By Tammy Karasek @tickledpinktam

We’ve purchased a new calendar or planner and turned to the month of January. Writers will add conferences, workshops, deadlines, and goals onto those pages. We make sure to fill in dates we’ve made commitments for and soon we see many of those squares filled. I have a suggestion for you before you fill them to the brim.

I spent non-voluntary time resting with a foot injury for a couple of months late fall which offered the opportunity for reflection. A thought came to me over and over. Stop the drive to fill the date squares. You must stop the effort to do. All. The. Things. I felt like a toddler—but I wanna do all the things.

I realize we writers often are involved with a lot of extra activities in our lives, many of which are important—feeding your family, clean laundry, etc. We also want to be active in our writing world whether in person or online. This takes time and energy.

I want to challenge you as I’ve challenged myself for 2025. I will be honest and admit I am one of those that do want to do all the things. I’m a people person, so I want to be with as many as I can and as often as I can. My personal writing has suffered. I’ve come up with a few new changes for this year. See if my list might offer you something to help you not get overloaded like I was in 2024. Yep, I just admitted that!

My 2025 new items for my writing journey:

• A new attitude: it’s not that my attitude was bad, it needed an adjustment. I often sat down to my writing project as if it were a chore. I no longer sat down eager to open a project in Scrivener, Word or my website and work with joy. How about you, are you in that routine of sit down, open computer, go to work? Could you change up the thought to be excited to dig in?

• New commitment: I suggest you make the commitment with yourself not to fill all those squares on the calendar. Leave a margin every month for those events that come to you at the last minute that you wish you could have done instead of what you said yes to a while back. I’m guilty of this, and I was worn out the last two years. Nothing like being stuck on the couch with foot up and watch commitments not fulfilled because of the desire to do everything. Sigh. Be realistic with your time, physical capability, and finances, too.

• New desk items: I for sure am a desk item junkie. For as long as I can remember, going through a stationery store or office supplies aisles made me giddy. I added some new paperclips with fountain pen nib shapes, ordered a new pink planner cover and a new pink stapler is ordered—the other needed to go years ago. Could you add something new for your writing space? It doesn’t have to be expensive, a little something to make you smile and know it’s time to write.

• New writing partner: maybe don’t have one at the moment, could you look for someone who writes fiction like you or nonfiction if that’s you? Often when you reach out to someone you may find they wanted a partner, too.

• New writing group: we moved away from my local writers last fall—states away, one of my goals for 2025 is to find another local group. Maybe your group isn’t a good fit for you, it happens. Look for a different one or form a group yourself. Reach out to other writers you know and form an online group if you haven’t found writers in your area. It can be done. Groups can be a good thing for the lonely world of a writer. The fellowship alone is golden of like-minded folks that hide away and make up stuff and talk back to the voices in their heads. What? I’m the only one?

• New writing practice: this could be the obvious of a change of when or where you write. Or it could be to write a different style for the challenge and fun of it. Write nonfiction? Write a short story. Don’t worry about word count, write the story until you end it. If you write fiction, write a nonfiction book on how to do something. Switch up your fiction genre for a few scenes. These are not to pitch for publication, it’s just a step out of the norm to do something new to you. Often when you do something out of your routine for a short bit, it helps get the juices flowing for what you do write.

• New you: are you still writing, have various projects in your Word files, but nothing finished—or finished, but won’t let anyone see your work? Put on a new-you cap, pull one of those unfinished projects out and finish it. Then another and another. Once you’ve done that, be brave and either have them edited to pitch to an agent or acquisitions editor or edited to self-publish if that’s your choice. Bottom line—finish and put yourself and your book out there. No more hiding in your writing cave in 2025.

Did any of the above suggestions resonate with you? What new things are you doing this year for your writing career?

Tammy Karasek uses humor and wit to bring joy and hope to every aspect in life. Her past, filled with bullying and criticism from family, drives her passion to encourage and inspire others and show them The Reason to smile. She’s gone from down and defeated to living a “Tickled Pink” life as she believes there’s always a giggle wanting to come out!

She’s a writer of Romantic Suspense—with a splash of sass. Her debut book, Launch That Book, released in November 2023. She’s published in a Divine Moments Compilation Book—Cool-inary Moments. Also, she’s a writing team member for The Write Conversation, The Write Editing, Blue Ridge Conference Blog, and more.

Known as The Launch Team Geek, she helps authors launch their books. You’ll also find her as a Virtual Assistant for several best-selling authors, the Social Media Manager for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Founding President of ACFW Upstate SC, and Founding President of Word Weavers Upstate SC. Connect with Tammy at https://www.tammykarasek.com.