Quick note: If you’ve purchased (or received as a gift) Go Teen Writers: Write Your Novel, we want to send you a present! We have a bookmark and a bookplate that we will personalize to you. This is for any copy of Write Your Novel purchased in 2020. You can find the details here.
This is our last post of 2020, a year that was so unprecedented, that word started feeling cliché back in April. Logically, I know nothing magically changes in a few days when the calendar says 2021, but there’s a sense of hope that next year has to be better. (My son is in fourth grade, and last week his elementary school had different dress-up theme days. School spirit, pandemic super hero, etc. Thursday was “throw shade at 2020 and wear your sunglasses” day. I loved that.)
The reality is we don’t know what the next year brings. There’s a lot we can’t control, but that doesn’t mean we should poorly steward what we can control.
A number of you are probably familiar with the idea of picking a word for the coming year. For many, it’s a spiritual practice, to look at the year ahead and decide you want it to be a year of peace or a year of trust. For me, picking a word of the year is both a spiritual practice as well as a helpful way to identify an aspect of my life where I need to grow or be intentional.
My word in 2018 was “brave,” largely because I thought I was going to lose my dad to cancer and have to walk my kids through grief as I dealt with my own. (Happily, my dad is still with us!) My 2019 word was “wonder” because I knew I wasn’t enjoying the beauty around me like I should. I wanted to make decisions that increased my sense of wonder. And 2020 was “abundance” because I wanted to approach life from an abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality.
I thought it could be an interesting exercise to pick a word for our next year of writing. Do you want to join me? Your word for writing might be the same as your overall word (mine is) or they might be different. You might want to think on it for a few weeks, or you might know right away what your word is. Or you might think this whole concept is too woo-woo for you, and that’s fine as well!
If you decide to pick a word, I would absolutely love for you to share it in the comments section. That could be so helpful for Jill, Shannon, and I as we consider our direction for Go Teen Writers in 2021.
Here are a couple ideas in case you need help:
Simplify: Maybe you have a tendency to start too many things. Too many WIPs, too many blogs, too many social media accounts, etc. Maybe you want 2021 to be about simplifying your writing life. (OR simplifying aspects in your not-writing life so that your writing life can benefit!)
Brave: Maybe you’ve been timid in your writing or pursuit of publication. Or you have a published book, but you haven’t been sharing about it on social media because it feels scary to do so. Or maybe there’s a story idea you’ve wanted to write, but you’re scared you’ll mess it up.
Student: Maybe you need time to study. Study the craft, marketing, social media, or public speaking. Maybe 2021 is about you soaking in some knowledge.
Joy: This is my word. For me it means pursuing story ideas that bring me joy and being on my guard for joy-thieves, like comparison, fatigue, and self-importance.
And since words are fun, here are more words you might choose:
Focus
Thrive
Play
Listen
Flourish
Explore
Fearless
Vision
Discipline
Intentional
Consistent
Calm
Grateful
Persevere
Strive
Persist
Grace
Delight
Prayer
Whole-hearted
Mindful
Light
Passion
Kind
Commit
Deliberate
Connect
Journey
Whole
Tenacious
If you pick a word, please share in the comments!
Our next post will be January 6th, 2021! I hope you have a merry and safe holiday season!
Stephanie Morrill writes books about girls who are on an adventure to discover their unique place in the world. She is the author of several contemporary young adult series, as well as the 1920s mystery, The Lost Girl of Astor Street, and the WWII era romance, Within These Lines. Since 2010, Stephanie has been encouraging the next generation of writers at her website, GoTeenWriters.com. She lives in the Kansas City area, where she loves plotting big and small adventures to enjoy with her husband and three children. You can connect with Stephanie and learn more about her books at StephanieMorrill.com, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
I love this. I didnt initially have one. As i was reading, I thought maybe brave, but then i heard a different word…. believe. I’m going to mull this one over.
There are so many great words to choose from, Tonya. Let us know when you pick!
I’m going with believe!! It fits my writing and personal life ?
I am choosing ‘persevere’. I want to keep going when life is though, I want to do better in math class, and I want to finish my first novel. Perseverance is something that does not come easily to me in most things, especially writing. So for both my writing goal and life goal, I’m going to try for perseverance, rather than a certain word count or page number.
