin my resolution by working on one single resolution which is to write stories that are good enough for publication.
Writing has become a major ambition of mine as I have started to take creative writing classes and especially when I got 3rd place in a writing contest. To complete this single resolution I have four rules:
- I must write and work on one short story, essay, or poem a month.
- I must write for a minimum of 30 minutes a day.
- After completing that month’s piece of writing, I must submit to the appropriate literary journals/ contests for publication.
- Participate in the National Novel Writing Month but this rule is a kind-of optional since it requires writing 50,000 words in one month. That would be a crazy amount of words for me to write considering my longest work so far is 2200 words.
With these guidelines in place, my end goal of this resolution is to at least create a piece of work that would get a personal rejection letter from an editor. While this may seem like a setting low goal, these literary magazines typically have a 99% rejection rate with a template rejection letter being the standard reply. Getting a personal letter would be a huge achievement for a new writer like me and show me what I am doing right or wrong. This being my only new year’s resolution is really going to help me focus in.
Here’s to a New Year and Fruitful Results.
Thanks for reading,
MalNich