2017 - did it work for me?

It's traditional to keep spend the dark days of midwinter reflecting on the past year, the good, the bad and the indifferent. It's good to take an objective view of life past from a bit of a distance and learn from it. When it came to reviewing whether my writing resolutions of 2017 had been effective, I found myself a little taken aback. I'm not sure I kept them, but the result of focusing on what I wanted to achieve, may have made a difference.

I had resolved to write less, but better, which might lead to my finishing a project and maybe having something published. 

I ended up writing more than ever, getting better as I went along, and having work published. Better still, I was being paid for my work.

Conclusion, a good year for writing.

But. There's always more to do. When I started the year last January, I put aside some projects that I had been mulling over for ages and decided to concentrate on just one or two.  I made some progress but then found new challenges came along, unexpectedly. Having wasted too much time lacking self confidence and keeping my head down, I decided to say "yes" to every writing opportunity that came my way. It made for a busy year and I can't say everything was successful but here are some of the highlights:

1. One short story only written in 2017. But it won the Gibraltar Spring Festival Short Story Competition. 

2. Only five poems written in 2017. One of them came in second in the Gibraltar Autumn Festival Poetry Competition.

3.  Made a little progress with a non-fiction book I'm writing in collaboration with another writer; less than we'd  hoped but progress is progress nonetheless, and we're in a better place twelve months later to accelerate the writing in 2018.

4.  Wrote the content for a number of commercial websites, developed blogs and social media posts for several clients and had a good number of articles, features and reports published in magazines. This latter was particularly exciting. It is something I have wanted to do for some time but was very slow in getting off the ground.  In the end in needed focus and a bit of self-confidence and some helpful people supporting me. 

5.  Added proof-reading and copy-editing to my skills base, and I found out that doing these can help you develop as a writer as well as improve the quality of the publication you are working for.

6.  Started to keep a journal for jotting ideas which I may be able to use in the future.

7.  Read some of my poems out loud in a local poetry night - loved the experience, which led to a story session in the autumn, and which was also good fun, affirming that telling stories is as essential part of living in a community, of being human. 

8.  Attended the Gibraltar International Literary Festival and met other writers and learned the importance of story to identity. Gibraltar needs writers to write its stories; the stories of Gibraltar and Gibraltarians, by Gibraltarians. Mark Sanchez' talk was inspirational.

As a writer, 2017 exceeded expectations.

Plans for 2018?

• Keep writing.
• Keep sharing my writing with others.
• Network with other writers, for personal support and also because Gibraltar needs writers, now especially, as it formulates a renewed sense of its identity.
• Keep learning from others so that I can make my writing better.

Roll on the New Year!