Now what?

November ended… you have some stuff you wrote… what now?

Let it rest. Put it aside. Take a break from it. The next step will be to revise your work and do to that well, you need some distance from it. So read, relax, write something else, rest, rejuvenate.

While you’re taking a break, perhaps reflect on what you accomplished this year. One of my favorite mantras comes from my business coach Dallas Travers who says “You can’t build on success you don’t acknowledge.” 

Here’s how I reflect on the year (adapted from Tara Butler Floch of https://broadviewcoaching.com/):

List your Wins, Gains, and Breakthroughs this past year. Here are mine:

1. 100 submissions 

2. 7 acceptances (so far – maybe at least one more by Dec. 31?)

3. Finished my flash memoir. Submitted it to 26 opportunities (and counting). (It was a finalist for one competition, and it won a scholarship in another; my goal is publication!)

4. Started my fiction journey

5. Got to 100+ email subscribers (yay! Thank you!)

6. Am enjoying working with writers on their nonfiction books and proposals, and love it when they have breakthroughs and successes.

Now, what can you pull from your successes to apply to what you want to do in the new year?

What are 3-5 lessons to take from 2022 into 2023? Here are mine:

1. Continue my fiction journey by building skills and submitting polished pieces

2. Enjoy the discovery of drafting; enjoy the precision of revising; don’t confuse the two! 

3. Continue learning and applying what I know about writing and publishing for myself and the writers I work with

What did you come up with?

Wishing you a happy and healthy rest of the year. Thanks for reading – see you in 2023!