Writing Wishes For You (And a Farewell)

In five days we delve into 2019. This year has been filled with ups and downs for me, and I’m sure, dear readers, for you as well. The reality is that everyone has losses and wins in life. We’d be naive to think otherwise.

This is my last post for Women on Writing for a while. I’m taking a break to focus on other writing endeavors. I’ll be back - I enjoy blogging too much to leave forever. In the meantime, however, I leave you with writing wishes as you enter into the New Year.

I wish you creativity. May you be blessed with new ideas, with fresh characters, and with original settings. May your plot take exciting and unexpected turns. May your protagonist surprise you and make choices you never anticipated. May your villains be more cunning than you ever imagined.

I wish you tenacity. May you finish your first draft with a renewed sense of purpose. May you tackle your editing with a fresh mind. May you find every error. May you have the foresight to anticipate plot inconsistencies. May you find the perfect way to word your favorite scene, and may you be your own thesaurus, avoiding repetition with dexterity.

I wish you success. May your creativity and tenacity produce an amazing manuscript. May you find the right beta readers which lead to finding the right editor. May your pitch on Twitter be successful enough to land yourself the perfect agent. May HarperCollins fall in love with your book and may you make it on the New York Times Best Sellers List.

But most of all, I wish you joy. Joy in your ideas. Joy in your execution. Joy in your writing.

May 2019 be your best writing year yet. I'll miss sharing my ideas with you in the upcoming months, but I know this blog will continue to offer you wisdom, laughter, inspiration, and insight.

Bethany Masone Harar is an author, teacher, and blogger, who does her best to turn reluctant readers into voracious, book-reading nerds. Check out her blog here and her website here.