An excellent word, and what excellent goals!
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At first I was gonna step back and think of what word I wanted, but then I saw ‘journey’ on this list and something about it drew me in. So, that’s my word. ‘Journey’ Cause our stories and our lives are filled with so many journeys, and though we can’t control what happens we can control how we react toward it. And I’m on my own journey as a writer. So, that’s my word.
I love “journey”! Such an important thing to remember when everything feels slow.
This is so cool!!! I’m gonna choose the word “consistent” because I want to be more consistent in the things I love doing. In my Bible reading, in reading novels, in writing, etc. I love doing these things but I often let the busyness of life take away time from doing them. Thank you for posting this! 🙂
Consistent sounds like a great word for you!
I think I’ll pick the word “commit”. I want to actually write instead of just thinking about what I want to write. And maybe, “persevere” when the going gets tough and I think my writing is rubbish.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!
We all have times where we feel our writing is rubbish! Learning to push through is huge.
I love this idea! My writing word for 2021 is “experience.” A notably odd choice, so let me explain. Writing often slips from something exciting into something I need to finish with high quality. And that’s no fun. Writing is about experiencing both your life and your story. I really want to focus on enjoying life in its fullness (creation, friendships, etc.), and using that experience to write stories of worth. A friend and I decided to do a writing challenge together this next year (we’ve named this story club The Imagination Guild,) and I think that comradely in writing will really enhance the experience. Perhaps that doesn’t make the most of sense… Regardless, my word is experience. 🙂
Love and joy come to you, and a merry Christmas too! ?
I love this, Camille! I had a similar thought process when I picked “wonder” in 2019, so that makes sense to me!
I love this post!!!! Every word was amazing, but the main one that caught my eye was ‘strive.’ That’s what I’m deciding to make my writing word for 2021. I want to strive to be a better author, and an altogether better person. I’m gonna strive to write better. Strive to improve each-day, in every-way.
Thank you so much for this!!! Merry Christmas to everyone!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! It’s so interesting how one word will pop for us sometimes.
Ooh, this is fun! I know you said pick one word, but my indecisive and thorough brain wants to go with three: passion- because no matter where this journey takes me, I never want to forget why I’m on it, structure- because I want to be efficient in editing my current WIP while still making time to play around with and maybe draft a new one, and dedication- because I hope to see a lot of things through this year and take them as far as I can.
Overall, 2020 was a rough year, but I have to say, I hit a lot of writing milestones during these past twelve months, including my first ever complete draft. So in spite of everything else, I have a lot to be grateful for.
I hope that you all have a marvelous holiday season, whatever you celebrate, and the happiest of new years!
I promise the “Word for a year” police will not come after you if you pick three 🙂 YAY for everything you accomplished in 2020!
This is an interesting idea! I’m not sure I can narrow it down to one word, so I choose “Explore” and “Consistent”.
Explore, because I need to be more careful with my research, and not be so bound to ONE thing I want to put in my WIP. I need to explore other possibilities. I love looking at art and stuff online, it really gets my creative juices flowing, in my writing, and art! So I’m gonna explore all kinds of ideas for stories, characters, settings, etc.
And Consistent, because I was just working on my WIP today, and I found myself having to go back several times because I felt like it wasn’t consistent with what I’d written already. Not to mention, I haven’t worked on my WIP very much lately, so I have to be consistent with working on it!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody!
These are great words!
This is awesome! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this exercise before, but it sounds great! I’m choosing the word “focus” as a whole, because I need to focus more on finishing the work God has planned for me down here, and I need to focus on finishing the writing goals I’ve set for myself. Thank you so much GotTeenWriters for this post! And I like reading about everyone else choosing their words. : )
“Focus” is a fantastic word!
My overall word is “growth” for 2021, but for writing I think “connect” is a good word. I’m looking to back off on actual writing next year due to lots of general life plans that will suck up a lot of time, but I’m working on rebranding and I want to connect with my social media audience better in the coming year.
After all the social distancing in 2020, “connect” sounds pretty good for 2021!
Two comments: I didn’t send in to you guys that I bought it, because I don’t need anything you’re offering. What I wanted was the book, and it’s on its way.
Thank you.
