2022 Creative Writing Goals/Projects

Last year turned out so much better than I thought it would, but it was a bleep-ton of work, and now that I have my creative juices flowing I’m starting to make some long-term writing goals. So here they are:

• Last year I did a weekly creative writing post. This year I’m going to pare it down a bit and make it a monthly creative writing post. Instead of getting prompts by googling “creative writing prompts”, I turned to a random sentence generator for inspiration. It was quite surprising how sophisticated a random sentence generator can be these days. I have twelve prompts ready to go for the year that I’ll be drawing randomly.

• I took a writing class this past fall that I think really improved my writing skills and infused me with some confidence sharing my work. I still have some pieces that I’d like to edit and post here. I plan on taking another writing class in the spring or summer, so I’ll share some of those pieces too.

• I’ve wanted to do NaNoWriMo for years, and this year I’m going to do it. For those who don’t know, National Novel Writing Month is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days and there have been lots of novels that started out as NaNoWriMo challenges (Like Water for Elephants, The Night Circus, Fangirl, and Cinder to name a few). The non-profit organization creates a supportive community throughout the month, provides resources to help writers, and records talks and encouragement from published authors. The challenge traditionally begins on November 1. Anyone want to participate with me?

• Lots of people have told me that if I want to be a better writer that I need to become a better reader. To accomplish this I’ve devised a few strategies:
  • Firstly, I am following along and doing the exercises from a Substack published by George Saunders. George is a professor in the Syracuse MFA program and he wrote “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” that just came out in 2021. The book describes and demonstrates the techniques he uses in his class to get students to be more observant in their reading. He doesn’t ask why, instead he asks how authors do what they do. Substack functions as a way for writers to get content directly into the hands of readers via a newsletter, and writers can keep them free or request a small fee (George’s fee is $6/mo but you can check it out for free). George’s Substack is called “Story Club”. The community seems to be really engaged and positive and I think I’m going to learn a lot.
  • Secondly, I am a huge fan of Natalie Goldberg who writes about how to write. She has led numerous writing/zen workshops and retreats, and in “The True Secret of Writing” she details many of the exercises she uses in her workshops. She also provides reading lists for her year-long intensive retreats where students meet four times throughout the year. My plan is to take one of those reading lists and practice paying attention to what I’m reading. I’ll keep y’all posted on what I’m reading and what I’m learning.

Alright, I think that’s probably enough to keep me busy for the year. Good luck to everyone in their goals for the year! If anyone wants to chat about NaNoWriMo, Story Club, or my reading list please post in the comments!

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