It’s a new dawn, a new day, a new calendar year, and boy are we happy to see it. We know that things will still be changing slowly from 2020, and that we all need to process everything that happened to us, individually and collectively. But hey, we’re going to grab this chance to take a breath, take stock, and make a few wishes. Send a few dreams out into the universe while appreciating that life will never be the same, and we’ll adjust and adapt as we go, as we always have.
We hope you and yours have had a lovely, peaceful, and safe holiday season, and as we look to a new year, we can’t wait to share more stories, more writing tips, more book and music recommendations with you. Stay tuned for new projects and announcements coming soon, and give us a share if you can!
We appreciate you being here, reading, and sharing. Here’s to a new start!
With love,
Your Muses
MEREDITH:
I’m sending this out into the universe: I want to connect with people through my stories this year. Whether that’s (maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed??) finding an agent this year, or deepening connections with readers, CPs, beta readers and friends who understand and really GET my writing. Is there any greater gift for a writer?
I’m also hoping to grow even more as a writer and reader, and really flex my creative muscles by diving back into old WIPs and polishing them as best as I can, and maybe starting a brand new one in a new genre that’s been calling my name. . .
Since I’m a fan of lists, but I also want to approach my 2021 goals with a very cautious sense of realism, here is a gentle configuration of what I want to work on/improve this year:
- Continue to support and boost marginalized creators!
- Revise (i.e. demolish and start anew) my novel HONORS for the umpteenth time, because I want to finally get it right, and query it again.
- Polish my Venice book and incorporate feedback I get on it.
- Fix my multi-POV revolutionary war histfic, to see if it’s salvageable? Maybe?
- Start my dual-timeline art historical/heist novel, which has been percolating for a while. I’m curious to see what’s there. . .
- Keep writing short stories and trying out new genres and styles.
- Read more books this year than I did in 2020.
JOYCE:
I’m genuinely excited for 2021. I mean, things can only get better from here, right? Goals-wise, 2020 wasn’t the most productive for me, although I did manage to get the ball rolling on several projects in the last quarter of the year. But that just means more room for improvement in 2021.
This year, I have a few projects lined up that I’m super stoked about. 2020 was the year I went back to the things I had once given up on because I felt I was terrible at them: art and poetry. But I decided to give them a go again just for the fun of it, and they turned out to be fun new challenges that I now want to commit to. So in 2021, I want to continue exploring new forms of art (starting with painting bookmark and notebook designs), as well as make more artist and writer friends because connecting with people who share the same passions and dreams is invaluable and so rewarding.
I also intend to read more this year than I did in 2020, at least a book a month, because I now have the attention span of a gnat thanks to social media and I want to correct that!
And if all that is not ambitious enough (hey, aim for the stars, land on the moon, right?), I also want to brush up on my music theory. It’s kind of embarrassing that I’ve been playing music since I was seven and am terrible at note-reading and can’t remember basic music theory sometimes.
So to sum up, here are my quantifiable goals for 2021:
- Write 2 poems a day (for an upcoming book of poetry I’m aiming to self-publish by spring/summer)
- Create at least one painting a week
- Blog at least once a month
- Read at least one book a month (book review can also count as part of the monthly blog post!)
- Finish writing at least one novel this year
- Make more time for other hobbies like playing the violin, doing tarot readings (small side hustle!), swimming and golfing
- Reach out to friends and family more often, and maybe even get reacquainted with acquaintances!
Tell us, what are you hoping to learn this year? Do you want to start something new? Finish something that’s been tugging at you? Reconnect with something you’ve always loved? We’d love to hear from you!
Muse in Pocket, Pen in Hand 