New Year’s resolutions tend to fall into one of two categories when I try to put a list of “all the things” I promise to accomplish in the coming year.  The first are those things that tend to be impossible, or unattainable–like brunch on Ibiza with Charlize Theron. Hey,  A guy’s gotta reach, right? The second group of resolutions is where you find all the things you should have been doing all along. The list of shame.

My list of shame is filled with things like, go to the gym that you’ve been paying monthly membership dues for the last decade and eat healthier (as I push away the industrial size bag of Red Vines). Yeah, that ain’t happening. Just like it didn’t happen last year. #NoWillPower

I wanted to try something this year that might actually have a slim chance of happening. I shared a list of Writer’s Resolutions for the New Year with the International Thriller Writers —Thriller Roundtable. Check out the page and see what some my fellow writers have planned.

For me…

I usually don’t come up with a list of resolutions for the New Year. It ends up looking like a list of things given up for Lent—and if I’m lucky, it lasts about as long. But this year, with your help, I will strive to do better. Here are my author’s resolutions for 2018. They started off like a 12-Step Program list—I’m addicted to writing and I’m powerless over my editor—so I changed it up a bit:

1).  I will give my agent what she wants when she wants it.
2).  I will acknowledge that my agent is all knowing and is always right.
3).  I will support my fellow authors wherever possible, attending their book signings, events, buying their books, and encourage others to do so.
4).  I will not tolerate the harassment of any author, for any reason.
5).  I will make it a priority to tell an author that I liked their work, in person, on social media, or in a review. It matters.
6).  I will read from other genres, including, YA, sci-fi, historical fiction and—yes romance—a good story is a good story. It won’t make me less of a man.
7).  I will write outside my comfort zone.
8).  I will celebrate the small things—a finished chapter, the introduction of a new character or the demise of an old one.
9).  I will fight my natural tendency toward procrastination.
10). I will work on the non-fiction project that’s been begging to be written.
11). I will stress eat less during editing—when you realize how shitty that first draft was.
12). I will cut the bejesus out of the 98k manuscript and feel good about it.
I will…

How about you? Have any resolutions?  I’m still holding out hope for that meet up with Charlize…