“This year I will get published.”

“This year I’ll stop drinking.”

Over the years I’ve pledged to reach career heights or sort out all my mental health issues within the space of twelve months.

And every time I’ve failed to reach my set goal. Is it any wonder?

I’d advise you to look carefully at any resolution you make and give it a good edit. Pare it down to the minimum – otherwise you are going to end up disheartened and disappointed.

Let’s take my example of pledging to get published. For a number of years I vowed I would accomplish this but it’s impossible. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, so much of achieving that target is out of an author’s control. Your manuscript has to fall into the hands of the right agent and publisher, and for commercial fiction it has to be suited to the market and your writing needs to be at the top of your game…

So, in time, I learned to make my writing resolutions more realistic. For example “This year I will polish my manuscript and send it out to ten agents” or “This year I will enter some writing competitions and if I can save enough money pay have an editorial report done on my current work-in-progress.” There are many steps to getting published and it is far more satisfying, as time passes, to tick off each one as you accomplish it. Appreciating the journey and looking at it as a series of smaller parts will make it far more likely you’ll reach that ultimate destination.

And this applies once you have signed your first publishing contract. Hands up, secretly I still covet that film deal and stroll down the red carpet. But if I made that my New Year’s resolution, the likelihood is I’m going to feel like a massive failure by the end of the year when I haven’t cast Jason Momoa in the lead of my latest novel or been interviewed on Graham Norton’s sofa!

My resolutions to stop drinking were also unrealistic. Like publishing, the journey to sobriety is made up of many steps. But I’d try in one giant leap and just stop point blank without changing any other aspect of my life. Of course, I would fall off the wagon by the end of January (or often its first week) and feel like a complete loser. Addiction services and AA helped me to refine and edit my goals.

For example, I had quirky routines around my drinking and one was that I’d never allow myself to start before 6.40pm. So a first step – a first resolution, a first small change – was to break this habit by going for a coffee, having a bath, cooking or taking up a hobby at that specific time each day, instead. And doing this was the first step to stopping drinking all together. Each day I managed this, it inspired me to continue my journey.

So go and edit your resolution. Step back from the bigger picture. Analyse exactly what it is you really need to do, to reach your ultimate target. For example to you need to lose two stone? Perhaps resolve to cut out snacks and get off the bus one stop early to walk, as a starting point, instead of embarking on a crash diet.

The photo below is of a writer who’s had highs and lows but has learnt to appreciate ALL the special moments along the way, big or small, such as great reader feedback, foreign rights sales or simply an editor’s enthusiasm. It’s also of a woman who this week turned two years sober. Oh I slipped after three months, and picked up again – that taught me a lot. And I still have days where I want to drown my problems in a bottle of wine. But I don’t. I continue to pursue my goal, one day and one task at a time, relishing the smaller milestones and victories that keep pushing me forwards to living my dream.

And – most importantly of all –  I don’t beat myself if I fail at the target I’ve set myself.

As Nelson Mandela once said:

“I never lose. I either win or learn.”

Be wary of New Year’s Resolutions. It’s that time of year, isn’t it, when we are supposed to promise ourselves – and/or others – that we will change in some way, and somehow become better versions of ourselves. I am all for setting achievable goals, but don’t set the benchmark too high. Before getting a deal I used to say each January “This year I will get published.” It doesn’t work like that. I said that for eight years and believe me, I tried! First you have to write a great manuscript. Then tightly edit it. Next attract the attention of an agent or publisher. Then you have to get that contract. All of this is an awful lot to expect to achieve in twelve months. As is “This year I will become a Kindle top ten author”. So many factors are out of your control for that one (the jacket and price your publisher gives your book, their marketing strategy, the competition around at the time of your book’s release). Be very careful of setting yourself unrealistic resolutions because when and if you fail, your mojo will disappear in a puff of smoke and all you will be left with is an overwhelming sense of failure.

How about, instead, getting into the mindset of realising small achievements are just as important and all lead to the bigger goal? This year I will… go on a writing course/read more “How-to” books/start sending my work out to agents/learn more about planning social media strategies/ aim to connect more widely with bloggers.

Read, read and read. I find there is nothing more motivating that discovering a new favourite author. I’ve gone on something of a reading binge, in recent months, and have felt utterly inspired by the quality of an eclectic range of novels. They’ve filled me with the desire to up my game and given me the confidence to take my work in a different direction. It’s very easy to get in a rut with our own writing, so try to read out of your genre and challenge your natural instincts.

