Writerly Intentions for 2022

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Hey hi hello and happy new year!

Every December I tell myself I won't bother making resolutions because I rarely meet them, and every January I make them anyway. But! I've decided this time to make 'intentions' rather than 'resolutions'. It feels a bit more flexible, hopeful, and aspirational that way, instead of a commitment I already foresee myself breaking, y'know?

As Hyba noted in her positive productivity post (one of a series of three, I encourage you to read them all!), it's important to treat ourselves with grace and compassion.

So here's a non-exhaustive list of my writerly intentions for this year:

✧.* Chronicles of Mourra

• Aim to complete a draft of in time for Pitch Wars in September
• I doubt I'll be comfortable submitting it by then, as it will be a very raw draft, but I'd love to have the option!
• Currently I'm at 18k of the new draft, and estimate I'll be up to ~27k within a few weeks, as I'm at a point where I can merge content from the previous draft with this one
• I foresee the total draft being around 50k? Maybe 60k? I am wildly excited and delighted by how it's going so far! 

✧.* Rivener 2.0

• Step 1: flashcard the new plot
• Step 2: write
• Step 3: profit?
• In all seriousness, I'm aiming to share it on Tapas once it's complete! Currently I'm focusing on CofM, so this really is one of those things I'm making an intention to achieve rather than a hard-set goal

✧.* Blog

• For the past few years I've taken part in a reading challenge. Last year it was to read 15 books and officially I read 16 (unofficially I read 19 but I didn't list them for ~reasons~). This year I've set the same goal
• I usually share my reviews to the books I read on my GoodReads account, but I thought it would be neat to share them on my site too
• The series shall be called 'Book Responses' because they're going to be fairly casual and probably not very in-depth posts about what I liked, didn't like, and/or the vibe I got from the books

✧.* General

• flashcard the plot for Glitch wip (maybe)
• research and create a plan for hosting a community space for Muslim writers
• take part in Fictober 2022
• submit to some kind of lit magazine or competition at least once
• write more poetry
• try and get my fable out there? somewhere? somehow?

There you have it! These are manageable intentions, I think, but also listing them like this is making me a little anxious, not gonna lie. I calm down when I remember this is supposed to be spread out over a full year, and my main 'goal' is to work towards these things, even if I don't finish them! I need to have something to aim for, at the end of the day.

Have you set resolutions and/or intentions for this year? If so, what are they? Comment below so we can support each other!

​Best of luck this year babes, and as ever: happy reading and writing.