An IPPY Winner's Resolution

Yvonne Ventresca won a 2018 IPPY for her book Black Flowers, White Lies. See her resolution below. 

"I hope the New Year brings:
 

  • More writing and revising
  • Less angst
  • More creative connections
  • Less meaningless social media
  • More artistic opportunities
  • Less spinning the wheels
  • More time spent with good books!"

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A Literary New Year

Resolutions from SheWrites Authors

Here are some of the resolutions of hard-working folks in the publishing industry to help inspire you to have a stonger, more productive, and happier new year! From writing to publishing to just living, check out what your peers at She Writes Press are focusing on: 


"I have been touched by the number of people this past year who have shared their stories of loss and grief with me. This came as a result of my book, freelance writing, and speeches/workshops I have given. I recognize their need to know other people understand. Their accessing information on how to cope is like a lifeline. My new year's resolution is to continue to reach out to as many people as I can in any meaningful ways that I can to help and support them as they struggle with these major life challenges."

- Iris Waichler

 

"If you just want resolutions regarding writing goals here you go! Write a *minimum* of 500 words a day and finish the first draft of my second book."

- Andrea Jarrell

 

"My resolution is to finally get a balanced schedule established so I have a full half day for new writing and the rest for managing and marketing writing that is or is about to be published. To date it's been an overwhelming feast for famine. Moving forward I can't let either go for the other without long, difficult, non productive lags."

- Rita Dragonette

 

"Mine is about balance and discernment..building and staying committed to a daily schedule that affords time to take in new ideas and tips, time for writing guest essays and finishing my 2nd book draft, time for mentoring new authors, time for giving back to my loved ones and those less fortunate, and time to be still in the moment."

- Rebecca Whitehead Munn

 

"Mine is to finally wake up the publishing industry to the fact that the voices their marketing departments deem 'marginal' or 'niche' together now comprise the majority of America, just look at the demographics, and to the possibility that their consistent refusal to recognize this with more than a token nod comes across as outdated...to put it nicely. (Thank you SWP for leading the charge.)"

- Leah Lax

 

"I've often been advised to slow down in my fiction. But I'm already such a very slow writer, I would think. After attending a talk by Jennifer Egan, I finally understand. Let the material stumble forward and find its own form, she advised. So, in 2018, I resolve to slow down, to 'wait instinctively,' as Egan put it."

- Jill McCrosky Coupe

 

"I resolve to re-read some classics this year that were totally lost on me in high school."

- Betty Hafner

 

"Find the right publishing path for my next book!"

- Kelly Kittel

 

"I resolve to outsource the transcription of interviews for my next non-fiction book, so I can spend more time actually writing it."

- Eileen Flanagan

 

"My new year's resolution is to stop making new year's resolutions and look at my time as a 100-year arc of life stages (hoping and assuming that I'll live that long) - giving me time to take my time."

- Garinè B. Isassi

 

"Mine is to mentor other writers who want to see their work to publication and are having trouble finding the right path."

- Kate Jessica Raphael 

 

"My last new year's resolution was to post a review of every book I read, now that I know why they matter so much especially for indy authors."

- Cindi Michael



"I want to turn myself silvery, place a piece of sea glass in my mouth, pick up a blue pen and soothe the white page."

Mimi Zollars

 

"I resolve to continue on the path I have been carving for myself for the last 2 years - teaching, and writing short stories. In addition, I resolve not to compare myself unfavourably with other writers but to continue to develop my own voice."

- Karen E. Lee


"In 2017 I fulfilled - first time ever! - a New Year's resolution - to publish a post each Sunday on my PsychologyToday.com blog, 'Life, Refracted', about '52 Ways to Show I Love You'. The 52nd goes on the Dashboard today and on the 31st I reflect on the year of writing the essays. In 2018, reassured by having followed through, I am making TWO resolutions - to get on the stationary bike (or a real one) at least five times a week (unless I can walk for over half an hour) and to inspire people to live with courage, joy and integrity through my writings and talks."

- Roni Beth Tower

 

"I resolve to use my first year of retirement as generously as I can, supporting my community of writers and tackling the ever elusive craft of poetry."

- Constance Hanstedt

 

"I resolve to write my next co-written mystery and to start my next historical."

- Charlene Ball

 

"I resolve to finally walk the Santiago/El Camino Trail (approximately 40 days--500 miles) in France and Spain this spring and summer, using that time to ponder what I hope to get out of my writing career in 2018 and the best ways to continue marketing my book."

- Linda Atwell

 

"I will write something every day which is just for myself, not for anyone else, as well as all the writing I do for the world. My first writing practice was a journal, and in all the fanfare about An Address in Amsterdam and getting it out into the world, I've lost track of that. Time to go back to basics. And my other resolution is to keep finding the readers who will love my book, and be activated and changed by it."

- Mary Dingee Fillmore

 

"I will do hard things and not be ashamed of the voice I've worked hard to develop, and that includes throwing myself into my book launch because I know I deserve it. I will confront the antagonists in my memoir and let them know that I have no hard feelings for them, but I am writing a book and they are in it and that I am telling my truth and they are free to tell theirs. I will honor story -- not just mine, but the people who entrust me with theirs."

- Carly Gelsinger

 

"I resolve, on a macro level to be more mindful and compassionate. On a micro level, to complete my MA in Shakespeare Studies with the best effort I can muster."

- Diane Meyer Lowman


"Stepping out my 'old normal' and stepping largely and lovingly into 2018 is my resolve, brought about by my depleted writer self needing to 're-fill the well' after entering the publicity stage (!) of being an author (thank you Julia Cameron). I took a Photoshop workshop focused on photo collage called 'Bird Woman' here in San Miguel during Thanksgiving week, and re-imagined myself as an Eagle Woman: fiercely loving and protective of all I hold dear: family and friends, honoring my way of seeing, and the strangers that are appearing because of The Book of Calm's rippling out into the world. I'm making friends with the qualities that nurture me in order to become larger, more humane, and inclusive than the old thoughts that ran my life before publishing my book: perseverance, curiosity, awareness, compassion, self-kindness, self-love, and joy."

- Nancy G. Shapiro

 

"I resolve to be braver in my writing, truer to my authentic voice because my voice is my only unique instrument."

- Betsy Graziani Fasbinder

 

"I intend to write at least one article a month that relates to one of the tools in my book -- to stay ‘relaxant’ and keep myself out there. I intend to post something on social media daily that relates to my book and my platform. I will advertise on FB regularly. And my big goal/resolution is to complete my audio book and market that widely."

- Patti Clark


"I've had the same all-purpose, perpetual resolution for years: to treat every day as an opportunity for introspection and change, to not wait for arbitrary numerals on a calendar. But after I lost my brother, I had to write something concrete to give me some focus through overwhelming grief. So I wrote these "Ten Somethings" for the new year.

"Grow something . . . not necessarily in soil
Clean something . . . tangible, spiritual, metaphorical, political
Read something . . . you normally ignore
Sing something . . . in a different language
Write something . . . with a pencil
Choose something as a totem . . . if one hasn’t already chosen you
Seek silence . . . hear yourself think something
Love something . . . that you don’t already love
Let something go . . . before it takes something meaningful from you
Then,
Let something go . . . knowing that it will return as something meaningful"

- Ellen Notbohm

 


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