I’m going to spend the entirety of January writing “2017” on things before remember it’s 2018, so it seems like a great time to look at my 2017 reading/writing resolutions and my progress (or lack thereof).

1. Finish more book series I’ve started: I have this on the list every year and made some minor progress toward finishing some book series that I’d started. I completed the entirety of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series, and the Tiffany Aching section of Discworld (a series that I’m already continuing into 2018).
2. Read more diversely: I made a particular effort in 2017 to read authors of color and LGBTIQIA+ authors, which included some fantastic books.
3. Listen to more audiobooks: I nailed this resolution! I ended up doing most of my reading via audiobook and am a major audiobook evangelical now.
4. Explore more picture books: I didn’t do much on this end. Most of my reading comes from the library, and I feel a little weird scanning through the picture books without a particular purpose.
5. Read more poetry: Yeah, didn’t do much on this end, either. I think I’ll be better off if I try to check out literary magazines for their poetry than devote myself to collections.
6. Turn off the internet more: This ended up being more like ‘go to coffeeshops where you don’t know the wifi info’ than ‘turn off the internet more.’
7. Write when I think I don’t have enough time: I did manage to sneak in some shorter writing time, and I think this is going to be especially helpful in 2018, when I have more non-writing job hours.
8. Revise projects that aren’t finished: I revised a couple of projects and set another side for the time being. (I still like it, but it’s missing some major components and I just don’t know how to fix that yet.) I’m doing some additional revising on one of the projects now.
9. Stretch my writing muscles: I didn’t end up being as stretchy as anticipated. For now I’m still solidly in the contemporary YA vein, which I like.
10. Have fun: This one was probably the hardest goal, and one I’m still trying to manage. I’ve really questioned whether or not I can enjoy writing outside of publishing, and how I see myself as a writer without requiring other people externally validate that identity. But the writing itself–once I’m in it, it’s where I like to be. So it’s something I’ll need to keep addressing in 2018.

Did you make writerly/readerly resolutions in 2017? How did you do with them? Share in the comments, and be on the lookout for a future post about 2018 resolutions!