My word? That’s going to take a word of explanation. In 2019, David and I (my writing partner, whom I usually refer to as David-In-Houston as he moved away to Houston some years back) wrote Wandmaking 101, a Sunshine Mystery Magic Club Adventure. While not a smashing success, David and I are pleased with it. In 2020, we wrote Wandmaking 201, the second Sunshine Mystery Magic Club Adventure. for 2021, I’m focusing on my goal: my “word” is: 301.
Thanks for listening.
Our protagonists are a brilliant trio of girls in their last year of middle school. Their world is much like ours, but with magic. Strong users of magic can reach another world, Avalon. From Avalon, still more worlds can be reached. Wands come from, or at least through, Avalon, which has a wand-maker’s guild. In Virginia, In October, 1963, Sarah, Jonnie and Katy have made a magic wand- the first one ever made on Earth. Their school magic textbook, for magic clubs, suggested a magic wand as a good club project. What they didn’t mention is that since Sir Isaac Newton first put magic on a scientific repeatable basis, in schools like Oxford, Princeton, Yale and other great universities, magic clubs on Earth have been trying to duplicate Avalon’s magic wands without success.
On the way home from school after this success, they interrupt a monster who looks human, trying to kidnap a high school boy who goes to Jonnie’s church… and the girls and two high school boys disappear from the face of the Earth. They’ve been rescued by a legend out of King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, who to save them has brought them to the dark forest in Avalon where she lives.
How are they going to get home? How are the people back in Virginia going to react to the monster, and to the disappearance?
And Wandmaking 201 picks right up where 101 ends.
Tom, I hope you enjoy the book!
I love your creative twist on the word concept! Knowing what you want to focus on in 2021 is wonderful. Best of luck to you and David-in-Houston!
My word is “patient.” I cannot write as quickly as I used to, and it has left me very impatient. But I know that every word counts and if I work when I can, they will add up eventually. ♥️
Patient is a great word, friend . . . but a hard one too! All those drops in the bucket will add up, though.
I’m going to focus on enjoying the Journey. Journey before destination (Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive)
I picked “Faithfulness”. In all parts of my life, including writing, I need to prioritize faithfulness over accomplishments.
My word is clarity.
I don’t know why or how this popped into my head just seconds ago, but I just feel like my thoughts are in a mumbojumbo mess right now and I can’t write when I don’t have clarity of thought. I want clarity when it comes to WHAT I WRITE, HOW I WRITE and WHEN. Hopefully after getting more clarity, I will be able to enjoy writing rather than feeling overwhelmed, lost, pressured or disatisfied.
any ideas on how I might go about pursuing clarity?
I love the word choice, Anna! I’m no expert on writing or clarity, and I don’t know you personally, but here are my initial, general thoughts.
❄️ Sometimes you have to be okay not having clarity. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing to pursue (at least in the way you are intending it), but life isn’t always neat and tidy. So don’t beat yourself up when you fall short of your goal. A lot of this one is out of you hands. Pursue clarity, but don’t idolize clarity.
❄️ Spend time with people who help you to see clearly. Some people are a whole lot of fun to brainstorm with, but won’t leave you a path forward, while others might have a less exciting mode of creativity, but give you a clear idea of what needs to happen.
❄️ Organize your thoughts. I’m sort of addicted to notebooks, Google docs, Google sheets, drawers, pencils, etc. Keep track of your ideas in a way that makes sense to you, so that you aren’t overwhelmed as easily.
❄️ Take a break. Maybe go outside for a while and allow that “doing nothing” time to clear your head. Personally, I need fresh air and no screens to think straight when my mind is cluttered. It might be different for you, but don’t hesitate to “do nothing.” As Winnie the Pooh says, “Doing nothing leads to the very best somethings.” 😉
❄️ GTW talks all the time about creating structure in your writing schedule (something I’m still working on,) which could help writing to be clearer for you. Choose a consistent time to write each day, without distractions.
There are my off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts! I hope it’s somewhat helpful. Happy writing!
I think that I’m going to go with whole, because I haven’t really figured out the entire process of creating a story, just the first draft. Whole speaks to me because I need to figure out the editing process and how it works for me.
Thank you for this post! It was something I needed and it is very inspiring. It makes us think deeply about our writing projects to come. Thank you!