52 Things: Ideas for Writers Who Want to Tend to Their Writing Lives in 2024

2024 marks my sixth year in a row of New Year’s episodes on my weekly podcast, Write-minded, which means I’ve now had six years of recording my resolutions and sharing them publicly. This year, my cohost Grant Faulkner and I went back one year to see how we fared—and it was a decidedly mixed experience. (The Un-resolution Show airs January 1, 2024, and we’ll share what we did and did not accomplish—emphasis on the did not . . . ) But the silver lining was Grant reminding me of the power of bite-sized goals, and of the ever-popular 52 Things List. I created a version of this list in 2015, and when I went back to look at it I was pleased to see not only that the list still holds up, but also that a lot of these things are things I’ve done, or still want to do. So here’s my 2015 repurposed and reimagined for 2024. I’d love to hear your ideas/things/goals, or if you’ve done specific things on this list, share the specifics in the comments. Here goes:

1. Start or join a writing group.
2. Go see (in the theater or via rental) three movies based on books you love.
3. Start your Substack or commit to one meaningful way you’ll grow your existing one in 2024.
4. Get your name in print, meaning you must submit! Find opportunities at CRWROPPS, Creative Writers Opportunities; or other culled lists like The Write Life’s Short Story List and Personal Essay List.  
5. Read a banned book during Banned Book Week, September 22–28, 2024. For a list of banned books, visit The American Library Association.
6. Join an accountability group. Mine’s ongoing and will renew at the end of February.
7. Apply for a stage talk, like a TEDx or The Moth or Listen to Your Mother to bring you visibility that will support past or future books.
8. Buy a book for a child or teenager in your life for no reason at all.
9. Join an online community (like NAMW.org or NaNoWriMo, or a private Facebook group dedicated to writing, such as Women Writers, Women’s Books, National Association of Memoir Writers, or the Indie Author Group, among many others.
10. Commit to writing a certain number of words per week, or per month.
11. Become a regular content contributor to a website you follow or admire.
12. Attend a local author reading, or two or five or ten.
13. Support your local bookstore by shopping on Independent Bookstore Day, a national celebration of local booksellers, taking place on April 27, 2024.
14. Write a book review for social media (TikTok, Instagram, Substack, Facebook—whatever you’re on) and cross post to Goodreads. If you love doing it, do more.
15. Do one thing that truly champions another writer.
16. Read a book that falls way outside your general area of interest.
17. Post a comment on social media in support of a writer or author you admire.
18. Go to a writers’ conference. (Again, The Write Life has compiled 60 events to check out for 2024.)
19. Participate in online pitch conferences (like the Women’s National Book Association’s Pitch-o-Rama on March 30, 2024, and/or Google “pitch fest” or “pitch-o-rama” to find other opportunities).
20. Participate in NaNoWriMo in November 2024.
21. Join an association, like the Independent Book Publishers Association.
22. Apply for a writing residency, like Hedgebrook or Ragdale.
23. Get an op-ed placed, or learn how to do it by taking an Op-Ed Project class.
24. Try My 500 Words, a 31-day challenge you can start any time, and for free!
25. Create an audio book of a recently or previously published book.
26. Map a book you love. It will teach you a lot to outline a book you’ve read more than once to see how another author thinks about structure, scenes, and narrative arc.
27. Read your work out loud, either at an open mic night or at a literary event like San Francisco’s LitQuake.
28. Take an online class. I’ll plug my own Five Things I've Learned About How Creative Women Thrive, happening Sunday, February 4 (please join me!), and there are countless classes on anything you can dream of where it comes to your writing. You just have to take the plunge and sign up!
29. Find authors you love on Substack or other social media and follow them. Restack or repost their stuff and see what happens.
30. Follow literary agents on Substack and other social media if you’re interested in developing agent relationships.
31. Gift yourself a weekend away to brainstorm or write, or to just be with your own thoughts.
32. Do a literary pilgrimage to see a site where a favorite author lived or wrote about, or, if you’re a memoirist, take a pilgrimage into your own past—to your childhood home, or to the setting of your memoir.
33. Visit a printing plant. You can book a tour with printing companies if you want a serious education in your own craft, and to see how books get made.
34. Write and publish an e-book. These can be as short as 25 or 30 pages (single stories or essays) and they can get your work on the map.
35. Enter your work into a contest. You have nothing to lose! Poets & Writers is a great resource to figure out what contests are coming up in 2024.
36. Tell your friends and family about your literary ambitions. It’s okay to dream big!
37. Set up a separate bank account for your writing pursuits. Pay yourself a small sum a month for your writing, or when you get paid to publish. Start to think of your writing as a business in 2024.
38. Attend an in-person writing class. You can find these at writing hot spots like Left Margin Lit in Berkeley, OCWW in Chicago, Hugo House in Seattle, and Grub Street in Boston. Google places in your area.
39. Map out a timeline for your book, or for your next book. Consider when would be a reasonable publication date for your book and write it down. Post it somewhere where you can see it to hold that date as a goal.
40. Create a book cover for your book-in-progress. Nothing brings a book to life like making it “real,” even if it’s just a collage or a vision that serves as the basis of what you want the book to look like some day.

41. Commit to a certain number of Substack posts per month—one, two, four—and stick to it for the whole year.
42. If you don’t already have a website, start one. An easy and relatively inexpensive option is Pub-site—they do great templated sites for new writers. If you have a website you know needs a facelift, commit to giving it one.
43. Write a fan letter to your favorite author. I field fan mail for an author I work with and these letters are amazing displays of gratitude and appreciation. It’s also good karma.
44. Create a vision board for your book. This is different than a book cover concept. It’s a collage of images and/or words that inspire you, and will keep you motivated and disciplined with your writing goals.
45. Memorize a poem.
46. Get involved with local library event during National Library Week, April 7–13, 2024, a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the country.
47. Create a family reading night once a week where you either read aloud or read together but separately with your whole family.
48. Set up a book donation site at your workplace during the holidays.
49. Make a list of your top 10 favorite books in your own genre and reread two of them.
50. Get a logo made, whether for your Substack or your website.
51. Write an affirmation statement that expresses your strengths as a writer. Remind yourself why you write and allow yourself an opportunity to truly give yourself a compliment.
52. Do something that shows your commitment to writing—plant something or buy yourself a house or office plant; get a piece of “writing” jewelry; or create or purchase something that’s meaningful to you that you see every day as a reminder to yourself about the meaning writing holds in your life.

Please add your own ideas and insights to this list! The more the better. What have you done in the past? What are you planning to do in 2024?

HAPPY NEW YEAR, writers and authors and friends. I’m so grateful to be in this Substack space with all of you.