Michelle McGill-Vargas

Most of the blogs I’m following have begun 2015 with laundry lists of what the bloggers plan to accomplish this year. I could easily repeat that pattern and state the same thing those bloggers have said:

I resolve to finish my manuscript!

I resolve to spend more time writing!

I resolve to publish at least one short story a month!

Well, I resolve to be more realistic. I’ve achieved the one goal I’d set for myself when I first started writing: to get published. Maybe I should have been more specific when I first set that goal. Like that GEICO commercial where the man wishes for a million bucks and gets– literally– a million “bucks”, as in a bunch of male deer. Maybe I should have said to have a novel published or to be so wildly successful that I never have to write another lesson plan in my life.

But let’s get real.

I am thankful that I’ve had short pieces published. I’m grateful to Jeff Elkins, creator of Short Fiction Break for envisioning a forum for writers just like me to get exposure. But I would love to have a novel published. So what I resolve to do this year is to get serious about writing.

I’m not to the point where self-publishing is an option, only because the marketing end scares the crap out of me.

If I can’t even convince my family to get excited about and read my stuff, how am I supposed to convince thousands of perfect strangers to do it?

Maybe that’s my goal. Maybe I need to put a concerted effort toward topics like self-publishing, marketing and shameless self-promotion. If I don’t do it, who else will?

So I resolve to be my biggest cheerleader. I resolve to write because I enjoy it, not living or dying on the subjective opinion of an editor, agent or publisher. I resolve to submit what I write with a prayer to as many appropriate markets as possible. I resolve to take my rejection lumps like a pro.

Hebrews 11:1 says “No, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That’s how I resolve to spend 2015.

What about you?