Take a look at this list if you aren’t sure where to start:

How to Stop Time – Matt Haig

The Art of Hiding – Amanda Prowse

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Elinor Oliphant is Fine – Gail Honeyman

One of us is Lying – Karen McManus

Friend Request – Laura Marshall

All That She Can See – Carrie Hope Fletcher

The Five People you Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom

Step out of your comfort zone. As mentioned above, it’s easy to become complacent about our own writing. I’m currently working on a project that is challenging me on many levels. It may work, it may not. But the process has fired up my mojo in ways I never imagined. I’m trying out new structures and styles and loving every second. Even if it all comes to  nothing, I am going to have learnt so much. I feel like a new writer again, unsure of myself but willing to give it my all. So go on – maybe start off with a short story in a genre that’s unfamiliar to you. Or stick to what you know but be adventurous with the themes or setting.  I once wrote a romantic comedy set in Ancient Egypt. It doesn’t fit the market and will probably never find a publisher, but writing it taught me so much about fact-finding and creating authentic settings. I still get excited just thinking about it!

Head over to this post to find out more about stepping out of your comfort zone.

Ditch the self-doubt Hey you! Yes, I’m talking to you! Stop doubting yourself this instant. Have you just received a rejection? Or had a bad review? Or has a well-meaning friend or relative asked why you still haven’t signed a six figure deal?

STEP BACK. Look at yourself objectively. Perhaps you’ve managed to complete a manuscript or send something off to an agent or publisher. Well done, amazing you! Whether you are published or not, putting finger to keyboard and finishing a project is an impressive feat, as is having the guts to put your work *out there*. Just keep on going. All you will do is improve.

Party time is over – so the pity parties stop here. As I’ve mentioned, it took me eight years (and several manuscripts under the bed) to sign my first deal. You WILL get there if you keep on persevering. For more inspiration, read my post about self-doubt here.

Take a break. Perhaps it’s not post Christmas and your problem is that you’ve been spending too much time at the keyboard. Often I’ve lost my motivation after I’ve been working flat out on a project for a while. Perhaps you’ve just finished a first draft. Or gone through your edits. Or put together a detailed synopsis for a new work. All of these activities take intense mental energy and it’s not surprising if we lose our mojo for a while. In my experience the best thing is to take a complete break from writing (and social media if possible) for a few days or a week.

So during your usual writing time instead catch up with that housework. Meet up with friends. Sleep. Indulge a hobby like baking. Get out into nature. It won’t be long before your enthusiasm has returned and is propelling you back to the keyboard with fresh ideas.

Good luck!

Firstly – be true to yourself. Don’t try to mimic other writers because you will never be a better version of them – just as no one can be a better version of yourself. Love Lucy Diamond? Great – read her books and try to analyse how she pulls readers into her stories and makes her lead characters so likeable. But don’t aim to reproduce her style. You have your own voice which – in my experience – will eventually emerge. It may be a long journey to find it, driven by writing manuscript after manuscript, but when you finally have that lightbulb moment and feel the words in your head are translating to the page exactly as they should, it’s a precious thing that – ultimately – will make you stand out as different, on the slushpile.

Secondly – learn to appreciate constructive criticism. This one can be hard! If you are an aspiring writer and someone more experienced has given you negative feedback, try to step away from your personal hurt and clinically look at the comments. And the same applies to a published author who has just received a bad review. If it is personal and insulting then it doesn’t deserve your attention – but if it’s polite and makes potentially fair comments, then consider analysing the negatives and maybe take them on board. I’ve found some unfavourable reviews quite useful in the past as they have given me an insight into where I  might be going wrong, in terms of creating relatable characters and plots that keep readers wanting to read on, right to the end. And if the negative feedback is from your editor, during revisions, just remember – she/he believes in you and is simply investing their time in trying to make your book even better than they already believe it is.

Thirdly – Read, read and read more. I failed dismally at this is 2016. But some of the books I did find time to enjoy really helped me to be more adventurous with my own writing. It is easy to get stuck in a rut with your own style if you don’t get a taste of how other authors are pushing boundaries and hitting the pleasure-spot for readers. I try not to let my writing style stagnate.

Fourthly – don’t forget why you started writing. Presumably – like me – it was due to a love of words and crafting sentences together. If it was for fame and fortune (*hollow laugh*!) you won’t survive the path it takes to get published. But if writing is a dream that comes from the heart, then when you get rejected or published and have to deal with deadlines, promotional work, bad reviews etc, just remind yourself that you are doing what you love and leaving behind a legacy of your creativity.

Finally, aspiring authors – don’t do what I did in the early days, and make the resolution “to get published this year”. It doesn’t quite work like that! Instead resolve to achieve something more attainable like “this  year I will submit my work to twenty agents” or  “this year I will see if I can get one full manuscript request”. Don’t set yourself too high expectations as you will feel you’ve failed, even if, in the bigger picture, you haven’t. Savour small victories, like a positive rejection letter. The road to publication takes many small steps, not one giant leap.

Best of luck and above all else, don’t forget to be kind to yourself. It’s a crazy business, this publishing malarkey, and dealing with it can be a challenge for us sensitive writing souls.