What are your writing goals for 2021?

[Tettsuo]

Wow, you guys are super prolific. I just want to write one novel a year, you guys are doing 3 to 5 a year. Nuts.

[Cephus]

Wow, you guys are super prolific. I just want to write one novel a year, you guys are doing 3 to 5 a year. Nuts.

It just takes experience and dedication. Anyone can do it if they want to.

[H.Brown]

Get my next book wrote in 2021 would be amazing, so that's my writing goal for next year.

[Olly Buckle]

It just takes experience and dedication. Anyone can do it if they want to.

You remind me of a guy who won a Nobel prize for physics, the interviewer asked him if it was very hard and he said, "I think anyone could have discovered it if they had wanted to know enough".
People say people inspire them, but I always feel the motivation comes from within, all they do is show you the way to it.

[JJBuchholz]

Write at least 1 short story per month.

That is what I normally attempt to do, as one short story or novella per month is more than attainable. In my case, other ideas pop up in between that usually let me write a lot more than just the one story I planned on. Not complaining, however. The extra ideas/WIPs usually help me in one way or another, and this all helps amplify my passion for writing even further.

-JJB

[LadySilence]

I use a notebook, paper and pen, where I write the synopsis of all the ideas that come to me, even the most absurd.
After a while, and I decide whether to use them immediately, or wait.
I learned that nothing is thrown away.

[bdcharles]

Wow, you guys are super prolific. I just want to write one novel a year, you guys are doing 3 to 5 a year. Nuts.

Even that's insanely polyphiloprogenitive. I aim for one every 3-5 years...

[Cephus]

You remind me of a guy who won a Nobel prize for physics, the interviewer asked him if it was very hard and he said, "I think anyone could have discovered it if they had wanted to know enough".
People say people inspire them, but I always feel the motivation comes from within, all they do is show you the way to it.

There is no external inspiration in writing. Absolutely every bit of it comes from within. If you want to do it badly enough, you will. If you don't, you won't. It's why all of the amateurs who get on forums and cry "motivate me!" are getting it all wrong. Nobody can motivate you but you. You have to develop the drive and the work ethic to get out there and make it happen on your own. Writing isn't a group activity. It's something you do if you're willing to put in the work. Most people aren't.

[Kyle R]

2020 and the coronavirus kind of damaged my enthusiasm, especially with all the turmoil it threw the publishing industry into. There were a lot of agents/editors who were just closing their doors to submissions, and publishers going out of business. It made me wonder, here and there, if writing and publishing was doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Is there a future for books, in a post-Covid world?

Or will only Netflix remain standing, when the dust finally settles?

Mostly, I feel that I'm just overthinking things. Perhaps, after everything, publishing will become stronger than ever. One can certainly hope!

So I'm trying to reframe my mind and get back to that happy place, where words are a joy. It's coming back, but just not as quickly as I would like. I have two novels in progress right now, and I'm just trying to take it one day at a time.

[JJBuchholz]

There is no external inspiration in writing. Absolutely every bit of it comes from within. If you want to do it badly enough, you will. If you don't, you won't. It's why all of the amateurs who get on forums and cry "motivate me!" are getting it all wrong. Nobody can motivate you but you. You have to develop the drive and the work ethic to get out there and make it happen on your own. Writing isn't a group activity. It's something you do if you're willing to put in the work. Most people aren't.

*slow clap*

This exactly!

-JJB