I love this time of year. The bustle and chaos of Christmas are over, but everyone is still on break. Kids don’t need rides to a million places. It doesn’t even matter if it snows and the roads are bad. We hunker down to play board games and build K’nex sets and watch movies. It’s the most free time I’ll have the entire year, which makes these days the perfect opportunity to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m heading as an author in 2024.
But I confess that part of me hesitates as I scan the blank horizon ahead. You can’t achieve big goals without dreaming big dreams, but there’s so much about publishing you can’t control. Like so much. No matter where you are in the process. You can’t make an agent offer representation, or an editor take your manuscript to acquisitions, or a publisher make an offer, or BookTok choose your book to go viral. With so much out of your control, sometimes dreaming big feels more like setting yourself up for failure.
I don’t know where you are in terms of your worldview, but I’ve been thinking a lot about a specific parable from the Bible. Even if you’re not a person of faith, there’s a lot of wisdom to be gleaned here, so stick with me for a minute. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the story of a rich man who goes away on a long trip. Before he leaves, he gives three servants each a big chunk of change—five, two, or one “talent” (equivalent to twenty years’ worth of wages according to some scholars). While he’s gone, the first two servants invest his money and double it. But the third, who explains later that he was afraid because his master “is a hard man,” buries the talent in the ground and earns nothing. The rich man returns and rewards the first two servants but sends the third away empty-handed.
You see, sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking like that third servant. My “talent” is the year ahead and the big ideas I could be working toward. But publishing (and even real life, sometimes) is a “hard man,” and with all the things that might go wrong, occasionally I can’t help questioning if it’s worth the effort to try. If you think you might work really hard and have nothing to show for it—or worse, lose big time—wouldn’t it be safer and easier just to bury that little sucker in the ground and not even try?
But here’s my answer to myself: I don’t want to be that guy. The one that played it safe and guaranteed he’d have nothing to show because he wasted all his opportunities. We can’t control outcomes, but we can set ourselves up for success.
So, I’m going to daydream about what I want my career to look like in one… five… ten years, and I’m going to make my list of goals. Some of them may or may not happen depending on what publishing does, and I may have to switch to Plan B (or C or D), but I’m not going to waste these precious days ahead.
In fact, here’s one goal I can share with you: this year, I intend to work smarter, not faster. Often I feel like I’m falling far behind everyone else when I see their book deals and how fast they write and how amazing their Instagram feeds are. I tell myself that If I could just work faster, or find more time to write, I’d be able to do what they’re doing. But I’ve decided that in 2024, I’m not going to jump on the productivity hamster wheel. Instead, I’m going to research ways to be more effective with my social media content and more focused with the writing time I do have. I have a suspicion that might mean more time with pen and paper instead of a screen—not because handwriting in itself is more efficient, but because keeping myself off a device might help me be more focused and clear-thinking.
I’ll let you know how it goes. ;)
In the meantime, Happy New Year to you! I’d love to hear from you—do you have any goals for this coming year?
I think you have a great plan. Productivity(quantity) isn't as important as quality. Happy 2024!