Are your resolutions fiction or nonfiction? Forty percent to 50 percent of the people create resolutions to better their lives, yet 80 percent fail to follow through, turning their resolutions into “fiction.” About 10 percent manage to achieve their goals and their resolutions come true, like “nonfiction.”
Writers and storytellers often succeed with their goals for better writing in the nonfiction category.
New Year’s Resolutions date back 4,000 years to ancient Babylonian times. They celebrated their new year not in January but in mid-March when crops were planted. People honored reigning kings while being encouraged to use resolutions as a way to straighten out their lives.
In early Greek and then Roman days, individuals continued making resolutions. In 45 BC, Roman Emperor Julius Caesar fiddled with the months, changing them into the Gregorian calendar, same as today’s, with Jan. 1 as the New Year. Named after “Janus,” the two-faced god, it allowed Romans to improve their futures in the coming year.
Early Christians followed Roman resolutions on New Year’s Day as a time to correct past mistakes and work for better times. Protestants used church services on New Year’s Eve to develop resolutions, while Jews formed theirs during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Today’s resolutions are more secular than religious. Instead of contacting gods, we tend to work on our own goals, although statistics show little follow through.
Santa Barbara writers may succeed with resolutions because they write and rewrite many times. These edited works often become public, thanks to constant improvement. Their resolutions are welcomed suggestions.
Jerry Dunn’s latest project is scripting and performing a mind-reading show. A longtime writer for the National Geographic Society, he’s also the author of 11 books and 700 articles, many on travel.
“We live in a short-attention-span world. To grab your nonfiction readers: Write short. Be funny. Add ‘wow!’ facts. Offer fresh insights.”
Leslie Dinaberg has more than 20 years as a professional writer and editor of numerous magazines and news media plus is the author of children’s books.
“I just did an interview for a story about New Year’s resolutions for health and fitness, but I am going to adopt the advice I got for writing as well. The real key to doing anything well is consistency. Even writing (or exercising or eating healthy) a little bit every day is an improvement over doing nothing, so I resolve to work a little bit on my personal writing projects every day in 2020.”
Sameer Pandya, assistant professor in UCSB Department of Asian-American Studies, has his next novel, Members Only, coming out on May 12 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
“My new year’s resolution is to regain my attention span. Less time on my phone, far more time reading books in quiet rooms.”
Steve Gilbar, former lawyer, author, editor and founder of Speaking of Stories, published his latest book, The Poet and the Prince: Stories of Forgotten Santa Barbara Writers, in 2019.
“I am not a great one for making resolutions at my present age as my past is littered with failed ones. Nevertheless with the birth of my first grandchildren six months ago I have resolved to write a memoir for them (my life is too uninteresting to be publishable). It will be a sort of summing up. I am also resolved to getting the word out about my book The Poet and the Prince published a few months ago. Otherwise I will be doing more reading than writing.”
Angela Borda, also known as Silver Webb, editor of Santa Barbara Literary Journal, and writer of speculative fiction, contributed her resolution ideas.
“Writing is like any job. You can be passionately invested or you can be bored with repetition, operating on auto-pilot. 2020 is a year to give myself writing challenges that bring new stories, told in unusual ways. I may take up flash fiction or poetry instead of novel writing. And as the Editrix of the Santa Barbara Literary Journal, I encourage other writers to take similar risks. We’ll be accepting submissions for Volume 5 starting February 1; see guidelines at sblitjo.com.”
Anna Sands Lafferty, a graphic design professor at Santa Barbara City College, has spent years helping authors add graphic designs to books and getting them published. She also writes her own.
“Keep writing, but think about who your readers would be and speak to them, not just to yourself! Remember, writing that is published is for others to read.”
These authors write well and keep getting better, examples of “nonfiction” resolutionists. May all of us writers and readers do likewise.
— Noozhawk columnist Susan Miles Gulbransen — a Santa Barbara native, writer and book reviewer — teaches writing at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and through the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Division. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
