Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What I've Learned Wednesday: Goals!


Writing is a long process, however, can be further drawn out without having goals. I finished my rough draft in five months. I wish I could say I quickly arrived where I am now, but I would totally be lying. After completeing the rough draft, I dilly-dallied around, perhaps editing a couple times a week, if that. I wasn’t particularly driven to get my manuscript where I wanted it to be. I made it through an edit and started another. Same thing, I didn’t dive head first into the revision. Seven months after finishing my rough draft, I realized it was time to get really serious. I made a goal to get through another revision within three weeks, and I made the goal! *party time*

If there is one thing I regret about the past year’s writing, it would be my lack of goals. I can only imagine how much farther in the writing process I would be if I had been driven by goals. But. I can’t dwell on regrets; I can only press forward with goals to finish my manuscript.

When I start future projects, I will for sure set up a time-line in which I will follow, so I won’t elongate the already lengthy process. These goals will be helpful for the day when deadlines are imposed upon me by editors/publishers.

How I set goals: A visual representation helps me to be goal-driven. I make a calendar that specifies how long I will edit within a given day. I schedule out a certain amount of days and expect myself to be done within the given amount of time. I also write my progress on the calendar, too. The calendar is placed in an area of my house where I’ll see it multiple times during the day as a reminder to make my goal. Also, have someone you report to in the process.

Be careful not to push too hard in your goal setting, you don’t want to get discouraged. Take into consideration your other life responsibilities. IE: work, family, kids, etc.

What are your methods to reach your writing goals? If you are published, what advice would you give to the unpublished writer to gear up for deadlines?


Don't we all have a goal to be a purse when we grow up? I would rather be a published author, though, but that's just me. :)  This pic was way to cute not to put it on the post.


5 comments:

  1. Good for you. I am a "Goal" kinda of person but lack the time to set some goals. Which is why my finished book sat on the backburner for two years. I do have several goals set for the next six months and hopefully I can carry them out. Of course they all involve getting my book out there and marketing it. In three months school will be done and I will gain extra time ten-fold. Good post it got me thinking!!! :o)

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  2. I try and always set goals, right now, my goal is to finish a rough draft of this current wip within the next month and be out on submission with it to agents by summer.

    If you're ever looking for a crit partner shoot me an email at angelhett at gmail dot com and we can swap a chapter and see how it works!

    Good luck girlie!

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  3. These two commentors are my tweetalicious friends. Thanks for the comments. Goals will get us published! Way to go girls!

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  4. Great post! Goals written down and/or focused on can have such a huge impact on what we spend our time doing.

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  5. I set goals sometimes... which reminds me. I have a goal set for tomorrow that I'm nowhere near. Oops.

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