[image description: an open book sitting on a desk by a window with light streaming through it.]

Well, suffice it to say 2020 did not go at all how I (or any of us) expected.

In 2020, I approached my reading resolutions differently and tied them to my writing goals. So instead of saying I wanted to read X number of books per year, I chose a specific list of books that I needed to read as research to help me finish my books-in-progress.

What I didn’t know was that my MIL was going to have two major surgeries and be in the hospital for over a month, that coronavirus was going to hit, that my job was going to explode into unending stress and that I was going to get laid off. (Though the latter was frustrating at the time, it ended up being the best thing that’s ever happened to me.)

Which brings me to this year’s reading and writing resolutions. There were several books I planned to read last year for research for my books that I just didn’t have the bandwidth to get to, but now I do because I have a lot more time to write and research now. So that part of last year’s resolutions will be carried over to 2021.

On top of that, I’m further entwining my reading and writing resolutions by giving myself a new goal: for every book I read, I have to write 1500 words. Even with the pandemic, I still read over 150 books in 2020. If I’d written 1500 words for each of the 150 books I read, I’d have 225,000 words written, which would probably cover the first drafts for all of my books-in-progress.

Plus, even when I still had a traditional job, there were times when I was able to take a full day to just write and it wasn’t uncommon for me to crank out 5000 words in a day. Obviously, there’s editing, querying, pitching, and more to be done to bring the book to life, but the hard part is bringing the story full circle and getting words on the page. So this year’s reading + writing resolutions combo is designed to encourage me to do that.

And somehow, as if a novel, memoir, and collection of humor essays weren’t enough drafts to keep me busy, I started writing another book: a history of Rust Belt skatepark culture. I swear I’m going to finish all these and at the rate I’m going they’ll all be published within a few months of each other. But with a new book-in-progress, especially one that requires research, my list of books I need to read will increase.

As for the specific books I need to read:

For the skatepark history book:

• The Answer is Never: A Skateboarder’s History of the World by Jocko Weyland

• Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity by Emily Chivers Yochim

For my memoir:

• An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba by Nahla Abdo and Nur Masalha

• The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine by Ben Ehrenreich

• Hollow Land by Eyal Wiezman

• Stone Men by Andrew Ross

• Habibi by Craig Thompson

• Granddaughters of the Holocaust: Never Forgetting What They Didn’t Experience by Nirit Gradwohl Pisano

To improve my craft:

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• Story Genius by Lisa Cron

For businessy/entrepreneur/freelance life stuff:

• See You On the Internet by Avery Swartz

• The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed by Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan

For the sake of not making my life more difficult, I’m going to assume I’m okay not doing further research for the humor essays and novel. Of course, I’ll google as necessary, but I’m not giving myself specific books to read for those projects since they’re not research-driven, unlike the skatepark history book and the memoir.

Will I fail at these new year’s resolutions like I have in the past? Maybe. But I’m more driven than ever, more dedicated than ever, and I officially have more time to focus than ever. I get closer to bringing a book to life with each passing year, so even if I fail, I know I’ll at least have made strides and that it will happen one of these days. My job is just to do my damnedest to make it happen this year.

Part of me loves setting goals because I work better under gentle pressure and with a deadline, but there’s another part of me that doesn’t like things to be too rigid. So I’m trying to approach my resolutions like a palm tree––sturdy enough to withstand the wind, but not so stiff that I’m going to get knocked over when an especially strong storm rolls through.

Are you setting reading or writing resolutions? Let me know in the comments so I can cheer you on!