Success in 2024

If you're like me, you want to become a successful writer. You spend hours learning the craft and writing your heart out. You read books similar to yours, and books that are different; a writer can learn from anyone, you know. 

You receive positive feedback from readers and negative feedback from a few. And if you're smart, you take a look at both.

At the beginning of the new year, and this year is no different, you take a look at what has worked for you in the past, and what hasn't, particularly with marketing. You may even sit down and write what has and hasn't worked for you on paper to plan your strategies for this year.

You may be discouraged. You may feel like your work has equaled little sales. You may want to quit. But this feeling doesn't last long. It never does. In a day, a week, or perhaps a month later, you are continuing on your journey.

If writing didn't affect your heart and soul so much, you probably would have quit long ago. But the success you seek has come, almost imperceptively, and today you realize there has been movement. You are a better writer than you were ten years ago. You are a far better writer today than the day you first began. 

You are a success. Maybe not the success you first envisioned with the hefty paychecks and millions of fans, but the success you were intended for. A few lives changed. Writer friends who support you. A few fans who love your work, including children who love your stories.

This year you will try something new. You will bring out an old manuscript and clean it up. You will spend more time sharing your knowledge with new writers. You may even get out of your comfort zone and try something you've never tried before - perhaps a podcast interview.

Whatever you do, you'll remember why you write in the first place. 

May your success continue in 2024, and may you find joy in your writing pursuits.

Kathryn

Questions Writer's Ask

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Photo by: Daniel Moyle, courtesy of Flickr

I have been thinking a lot about what I wanted to say on the first day of 2012 and it came to me that today was a day I needed to ask some questions of you.

1. What are the greatest needs you have as a writer?

2. What is your greatest struggle as a writer?

3. What do you wish others knew about getting into the writing profession? The good, the bad and the not so easy?

4. Were you involved in the scripture journaling challenge I blogged about all last month? What did you learn?

It's important as I send these blogs out that I focus on the needs you have as a writer, that I consider your personal struggles and questions about writing; that I tackle the truths about the writing profession.

And it's also important for me to receive some feedback about scripture journaling. This may have been a new concept for many of you. You may have thought it wonderful or--strange. I want to hear your thoughts.

Respond to this post with an answer to one of the questions above and I will choose two winners to receive my new book, "Conquering your Goliaths--a Parable of the Five Stones," to be released in February!

Thank you!