New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

Question: what’s your writing resolution for 2024?

We’re already a week into the new year and many of us will be considering what we want to achieve in 2024. For writers, this moment can be a time of setting resolutions both achievable and ambitious: I want to write a novel. I want to write a bestselling novel. I want to write the best novel that has ever been written.

But how can you stick to your goals and get that wordcount down on the page, and meet your new self-imposed deadline? And where did this strange custom of setting resolutions in January come from?

The history of New Year’s resolutions

New Year’s resolutions have been around longer than you may think. Speaking to CBS News, Candida Moss, a historian and professor of theology at the University of Birmingham, said: “The ancient Babylonians had a big celebration, almost two weeks long, where they celebrated the New Year around springtime in March or April. And they would make resolutions. And they were small—pay off small debts, small vows about better behaviour.”

Then, when a new Roman calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. which started the year on the first day of January, named for the Roman god Janus whose two faces look forward and back, Moss added: “That’s really important for how we think about New Year’s as a kind of taking stock and starting again. These are primarily about making the gods happy,” Moss said. “And that’s really what New Year’s is about; it’s a kind of supernatural spring cleaning.”

As you’ll see later in this article, the element of “supernatural spring cleaning” chimed with many of our writers at The Novelry.

But you don’t need to make resolutions in order to keep them!

If you find the concept of New Year’s resolutions slightly depressing, bestselling fantasy author Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows, Ninth House) takes a different approach which might chime for you: “begin as you mean to go on” or BAYMTGO for short. Posting on Instagram Stories to her 659k followers on January 1st, Bardugo said a few years back she “finally started writing for the first time” on the first day of January “just for 15 minutes”—the result was her bestselling debut YA fantasy novel, Shadow and Bone, which was also adapted into a series for Netflix.

Members of our writing community agree—take this brilliant missive from our U.S. writer, Walter Smith:

I don’t do resolutions. The only one I ever kept was quitting smoking. January 1st will mark 43 years since my last cigarette. I started smoking rabbit tobacco in second grade, which in Alabama made me a late bloomer. We used the latest issue of the Weekly Reader for rolling papers. Of course, I preferred to steal cigarettes from my parents but it did not have the same cachet as rolling your own. The only way I was able to keep the resolution was to stay away from demon rum for a few months but the siren song eventually got the best of me, and I backslid, though I was able to take the temperance pledge in January of ’88.
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I plan to continue Golden Hour each morning and to write every day. Monday will make 365 days in a row. My reservations for The Novelry London party were made earlier this week, and I plan to hang around for a couple of weeks afterward unless I am deported earlier. So, that’s it. No resolutions, but if I have a goal, I suppose it would be to learn how to write a coherent sentence.
—Walter Smith

Or this savvy approach to new year from our writing coaches Mahsuda Snaith and Melanie Conklin:

I don’t have New Year’s resolutions but I have got a word I take forward with me. This year is “alignment”. So in terms of writing I want to make decisions that are more aligned to my values as a writer and what I want to achieve, rather than going along with what I think others think I should do.
—Mahsuda Snaith, author and writing coach

I pick a focus word for each year, and my one word for 2024 is “ease”. My goal is to move through life and writing in 2024 with less resistance and more ease.
—Melanie Conklin, author and writing coach

If you feel like resolutions are designed to be broken, or the sound of New Year, New You makes you think “I’m very happy with the old me, thank you very much”, please don’t worry. The rest of this article is about putting into practice a helpful mindset for the coming year and leaving behind some writing behaviours that might not have been serving you in 2023.

New year's resolution for writers, what's in and what's out

Last week we asked our community for their writing resolutions for 2024 and we spotted some distinct trends.

At The Novelry, we’re lucky to have a friendly and supportive community of writers at every stage of their writing journey—writers who are just starting out, writers who have already been published, writers tackling their second or third novels on our Advanced Class, as well as our author writing coaches and book editors who’ve joined us from the “Big Five” publishing houses to work directly with our writers on The Big Edit Class and the Ultimate Manuscript Assessment (UMA), which you’ll see referenced often by our writers in their resolutions below, as they aim to have their full manuscript read by one of our expert team of professional editors.

As writers, we support each other at more than 40 live writing classes every month, including daily Golden Hour (quiet writing time on Zoom), weekly Story Clinics, monthly Team Chats and fiction workshops across a variety of genres including crime and suspense, science fiction and fantasy, literary, historical, romance and up-lit.

And so, based on our community and our team of published writing coaches, we’ve deduced the following New Year’s resolutions for writers that might be helpful for you this year:

Find joy in your writing
Overcome doubt
Structure your approach to finish your novel
Write little and often
Tackle further drafts (and your hook) with gusto
Be ambitious!

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1. Find joy in your writing

It’s easy to say and can sound a little trite, but most authors learn one thing after publishing a book: the act of writing is the real reward. Find joy in your daily practice. There’s a reason we call The Novelry the home of happy writing and encourage our writers to be playful in their approach to story, and maybe a little mischievous too.

