Make Writing More Than Just Another New Years’ Resolution, Guest Post by Kellie Sheridan

As we start a new year, a lot of us have a renewed sense of purpose for our writing goals. This is the year we’re going to do ALL THE THINGS! We come armed with outlines, and game plans and reward systems (and probably a fair bit of caffeine). It’s a new year and this is when we make things happen!

Stickers on daily writing calendars, word count graphs, achievement badges, rewards for reaching word count milestones… we writers can go a little overboard when it comes to rewarding ourselves for getting words on the page. Which makes sense. It can be undeniably hard to keep sitting down day after day to write and edit and edit again while still never really feeling like you’re getting anywhere. Yes, there are some euphorically amazing moments in writing—finishing that first draft, receiving notes back from a beta reader, signing with an agent, seeing your book in print—but those can come months or even years apart. How do you keep yourself going in the meantime? I know this is something I struggle with almost constantly and have more than a few writing friends who have said the same.

There are two times of year for me when I feel the most motivated to write, New Years and NaNoWriMo. For me it’s the collective sense of enthusiasm that gets me sitting down at my desk every day to write more than I probably would have otherwise. It’s continuing that process between January and November that seems to be the trick… which is exactly why Write All Year got started. Write All Year is an online community of writers that is attempting to combine the accountability and community of NaNoWriMo with the enthusiasm of starting off a new year, while also keeping that feeling going all year long.

Writing doesn’t stop on November 30th, fifty-thousand words isn’t always a realistic goal, sometimes we all need to focus on polish and quality more than just getting words on the page. And sometimes writing is excruciatingly hard to do. These are all things that Write All Year attempts to account for, while also housing an amazing group of writers who are ready to cheer each other on and push one another to meet their goals.

If you love to write, spend way too much time thinking about writing without actually doing it, or are aiming to accomplish big bookish things in 2015, Write All Year could be a great fit for you. We have forums in place to talk books and writing, a pretty epic spreadsheet to track your word count, unlockable achievements for when you hit those big milestones, and accountability groups to find people to help keep you on track for your personal goals. Yeah, there’s a lot going on. And we’re just getting started. Whether or not you have specific writing goals in mind for 2015, if you want to make writing a priority, we’d absolutely love to have you join our ranks. Just head on over to Write All Year, and don’t forget to say hello in the forums.

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Write All Year is an online writing community created by Kellie Sheridan and Patchwork Press. You can find us at http://www.writeallyear.patchwork-press.com