Goal Setting for Writers

 

It's a brand new year. Yesterday, I put a calendar on the wall in my office,and another on my desk. That's the one where I keep all our appointments and social events marked. I've never had to purchase a calendar as they pop up in the mail long before year's end. The hard thing is to choose which ones to use. 

Last Friday, my post centered on reflections of the past year. Today, we need to consider goal making for 2023. I would far rather come up with goals instead of resolutions. Everyone talks about the resolutions they made and promptly broke. But what about goals we set for our writing life?

Will we break those just as easily as the resolutions? I hope we will take them more seriously. 

Goals give us a sense of direction. They are also motivators and give a sense of control to us. 

I ran across a simple explanation of a goal that I liked. 'A goal is a dream with a deadline.' If you make your list for 2023, you are hoping to achieve your choices by the end of the year. Thats twelve months, or fifty-two weeks, or three-hundred-sixty-five days that you have to work on them.

Some things to remember when making goals: 

A. The fewer the better. Far too many people create a super long list of goals, then wonder why they all seemed to fade away. Maybe, there were too many to keep track of in our minds. 

B. Make realistic goals. If I make a goal of getting a novel published in one of the top publishing houses in America, I'm fooling myself. I'm not at that level. At least, not yet. 

C. Make them general rather than too detailed. 

D. Put the list somewhere you see it on a frequent basis. Out of sight, out of mind!

E. Give thought to what part(s) of your writing life you want to improve. Then set one of your goals in that direction. 

Goal setting comes with an assessment of your writing life. Look back to see where you were, where you are now, and where you hope to be by the end of this year. 

Make your list as soon in this month of January as you can. Put it off a day, or a week, and you know what will happen. Do it now!

If you made a list of goals last year, take a look at them. How many did you achieve, or even partly achieve? How many came to no fruition whatsoever. If you had a goal that you didn't accomplish, there is nothing wrong in repeating it on this year's list. 

What Happened To Those January Writing Goals?

I took a couple days off last week for the Thanksgiving holiday. I said I'd post again on Monday. However, I forgot that we are off on a four-day trip early Monday morning, so I'm posting Sunday evening and will do so again on Friday. After that, things should be back to normal.

By now, you're very much aware that it is December, the 12th month of the year. Do you remember last January when we talked about setting your writing goals for the year? I suggested that you keep your list fairly short. Setting too many goals or ones that are unrealistic can be overwhelming when you look back through the year to see what you have achieved.

I also suggested that you keep your list somewhere visible to you on a daily basis. Even if you did that, I doubt any of us would be reading that list every day. So, it's quite easy to lose track. 

When we achieve only a bare minimum, or even none, of those goals we set, it can be rather depressing. We all mean to do what we can to make each goal a reality. Then, life gets in the way. Writing is probably not the only thing in your life. You may have family responsibilities, some of us more than others. You might belong to one or two or more organizations that take up a lot of your time. The house needs cleaning, trips come up that are too good to pass up. Should you shirk your duties in these other parts of your life to give your all to achieving those goals? I think not. Finding a balance is key.

If you have your list, or even if you have it mentally, go over it. Check the goals that you did meet. Pat yourself on the back for a few seconds. Then look at the ones that are glaring at you, the ones you never got around to doing. If five are too many, pick two for 2020. Select the ones that are most important to you. Is it finishing a writing project? Or submitting your work every month of the year? Or stepping out of your comfort zone and trying to write in a new genre? 

If you're the rare person who lists goals and then meets them all by the end of the year, I salute you and hope you'll give us all a hint in the Comments below as to how you have accomplished that. 

There is no shame in not meeting all the goals you set eleven months ago. The important thing is to keep working to make each goal a done deal. Give thought to that great adage--Don't look back. That's not where you're going.

You have almost a full month left in 2019. It's a busy one with Christmas and Hanukkah looming, but maybe you can work on one of those goals that you haven't gotten to yet this year. Pick an easy one. 

What doesn't get checked off in 2019 can be the start of your goals for 2020. I have one goal that I have not worked hard enough on for the past too many years. I am determined to work toward it this next year. How about you?

A Writer's Self-Check List

Today's poster is though provoking. Three lines that should make us sit back and ponder for a good while. 

Consider the many happenings in your life. Some were good, others heart-rending. Even so, both kinds allowed you to change and grow as a person. 

What about your writing life? It's the end of the year when we often take stock of all the good and bad things that occurred in our writing life. Many of them allowed for change and growth. Ask yourself these questions.

• How many times did you submit your work in 2017? 
• How many of those submissions were published? 
• How much money did you make from writing this year? 
• How many of the goals you set last January did you meet? 
• What major writing project did you complete? 
• How many times did you abandon a writing project? 
• How many books about writing did you read?
• How many conferences did you attend?
• How many notes of encouragement did you receive from an editor?
• How many critiques of your word did you get from others?
• How many critiques did you give to fellow writers?
• How often did you do a writing exercise?
• How many books did you read in 2017?
• How often did you feel discouraged about your writing?
• How often did you feel inspired ti write like there was no tomorrow?
• How carefully did you edit your work? 
• Did you ever want to stop writing for good?
• Who did you go to for help when you were discouraged?
• How much research for a writing project did you do?
• Did you keep good records of submissions?
• Was 2017 a better writing year than 2016? Why or why not?
• Do you still enjoy writing?

This is a long list but it will allow you to take a good look at your writing life. Perhaps you'll see the places you excelled and also areas that need improvement. The list can also be a help in setting your goals for 2018. 

Goals For Writers

I've put off talking about setting your writing goals for 2017 but today's the day to address that important topic. I looked for, and found, an unbelievable number of quotes about setting goals. That should be an indication of the importance of goal setting. I selected a few to illustrate a few things I believe about goals.

If we make a list of goals we want to achieve, we're more likely to produce than if we thumb our nose at making that list. One might think that if I have no goals this year, I will have no failures. Not a very good attitude, even if it appears a safe bet. Believing you can achieve your goals is motivation in itself.

Keep in mind that the goals we set for ourselves are often not  reached for quite some time. Anyone who has been a writer for more than a year knows that we achieve step by step, not by leaps and bounds. As the poster says, ...STRIVING can be more important than ARRIVING.

I believe in writing down our goals but I hadn't ever given much thought to the second part of this quote. It makes sense, though, that if you tell a friend, you're more likely to work harder at achieving your goal(s). Someone else is aware of what you hope to do this year and you don't want to disappoint them, do you? Consider sharing your goals with another writer. Ask that he/she do the same with you. It might be a personal writer friend or your writing group. If the statistic above is anywhere close to correct, it would behoove us all to do this.

If we have no goals, we might have a problem knowing where to begin. We might flounder. We might become confused as to where in the world to start.  If we have a list of goals, we know where to take that first step, especially if we put them in order of importance to us.

When setting and working on your goals, keep these things in mind:

• Put them in writing; don't just have a few thoughts in your head.
• Keep that list somewhere visible to you every day.
• Make them realistic; ones that you can achieve.
• Don't make your list too long; it can be overwhelming.
• Set smaller goals rather than huge ones.
• Put a check mark (and maybe a smiley face) next to the ones you achieve.
• Don't beat yourself up over ones you don't achieve this year; no one ever said you will get every single one accomplished.
• Try telling someone else what they are; see if this helps you.

Some of you may have other suggestions to add. Please use the Comments section to share with the rest of us.