I love to dream big and set goals for the new year. What I am not so good at is reviewing the old year. It seems overwhelming and boring to me. However, I learned from Julia Cameron, the author of The Artists Way, that boredom often is a sign of fear. That is why I decided to do a quick review anyway, and it turned into this end-of-year reflection question for writers blog post.

What ideas did you get in 2021?

It is not that doing a review is new to me. I prefer to do a quick review of the previous month before setting new goals. It helps me focus on what brings me joy and what depletes me.

New ideas and getting to work on new ideas bring me joy.

Focusing on joy makes it possible to prepare for an even better year.

So I want to harvest the energy of joy from the ideas I got in 2021.

My five ideas from 2021 still in play

1. I thought I was wrapping up my memoir, but one evening it came to me in a flash that intertwined with my story of loss and love, I will include how to write a tale of saving grace.
2. I came up with the framework for the Fill your notebook course and soon to come Fill your notebook membership.
3. New book idea – a suspense story set at the Svalbard Global seed vault. 
4. I am creating a 100-day mission for myself.
5. An oracle gamebook for writers 

Ideas I will pause for later: a non-fiction theology book, a fiction book about a forced reading circle and a rare book collection, and my Etsy shop Scriboludo.

The risk of new ideas is to use them as an excuse for procrastination. I avoid this by following up on original ideas and infusing old ideas and projects with new twists and turns. Doing so makes me stay in my power and zone of genius. I validate ideas by asking did I write? and did it bring me joy? If I did I consider it a success.

Looking back on 2021, what new ideas did you get? Did they make you write?

Action step | Download and print the PDF. Write five ideas from 2021.

Extra end-of-year reflection questions for writers

• Did I write
• what did I write
• When did I have the most fun writing
• When did I feel the joy of writing
• The notebook that means the most to me this year
• What did I learn
• Best book in fiction I read
• Who did I connect with through the shared joy of writing
• Did I reach someone special with my writing

Action step | Choose a picture on your phone that feels like a special moment as a writer. Favorite it and set it as your screensaver.

Here’s to ideas and a happy new year writing.