You might enjoy this blog article by our writing coach Emylia:

Emylia Hall’s Journey to Happy Writing

I got my most recent surge of productivity by making jokes with one of my beta readers about my characters. So, my resolution is to find the fun in the writing whenever I want to yeet the book, myself, and the English language off a cliff.
—Ciara Blount

Through 2024 (and beyond) I’m on a strict writing schedule, with new novels in my cozy crime series planned for release every six months. That’s not quite as scary as it sounds: once the wind is in my hair I enjoy writing quickly, and because it’s a series I already know the world, and my core characters, really well. But every new novel is its own mystery (this is true of any genre) and it’s important to me to build in plenty of go-slow time as well, in order to enjoy that quiet process of discovery, and reap the benefits of letting my subconscious work. I want deep contemplation and exploratory notebook sessions. I want to craft and caress. I want to read poetry and spend inspiring time in the wild spaces I love. Basically, I want to keep my cup filled up, safe in the knowledge that it’s all for the good of the page—and the soul. So that’s my 2024 writing resolution: write fast, but also go slow, engaging head and heart all the way.
—Emylia Hall, author and writing coach

My intention is to keep writing every day in the new Moleskine I opened on the winter solstice. So far, it’s a hybrid of journal and the play of ideas, but as much as I’ve been able to do for the best part of 2023. I embrace 2024 and am so grateful for everything that is The Novelry.
—Shona Frazer

I have two books publishing in 2024 so lots of deadlines to hit but also to enjoy my writing and have confidence in it. My resolution is to celebrate the achievements! It’s so easy to steal all joy by comparing to others or being overly self-critical so I’m going to make a real effort to try the self-care I often advise others to practice.
—Amanda Reynolds, author and writing coach

2. Overcome doubt

Overcoming doubt was a common thread in the writing resolutions from our community. Who among us doesn’t occasionally hear their own overwhelmingly loud critical voice when we write? There are tactics to banish your inner critic, even if only temporarily: you can tell it to leave the room during your writing sessions. Yes, address it directly, speaking aloud, and ask it to come back later. And close the door on its way out, thank you. Sounds hokey, but it works!

If you too need to silence your inner critic, you might find these blog articles helpful:

I want to write without the heavy hand of doubt on my shoulder and the constant chatter of the negative voice whispering in my ear. However, I suspect these monsters are part of the writing process, so I guess they will be my lifelong companions, but I can dream! I will renew my Advanced Writing Class membership in the summer as the lessons and the monthly workshop help me focus and hone my writing skills.
—Hemmie Martin

My wish for 2024 is to stop running away from producing during the weekdays, to get rid of that eternal critical voice (perfectionism) a bit—since it also has an important function, it can stay, but it cannot lead—and to lose different sorts of fears. Most of all, my wish for 2024 (and beyond) is to produce much faster and much more in terms of volume. I need to figure out how to do that to be at peace with myself. That is still my biggest challenge. Having a stronger foundation was part of the solution. Solved. ✅ Thanks The Novelry.
—Dina-Perla Portnaar

My intentions are to get out of my own way and write the story that needs to be told, to carry on with my first draft, getting the story down by February. Then, The Big Edit, and I will have the book I’ve imagined writing my whole life.
—Jennifer Wolfe

3. Structure your approach to finish your novel

So you want to write—and finish—a novel in 2024. To succeed, you’ll need to structure your approach and break the year down into relevant milestones:

Find and develop the big idea for your story
Write a complete first draft
Edit the second and third (and maybe a few more!) drafts
Receive feedback on later drafts

You can break those down by months or weeks, but it’s important to divide up each step to stop yourself feeling overwhelmed at the task of writing a book. Step by step, one by one, it can be done.

At The Novelry, we offer a comprehensive three-step program to write and finish your novel, to help you achieve your writing dream in as little as a year. The Finished Novel Course is the online alternative to a Creative Writing MFA with a practical career outcome: a finished novel!

Suitable for writers at all stages of their journey, our three-step program plus a full manuscript assessment will help you develop the advanced skills you need to discover your voice and find your big idea, then write and edit a complete work of fiction to publishing standard. We’ve taken complete beginners all the way through to secure world-class literary agency representation.

Many of the writers in our friendly and supportive community are embarking on their exciting year now with motivation and accountability, as well as structure and support—lovely to see Professor Moss’s idea of “supernatural spring cleaning” referenced by Carol!

In 2024, I would like to go through the full year program at The Novelry (The Classic Storytelling Class, The Ninety Day Novel Class, The Big Edit Class, and the UMA) and finish a good draft of my novel ☺️
— Chrystel Marincich

In 2024, I will create more space for writing and writerly things. I will reignite the spark of magic within that I need to finish this fourth draft of my novel by the end of February. Then, I’d like to drive it forward with The Big Edit and hopefully get my manuscript into good shape before the end of the year. Truthfully, I feel tired out, so I hope to do all of this sustainably and gently, while still pushing myself to show up consistently!
—Melissa Miller

The heavens are helping me this year, I can feel it: before the spring equinox I will finish my fifth draft and send it in for the wise words of the UMA, complete the edits before the fall equinox, and on to the query letter and submission by the end of this year.
—Carol Sanders

4. Write little and often

This one is a biggie. Most of us presume to write a novel we need hours upon hours of uninterrupted writing time, chaining ourselves to the desk for at least six hours a day and we mustn’t get up until we’ve finished that chapter... Sound about right? Wrong. Life has a habit of getting in the way, and it takes a certain type of writer to close the door on their family and employer for months on end. For most of us, that’s simply impossible.

