Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.
Do you set monthly/yearly goals for your writing? What are your goals for the coming year?
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My goal-setting for a writing life have shifted over the years.
I used to set a goal to write every day, but now my daily writing habit is so ingrained that's not even necessary. (I've written at least 250 words every day for the past 9 years). I use Jamie Raintree's Writing and Revision spreadsheet to track my work, and I set monthly goals there of how much progress I expect to make on which projects.
Now, it's not a matter of just writing every day, but making sure I focus my writing time on the right thing--not letting myself play around with a new short story when I have a deadline looming for my next novel, for example.
Having developed some discipline, I find I still need to develop a higher level of discipline.
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The pandemic years really screwed with me in this regard though. Between the stress of managing day to day life over all the shifts and changes over the past two years and the realization that writing a series ender is a different animal than any other kind of book I've written so far, I feel like I'm stuttered my way through my writing life since 2020.
I was grateful to be able to write *anything* at all, and now I worry that in "giving myself grace," I've been too soft of myself and given myself an uphill climb over territory I'd already covered. It's always a tricky balance to strike.
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Then, in 2022, I changed careers in the day job, which also messed with my writing life, breaking all my established patterns of where and how I write, and forcing me to figure out new ways to do this. That's made goal-setting a little mushy.
So my goal for 2023 is pretty simple: progress. And I reserve the right to define that how I need to.
I have a few specifics in mind:
1. Finish the now long-overdue Menopausal Superheroes #5 and get it to my publisher (it's WAY overdue)
2. Try at least three new approaches to selling my books.
3. Join SFWA and HWA professional organizations. (I'm pretty sure I qualify; I just haven't put in the time to gather the proof of that and submit my applications).
4. Actually publish the collection of short stories I originally planned to release in 2020--my first indie project.
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My 2023 keywords are discipline and balance. I don't want to push so hard I end up in burnout (it's happened to me before), but nor do I want to let my momentum slip away.
What does your 2023 hold for you? What are you hoping to accomplish? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
And don't forget to check out the rest of the blog hop!
I admire your enduring enthusiasm, and your waxing wisdom (for me, this year ended with a short finished book, so next year I'll be trying to find people to collaborate with, as a bigger book with multiple authors will probably be more publishable)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting that first one out there!
DeleteThat's a great goal. Good luck with it!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it's all about balance. I try to write every day, the last couple of years have not helped.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with 2023. I need to figure out what I want to achieve next year. Life butted in in the worst way this December (family death) and that made me forget all about making 2023 goals.
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