A Writer’s Resolve: Eight Inspirations for Your New Year

Traditionally, a new year brings us the opportunity for new beginnings. We make New Year’s resolutions about our health, our work, our relationships, or countless other aspects of our lives. And as writers, maybe we think a little harder than the average person about the word resolution, because hey, we like words.

The word resolution almost always comes with “New Year’s” attached, but what about its other forms? Being resolute? Or the act of making a resolution: resolving?

This year, let’s play with words. Let’s dive deep into their origins and let them inspire us. Because we’re writers. Without words, we wouldn’t have much to do.

Per Merriam-Webster, the transitive version of the verb resolve has eight definitions: seven currently in use, one obsolete. Let’s use all eight to power our writing in 2024. (There are also four definitions of the intransitive verb and three of the noun, but the line has to be drawn somewhere, right?) Resolve means:

1. To deal with successfully : clear up. Let us hope that all of our major writing projects fall under this definition this year. Many things are dealt with, but to deal with them “successfully,” that’s the trick. We should be so lucky!

2. To reach a firm decision about. Yep, just as tough, but just as important. Deciding to write a new book, deciding to leave an agent, deciding to self-publish–the ways in which writers have to make major decisions about our projects and careers are nearly countless. May your firm decisions this year be, if not easy, at least thoroughly considered and wisely made.

3. To declare or decide by a formal resolution and vote. OK, I admit that this one is a bit of a reach. But some of us hold leadership positions in official writers’ organizations, and I would say that contributing our time and effort to such organizations is a worthy effort. Being a great writer means more than just producing great writing. Let’s try to further the work of other writers this year, formally or otherwise.

4. Break up, separate; or reduce by analysis. Sometimes our big writing tasks seem too big to handle. May we recognize this year how to make those big tasks smaller and, therefore, achievable.

5. To make (something, such as one or more voice parts or the total musical harmony) progress from dissonance to consonance. If there’s a better accidental definition of a success in writing than “progress from dissonance to consonance,” I haven’t seen it. While some people produce messy first drafts, rewriting them to make them sparkle, and others work hard to make their first drafts shine before they consider them complete, we are all trying to make our work consonant (being in agreement or harmony.) May our work this year exhibit all the consonance we could hope for.

6. To work out the resolution of (something, such as a play). Or, say, a book. Writing a wonderful book almost always involves some struggle. Maybe you’re tangling with a complex thriller plot. Maybe your antagonist’s motivations are turning out to be tough to crack. Maybe your main character’s key relationships are taking more work than you thought you needed in order to fuel the compelling plot you want your book to have. Dive into that complexity. May you work out that resolution this year.

7. To cause resolution of (a pathological state). I mean, is being a writer a pathological state? Let’s let this one lie and head down the list for the big finish.

8. Dissolve, melt. This is the obsolete meaning, the one no longer used; and yet it might be easily understood by any of us familiar with one of Shakespeare’s most commonly quoted passages, the “to be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet. “Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt; thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.” Words change over time, and inspiration can be had from the old and the new and anywhere in between. In this new year, write without limits.

May 2024 bring you all you resolve and more.

Greer Macallister

Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her historical novels have been named Book of the Month, Indie Next, LibraryReads, Target Book Club, and Amazon Best Book of the Month picks and optioned for film and television. Her latest novel, The Thirteenth Husband, is inspired by Aimee Crocker, the Paris Hilton of the Gilded Age. Macallister also writes the ongoing Five Queendoms epic fantasy series as G.R. Macallister. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Boston, MA. www.greermacallister.com

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