We have the solution: The Novelry’s “Golden Hour” Method.

Our one-hour-a-day method for writing the first draft of your novel is not a gimmick or a sop to busy people. It’s our tried and tested model for getting it done, with fully guided daily practical support and writer coaching.

You need to do twenty-three times more back-of-mind cogitation than you do writing when you embark upon the hard work of formulating a novel at first draft.

The time between writing sessions is vital and will allow you to go to the page to write with refreshed and renewed purpose. Keeping in touch with your novel every day allows for eureka moments in the shower and for real life to infuse every scene. Take that one hour a day for you. Check in with that novel every day, even if it’s only to make notes.

Because there’s never a good time to write a novel, so don’t wait for it!

I want to write my first paranormal crime thriller by devoting at least two hours every day to hone my craft.
—Arpita Bharwal

I don’t make resolutions (they feel like they’re made to be broken!) but I like Leigh Bardugo’s “begin as you mean to go on” concept. So, in 2024, I will finish the fourth draft of my novel by sitting down to write every day for 3 months from Jan 1st, then I’ll take a break before cleaning it up, and finally—finally!—show it to my literary agent. My dream is to hear that the story works, the characters are alive, the plot is unexpected and the location sings… But I’ll be happy with some good edits that make the novel stronger, and the satisfaction of having done it with purpose. And a deadline.
—Katie Khan, author and writing coach

For 2024 I would like to break some of the bad habits I have let creep in and ensure I have a daily focus on my writing. I aim to submit my draft for the UMA, incorporate edits, and prepare for submission to agents.
—Helen Candelland

5. Tackle further drafts (and your hook) with gusto

It takes quite a few drafts to write a novel, and we don’t mean tidying up commas and changing the odd typo. “Writing is rewriting,” as Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton put it, and each draft takes you closer to the story you first ever imagined. Don’t balk at the rewrites: dig into the process of redrafting and enjoy them.

There is something that will make your writing experience that little bit of a smoother sail: honing your hook before you start writing. Your hook is your unique pitch for your story—sometimes referred to as an elevator pitch, or the premise. Having a strong hook from the outset will make the rewriting easier.

If you want help strengthening your premise, our Story First Method ™ ensures the tale you want to tell is likely to excite publishers, agents and readers before you begin, saving you a whole lot of time and trouble, and allowing you to hit the page writing with confidence. Our method is a more efficient way of working, and stacks the odds of publishing success in your favour. Page turners don’t happen by accident—they’re created, carved and chiseled, thanks to unique knowledge of the market and exclusive insight into commercial viability. You’ll work with a writing coach and publishing editor to find out if your story has commercial appeal before you write it.

6. Be ambitious!

And finally, the most important resolution: don’t hold yourself back!

In your first one-to-one coaching call at The Novelry, your writing coach will ask you what your writing ambitions are, and we encourage you to be honest and not too self-deprecating so we can give you the best advice to achieve your goals. It’s incredible how often writers will put themselves down or pretend they don’t care about the outcome.

If you want to sign with an agent, or get a publishing deal with Penguin, then be honest about it and aim for that. Being frank with yourself about your ambitions makes them tangible, and you’ll be willing to put in the work to achieve them!

I’ve been working on my debut novel for eight years. My New Year’s resolution for 2024, thanks to all the help from the team at The Novelry, is to feel confident enough to submit my manuscript for literary agent representation!
—Neil Harris

Having completed my seventh round of edits yesterday (😬) my resolution is to get the manuscript noticed in 2024 (🤞) while beavering away on my second (and, potentially, third)!
—Alex Hunter

I want to finally finish my final edit (after receiving my UMA in Feb 2023) of my first in trilogy middle-grade novel. Currently 75% of the way through. If I don’t get an agent for this book then I will self-publish as I’ve done with my picture books (pen name Jerzy Jones) and intend on self-publishing more picture books in 2024. Good luck ALL 🙏
—Richard Prygodzicz

I want to finish editing my novel fully! I strongly feel that 2024 is my year, and I hope it will bring me strength, discipline and creativity. I want to be done with my novel and submitting to agents as soon as possible. 💪 🤩
—Elise Dufour

Happy new year, writers. Make 2024 the year you write your book. Because there’s never a good time, but now there’s a good place.

‍For one-one-one help writing your novel, join us on a creative writing course at The Novelry today. Sign up for courses, coaching and a community from the world’s top-rated writing school.

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New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

The history of New Year’s resolutions

But you don’t need to make resolutions in order to keep them!