Nobody likes New Year’s resolutions. Sure, we may be excited to make some new screenwriting goals—but typically, we tend to have trouble living up to our own expectations by year’s end.

So, let’s not talk about resolutions. Let’s talk about how screenwriters should approach the beginning of a new year.

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The Hollywood Reset

Hollywood shuts down, for the most part, at the end of November and through New Year’s Day. It’s not really worth it to pitch anything during the month of December for a few reasons:

• People are on vacation.
• Productions are struggling to wrap before the holidays.
• Fiscal budgets have been spent.

Once January comes, Hollywood resets. It’s a new year. The holidays are over. Everyone is returning back to work.

This is the time when screenwriters should be getting ready to reset themselves—and their writing—as well.

With that in mind, here are some pro screenwriter tips on what you can do to jumpstart the new year when it comes to your screenwriting.

Review the Previous Year’s Success, Setbacks, and Failures

If you’re writing scripts as more of a hobby, pastime, or experiment, keep writing. Have fun!

However, if you’re serious about having a go at a career in screenwriting, you need to approach things in a bit more organized and focused way.

What Success Did You Have?

There are varying degrees of success that you can gauge as you look back on the previous year. Did you...

• Get a script produced?
• Sell a script?
• Get hired to tackle a writing assignment?
• Pitch to any major studios?
• Receive any replies to your cold inquiries?
• Get many majors to read your script?
• Win any screenwriting contests, competitions, or fellowships?
• Did you place in any?
• Do you get any positive feedback?
• Finish any scripts?

It’s important to look back on your screenwriting accomplishments—big or small—so you can follow up on any potential leads you’ve garnered, reconnect with industry connections you’ve made, and, overall, learn from your successes as you try to take the next step up.

What Setbacks and Failures Did You Have?

You have to fail before you can prevail. That’s how you learn. But you can’t learn anything if you don’t look back and study the setbacks and failures you encountered to ask yourself questions like:

• Why didn’t I get any replies to my queries?
• What can I learn from feedback and notes?
• Why couldn’t I finish my script?

Embrace failure. Embrace rejection. Use them as tools to better your writing and your scripts.

Read More: The Screenwriter’s Ultimate Guide to Rejection

How to Set Your Screenwriting Goals for the Year

Let's break down four ways screenwriters can restart or upgrade their career goals for this year.

1. Set Specific Screenwriting Goals

What do you want to accomplish in this new year you’ve been blessed with? What are your goals?

• Do you want to finish a script?
• Do you want to finish multiple scripts?
• Do you want to get representation?
• Do you want to get general meetings with studios, production companies, agencies, and management companies?
• Do you want to level up in your screenwriting?
• Do you want to handle different genres?

You’re not going to have any direction without setting goals early on in the year. You need something to set your compass to.

Figure out what you want to do this year. Write the goals down somewhere. Be ready to accept and take accountability.

2. Challenge Yourself With Screenwriting Goals

Complacency is poison in a screenwriter’s journey. It’s very easy to stick with what you’re good at or comfortable with. People do it every day in all walks of life and they’re miserable for it.

To be engaged in your screenwriting journey, you need to continually challenge yourself. You do this to A) Keep yourself motivated, and B) Better yourself as a screenwriter.

• Take on a new genre.
• Try to find ways to blend two genres together to entice more interest.
• Give yourself stricter deadlines (see below).
• Try to shave 10 pages off of every script you’ve written.

When you challenge yourself, you also open yourself up to so many more possibilities in your screenwriting career.

3. Set Stricter Screenplay Deadlines

When we’re talking about screenplay deadlines, the best pro advice I can give is telling screenwriters to learn how to write under pro deadlines.

Most pro contracts out there give screenwriters just one month to finish a script. Sure, if and when you get into the guild and start working with the major studios, networks, and streamers, you may be given three months to finish a script—but trust me, most of the real contracts out there give you much less time.

Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be scared off. Embrace this reality and learn how to finish a script within a month.

Read More: The 10-Day Screenplay Solution: Learn How to Write Lightning Fast

4. Come Up with a Marketing Plan for the Year

You’re not going to have any screenwriting career without trying to get your scripts into the hands of the decision makers—or those who you can introduce to them.

You need to come up with a solid marketing plan:

• How many scripts are you going to have to pitch this year?
• How many Hollywood contacts do you have in your network?
• How can you create more industry contacts?
• What tools and hacks can you use to get more?

Read More: 3 Maps Screenwriters Can Use to Build Their Industry Network

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You don’t have to make a bunch of New Year’s resolutions to get plans in motion. You just need to take a step back and look at the big picture of things when it comes to your screenwriting journey and set realistic screenwriting goals that work for you, not against.

Best of luck and have an amazing year!

Read More: 5 Highly Effective Pro Screenwriting Tricks, Shortcuts, and Hacks

Check out our Preparation Notes so you start your story off on the right track!

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMoviesand Instagram @KenMovies76.