Between the time the last gift is unwrapped on Christmas Day and the moment the first champagne bottle is popped on New Year’s Eve, many of us take stock of “the year that was” and set our sights on the year ahead.
Winter’s advice is as unrealistic as it is honest. We’ve all been there in the past, and likely will be, again.
From there, however, sentiments turned more positive. Three writers owned up to making resolutions in the past that had jumpstarted their careers.
It should be noted, however, that Ms van Evra was also orchestrating a major home demo, er, reno project, which probably made freelancing pale in comparison.
Indeed, “making it” south of the border is an oft-stated goal.
Kimberley, BC, writer/adventurer/TV host Bruce Kirkby says, “It’s always a time of the year when I revisit where I’m at. My goals are modest and I try to nab a new publication that’s been on my radar and expand the type of stories I’m writing. Last year, I landed a story in the New York Times.” You can read that story, here.
And what about resolutions for 2018?
Looking forward, several writers indicated a strong desire to get their book projects published.
They can take encouragement from Whistler based science writer Leslie Anthony, whose book The Aliens Among Us was published earlier in 2017 by Yale University Press. “The only resolution of any kind that I have ever made was in regard to my last book. I’d been pitching the idea (about the pervasive effect of invasive species) for a year or so, and couldn’t get any traction. I knew it was a great topic and that it would work in a popular format. So on New Year’s 2014, I basically resolved to get it published, and my agent and I worked through four different versions of a proposal before we finally got two different publishers interested—and signed a contract just under the wire before year’s end,” he said.
What many of Canada’s published A-list writers desire for 2018, however, is simply to be a well-paid and respected writer in their own country—a sentiment expressed best by award-winning journalist Hadani Ditmars, author of Dancing in the No-Fly Zone: (A Woman’s Journey Through Iraq), columnist for London’s Al Jadeed al Araby newspaper and contributor to the New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Wallpaper.
“Our stories and our voices as Canadians are so distinct from our American and British colleagues, and I despair sometimes at our national failure to tell our own stories in our own publications. In 2018, I wish for more Canadian stories to be told and published by Canadians—but this is just a hope, not a resolution,” she said.
Her sentiments strike a chord with both Jones and Hawthorn, who have toiled in the trenches on a freelance basis at the Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, Chatelaine, and others.
It’s a pragmatic, if not pessimistic, note to end on, but freelance writing has never been for the faint of heart.
Best of luck with your New Year’s resolutions—for those courageous enough to make them—and Happy New Year.