Resolved. It’s a legal term, a literary term and a New Year’s term. We make resolutions for ourselves, and we write them for our characters. Perhaps we all just want to direct our own happy ending. Another word for “resolutions” is “goals.”

Here at the Book Writing World, we are big fans of goals. Knowing them. Owning them in public. Measuring how you’re doing, adjusting as needed, rewarding those accomplished, rinse and repeat . . . And yes, it’s the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. Let’s borrow this structure to rev up our writing lives.

What are your goals or resolutions for 2014 as a writer? And leaning into the wonderful pun of the term, what do you want to finish, or what do you resolve to resolve?

Me? I want to write every single day. I’ve known for a while that this would be my major writing resolution for 2014, but I’ve been considering for a while now what that will actually mean. What will count as having written for a given day?

So far, I have a few loose critera:

1) A word count or quantification. (For some this might also be a measure of time.) I want to commit to writing, say, 500 words a day minimum, 7 days/ week. I’d like to write more than that on most days or many days, maybe 2000 words, but I also want to pick something realistic, something I can churn out at the eleventh hour if need be, and I think for me and the way I write, 500 words is that.

2) Because I can do a 500 word brain dump in under 30 minutes, I want to be sure that I do more than that in my writing session. Brain dumps or morning pages are great and really grounding for me, and usually do lead to other kinds of writing naturally. But again, thinking of those days when I am just jamming out my minimum to meet my goal, I want it to include more than the detritus of my mind. So I want to write something inventive or scenic every day, too. Again, this may be a paragraph on some grueling days, and I very much hope it will be many pages on other days. I just need to get my minimums clear and meet them.

3) The third rule I have is that these rules can evolve, so long as I decide ahead of time and not in a moment of desperation how the rules have shifted. I know I will learn as I go and that my various projects will have different needs, so what counts as “writing” in “writing every day” can morph, too.

I have another resolution about submissions. I want to submit an average of 5 times/ week over the year. Some of this will not be in my control entirely, since my agent gets first dips at submitting, and it’s not she who does it but another person in the agency. But committing to this means:

1) Finishing pieces to the point I am willing to submit them.

2) Communicating with the agency about the submissions process.

3) Tracking submissions numbers and circulating pieces myself.

Okay, ready to make your resolutions?

I am going to summarize what I’ve learned from mine that might be useful to you:

1) Quantify your resolution so you know if you’ve accomplished it.

2) Make it realistic, possibly setting a minimum and a maximum.

3) Include creative guidelines to keep you on the track you want to be on.

4) Allow the rules to evolve, but not in the midst of a block or when you are running out of time.

5) Set separate goals for your creativity and your creative career.

Now, declare it here. I can’t wait to see what you’re got planned: