I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, they make no sense to me.
Why would you wait all year (until January) to do something you really wanted to do? And then, if you didn't manage to achieve it, or stick to it, in the first month of that year, why would you then abandon it, if it was something you wanted?!
This year is different though.
Quite frankly, I've shocked myself into making my first New Year's Resolution - ever!
I've been so busy with life, work, kids, friends, boyfriend and writing new work that I didn't see it coming... the one year anniversary of when I first published Boom's Graffiti Boy online!
The book was such a passion for so long. Something I'd worked so hard to finish. But just trying to juggle everything has made it difficult for me to promote it in the way I would have liked.
Every single interview you read with authors talks about having to send their debut book out to about 50 or 60 agents at least, before they get their first yes. I've only sent mine to about 8 or so, 10 at the most, and in amongst that I have already had one agent give me some really positive comments.
I still think it's an amazing premise for a film or TV series. I can see it. I just need to get it out there.
Don't get me wrong though.
I haven't been sitting around doing nothing for the past year.
Having written weekly blogs for a bit, and tried to do as much social media as I could whilst working full time, I decided to write the first few chapters of a second book which I could send to agents.
More recently, I completed the first 10,000 words of a third idea of mine for a competition, which I am starting to research a bit more and develop further now. That one is to get myself an agent, but even if I don't win the competition it won't have been a waste of time, because I now have three bodies of work I can show agents, which should give them a real sense of how I write and what I'm about.
Now though - having shocked myself at it having been a year already - I have made my first New Year's Resolution - Ever.
To sit down every night (apart from a few every so now and then where I'm going to give myself time off to be sociable, because I'm not one of those aloof writer types!) and send Boom's Graffiti Boy out to as many agents as possible. Followed, quick on the heels, by my other two ideas.
But now I'm looking back over the past year, thinking how weird it is that it's been a year and everything having been so quiet, that actually if feels right that I'm posting this very late in the evening, on the one-year anniversary of when I first published my book.
Lockdown made things really quiet, and strange.
It meant I couldn't celebrate with my friends (and all the people who read it for me) when I published it. So in that sense, it feels ok that the first anniversary of its publication has been quiet and maybe a bit uneventful, because now I feel I can flip it on its head, and start pushing for it to be the celebration I originally wanted it to be.
I'm going to be sticking to my New Year's Resolution of writing to agents every night. And if I don't do it for a week, I'm not going to give up. I'll just start my resolution all over again. Because New Year Resolutions aren't just for January, they are for however long you are passionate about them.
Happy Birthday Boom's Graffiti Boy ❣
You're still only one, and you have a lot of growing up to do. But by the time you are two, I hope you will be out and about in the big wide world - letting everyone know all about you!
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