New Year’s Resolutions Kind of Suck (But They Don’t Have To)
New Year, New Me.
We’re all familiar with the age-old adage. Sometimes, that turn of the calendar page can feel inspirational, like a place for a fresh start. Maybe you want to hit the gym more (same), or maybe you just want to wear pajamas less often (also same). Other times, though, that “new me” mentality can be daunting. Advertisements everywhere are telling you everything has to change: weight, clothes, hair. Heck, I’ve even seen a new year’s ad for drinking more Pepto Bismol!
Last year wasn’t exactly what everyone anticipated, so a constant barrage of expectations for change might just feel overwhelming. Fresh starts don’t have to be limited to ourselves, though. This year, if your only new year’s resolution is to survive, perhaps your writing could take on some resolutions instead. Here are four ideas on how to bring fresh beginnings to pen and paper (or keystroke and Word document):
Start a New Story
Okay, this one might be a little obvious, but sometimes, all you need to get those creative juices flowing is a new concept. Maybe you’ve been working diligently on that novel the past few years, or maybe you’re stuck in a bout of writer’s block. Take a break! There are a million different books and lists online suggesting a myriad of different story topics. Take a gander at one of these and see if anything catches your eye. It doesn’t have to be your next magnum opus; it doesn’t even have to be that long! You could just write a page or two and see where it goes. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
• Write a story about a night janitor who stumbles upon a secret cult.
• Write about a wizard who suddenly loses all their powers.
• Bog mummies are the most well-preserved mummies known to man. But what if they were still alive?
• An adventurer hikes up a huge mountaintop, completing a personal goal. On the way down, it seems dozens if not hundreds of years have passed while they were at the summit.
It might be hard to step away from your passion project, but letting stories marinate can sometimes bring out parts of them you never knew were there! And hey, maybe you’ll accidentally write an intriguing character or scene that could be included in your main piece of writing. Or maybe you’ll end up with a wildly entertaining piece of flash fiction to submit for publication with a literary magazine. Either way, dip your toes into a new concept and get those creative muscles flexing!
2. Try a New Form or Genre
Whether you’re a new writer just getting started on a great story concept or a novelist writing the latest book in their series, authors tend to find a style of writing they’re comfortable with and stick to it. It may even be an unconscious thing: when you’re enjoying writing, your pieces probably have some common threads. This year, consider challenging yourself to a new medium! If you usually write long novels, perhaps try a series of poems. If you like flash fiction, maybe a novella would be a fun challenge. This could even work between different genres of fiction: if you write romance, try a western! There are several forms to try:
- Literary Novels -
- Genre Fiction (horror, comedy, drama, romance, western, etc.) -
- Novellas/Novelettes -
- Poetry (haiku, sonnet, alphabet poems, erasure, nonce, etc.) -
- Short fiction (short story, flash fiction, micro fiction, drabble, etc.) -
Getting out of your comfort zone is never easy, but there’s good news: there’s no safer place to try something new than on the page. If you hate it, you can delete it! Simple as that. But this exercise might allow you to expand into horizons you never knew you were interested in, or perhaps even ones you didn’t realize existed. Who knows: maybe you’re the next pioneer of zombie-romance-western-sci-fi with your upcoming title, Yee Haw: Cosmic Zombies in Love!
3. Try a New Setting
Setting is one of the quintessential things that makes a story, a story. Without any context, the characters would just be floating in white space. Trying a new setting could mean several things, but consider taking your existing cast of characters and putting them somewhere unfamiliar. What would happen if your futuristic evil villain were suddenly thrown into the past with no technology? How would your main character react to the modern world if they usually swing swords? Here are some setting ideas to get you started:
Lost deep in the jungle
Stranded in a large desert
Shipwrecked on a deserted (or maybe not so deserted) island
A different year
Uncovering a lost city
Engulfed in a huge metropolis
Stuck in a small, country town
Discovering a different planet
Finding a new universe
Even something as small as a new apartment building or a speakeasy in your existing narrative
This exercise isn’t necessarily meant to make a debut in your main story (although it might!), but rather serves to let you get to know your character(s) better. You already know how they’d react to the setting you built for them because it’s tailored to their—and the story’s—needs. Through forcing your character into unfamiliar territory, you may just find out something about their
4. Introduce a New Character
Instead of “new year, new me,” perhaps it could be “new year, new enemy.” Or even “new year, new person-in-the-love-triangle-y.” Whatever your story, sometimes your characters are too comfortable with each other and need a little bit of shaking up. What better way to do that than to meet someone new? The opportunities to meet people in 2020 were pretty slim, but we can make up fresh fictional characters to our heart’s content! Consider:
• Introducing a new member to the friend group only to find out they run a secret crime organization
• Meeting a new enemy and discovering they’re actually a friend (looking at you, anime)
• Finding a friendly new pet who ends up with useful powers, or maybe just has the power of being really cute
• Introducing an unexpected romantic interest: the barber? the mailman? the guy next door?
New characters aren’t necessarily going to be “the answer” to your writing, but they’ll absolutely shake things up! It might turn out that you dislike the new character and are more of a “stirred, not shaken” kind of writer, but at least this exercise will help you figure that out.
New Year, New Writing Techniques
Overall, new years resolutions can be hard. They’re difficult to make and even more difficult to keep, so why not let your writing do all the work for you this year? Hopefully, by the end of it, you’ll have something you’re proud of, and something worth publishing!
This isn’t an end all, be all list of things to change. In fact, the wonderful thing about writing is there’s always room for editing, development, and improvement! If you feel like your work is ready for some extra sets of eyes, choosing an editor has never been easier! Send in your first 2,000 words to Write My Wrongs for a free sample of our comprehensive editing process today!