It’s a new year and that means a perfect opportunity to set goals. As well as the lose the Christmas pounds and floss more goals, consider setting goals for your writing.
I’m not talking about big goals, like get an agent or publish a book. You’re always working toward those. But before you can achieve those goals, you have to write a great book — an interesting, marketable, ready-to-publish great book. And to do that, you have to write a first draft, then a second, then a third, and as many more as necessary. And to do that, you have to formulate a story idea and characters and settings… You get the picture.
With so many steps, getting an agent or publish a book might seem daunting, and almost unachievable. But creating a story? Doable. Making an outline? Doable. Writing a chapter? Doable.
Wherever you are in your process, pick short, doable goals and work your butt off to achieve them. When you’re done, choose more goals and achieve them. Before you know it, you’ll have attained the bigger goals you always wanted.
In January last year, I set goals for 2012 that I would finish my current work in progress and write the first draft of my next novel. Throughout the year, I set up smaller goals, daily word counts, etc., to help me achieve the bigger goals. Although I didn’t always make my smaller goals in the allotted time, I made up for them, and by the time December rolled around, I had made my bigger goals.
Now it’s January again. I’m going to try to challenge myself a bit and go for slightly bigger goals. Here are mine:
- Revise the first draft I wrote last year til it’s fully polished
- Write the first draft of a new story
- Re-write an older book that’s been sitting on my shelf.
First up: the second draft of my WIP. I want to have it done by the end of January, so I’ve set up a daily goal of 20 pages.
Have you set goals for your year?
Samantha Clark 