New Year writing goals - are they worth it?

In previous years I've often set myself writing goals at the start of a new year. Last year I didn't for a variety of reasons and the way 2020 turned out for all of us, it was good not to have them lurking in the background not being achieved when life took over and at times writing had to take a back seat.

It's been a difficult year for most of us and just coping and surviving 2020 should be enough for all of us. At times there were several writing droughts for me during the year, but I knew there would be other times when I would write again. This bizarre year also brought different writing opportunities and perversely the most difficult year we've all had to face, has been the one in which my writing has been shared wider than previous years - I had my first ebook published, poems and short stories broadcast on radio, featured in online journals, magazines and published in anthologies.

It's a strange coincidence this has happened in the first year in recent times that I didn't set myself writing goals.  I'm a firm believer in setting goals and believe it's because of the discipline of setting goals in previous years (as some of these published projects first emerged in earlier years) and that writing provided a welcome escape from what 2020 threw at us, that I can now look back over the year knowing goals from previous years have been achieved. The next challenge will be to decide what my 2021 writing goals will be.....

The Fourth Day of Christmas

I love my festive theatre trips and have really missed them this year. In other years, by now I'd have enjoyed our annual trip to the local pantomime and a Christmas dinner and theatre night out with some friends along with possibly an Andre Rieu concert. 

So this year, like so many other activities my festive theatre fix has moved online. On the run up to Christmas it was lovely to tune in to the Waterside Theatre's 'Twelve Days of Christmas' each story written by a local writer and performed by local actors.

And I'm delighted my 'Four Calling Birds' story was included in this booklet produced by the Waterside theatre.

Today, the Fourth Day of Christmas,  (December 28) is called ‘The Feast of Holy Innocents’, a day of remembrance thinking back to the baby boys killed in King Herod’s search for Baby Jesus.

You can read my story, along with all the others here. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18Qwy2uuuSPRg5LJnP_u9Rryv9lGvPJq_/view

Enjoy!

Writing wind down

 As we count down the final few days to Christmas, I'm looking forward to taking a break and catching up on some reading. Already I've been dipping into  'Underneath the Tree' the Christmas anthology I have a short story in and I'm looking forward to finishing it. 

Last week a few of the writers featured in the book were invited to join the Causeway Coast book club. The group had chosen 'Underneath the  Tree' as their December read. It was lovely to meet up with them over Zoom, hear what they liked about the book and to answer their questions about our stories.

This week my copy of 'Writing' magazine arrived in the post. I always relish time to sit down and read it cover to cover and it will be in my reading pile for the holiday period. I did have a quick glance when it arrived and was delighted to find a piece I wrote about our Coney Island writing group's virtual writing retreat featured in this month's issue.

It's a lovely way to round off the writing year and to get ready to wind down for the holidays.

Christmas traditions

The first weekend in December usually heralds the start of festivities  - the Christmas tree going up, writing Christmas cards, our annual trip to the local pantomime and the Coney writers Christmas lunch. 

But not this year. Everything is different. 

I've had a Christmas tree up for a month already - it definitely helps brighten up dark days, though my main reason for putting it up so early was for the launch of ' Underneath the Tree'.

I've started to write my Christmas cards. It's taking longer than usual as I'm writing a note in each one. And I'm sending a few more than usual, to include some friends and family who may not be on my Christmas card list but their details are in my address book. I think a little note to someone out of the blue, won't do anyone any harm, especially this year.

There is no trip to the pantomime this December. I know my nieces look forward to it each year, and so do I, but like many events in the arts it's not happening this year. Thankfully we've many happy panto memories to look back on. (Oh yes we have!)

And we couldn't have our Coney Christmas lunch  - instead we opted for an evening get together via zoom. Everyone made the effort getting dressed up in a festive way - Santa, elf and Christmas tree hats competed with Christmas jumpers and a snowman jacket and matching tie. Everyone was in good spirits and could enjoy a festive tipple without worrying about how they'd get home safely later on a cold frosty night (there are some advantages in lockdown). We chatted about writing, what some of us have been doing in our spare time, giggled, shared writing news and toasted each other,  thankful of the group, the support and encouragement it provides as well as the good friends we've made and kept over the years. Here's to 2021 and getting back to Coney again.

So how did Not NaNoWriMo go?

This year being different than any before, I knew NaNoWriMo would not work well for me. I knew I wouldn't have time or energy for a 'normal' NaNoWriMo so I opted for the new normal.

Rather than trying to write the first draft of a novel, my much more realistic goal was to spend at least four hours a week writing and to work on a couple of short stories.

So how did it go?

I'm pleased to say this approach worked well. Rather than falling off the NaNoWriMo band wagon half way through November (which has happened on two previous occasions!) I clung on right to the end of the journey. 

I managed to steal at least four hours each week to write. I worked on four new short stories and submitted ten pieces of work. I attended three virtual writing meetings - one with my  Coney Island writing pals, one with SCBWI Ireland writers and one with SCBWI members across Europe (this wouldn't have happened in other years so there are some benefits to 2020!)

I received four rejections and one acceptance and attended two virtual book launches - one for Anthony Quinn's new book, Turncoat and the other for our own Christmas anthology  'Underneath the Tree'.

The approach worked - it's worth trying doing things differently