As I've done for the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to think about celebrating successes from the year instead of revisiting what I didn’t accomplish and resolving to do better (for more on this approach see Julie Hedlund’s recent blog post). Her suggestion is to use your successes and achievements as a foundation for setting new year goals.
This was a year
of struggles in my personal life and they seemed to squelch my creativity and
time for writing. I can claim only a few writing and reading successes for 2017,
but I’m sharing them anyway, proud to have accomplished anything in the face of
so much emotional change:
1. I participated
in the 12 x 12 Picture Book Challenge again and for the first time completed
the challenge by writing 12 picture book drafts in 12 months. (No one said the
drafts had to be good.)
2. I read over
300 new fiction picture books and board books as a first round panelist for the
Cybils Awards. It was so much fun discussing these books with my fellow
panelists!
3. I worked hard
on revising a middle grade novel and am close to finishing my revisions.
4. I revised several picture book manuscripts and my
agent sent some of them on submission.
5. I participated in an adult fiction book club at my local library.
No matter how they are, taking time to celebrate successes lifts you up. I urge
you to give it a try and dive into 2018 on a positive note! What are you most proud of this year? I hope you feel
good about your successes!
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