December 8, 2010

In less than a month, it will be 2011. Now is the time to set some goals for the new year.

The main question you need to answer is this: how will you get from where you are to where you want to be?

Get It In Writing

In “writing life” workshops, I’ve used an exercise to help you get to where you want to be. I recommend buying a spiral notebook for these exercises. You want a place to keep your notes and ideas about your goals.

Allow yourself two or three hours to work on these three exercises. Do them alone, or with your writing group. I work on something similar every December as I think ahead to the coming year.

1) Honestly assess where you are in your writing and illustrating career. Consider and answer these questions in writing.

• How many hours per week do you actually practice your craft? (Use a timer.)
• How many books/stories/articles do you read in an average month (of the type you want to write)?
• How many queries per month do you send out, if you’re a nonfiction writer?
• Do you have a daily writing practice of some kind, such as journaling or writing exercises from a list of prompts?

2) Visualize (and write down in great detail) your ideal writing life. Describe a perfect writing routine, the physical writing environment of your dreams, your image of wonderful family support, etc. We all have an ideal image in our minds of the perfect writing life. Write it down. (Mine involves such things as porch swings, hot chocolate, journaling, and reading Jane Austen on breaks.)

3) List three things you would attempt to write if you knew you could not fail. Image yourself in your ideal writing life. There are no risks here, no rejections, no bad reviews or bad writing days. If you knew everything you’d write would sell, what kind of writing would bring you satisfaction and fulfillment? Dream bigger than you’ve ever allowed yourself to dream before.

An old adage says “plan your work, and work your plan.” That’s especially appropriate for goal-setting.

• Find more ideas on goal setting for writers here:
  “Setting Effective Writing Goals”
  “An Approach to Goal Setting for Freelance Writers”
  “Setting Goals for Your Writing Business”

12 Comments »

1. 

   I think that #3 is sooooo important … it allows us to reach for our dreams. There is a wonderful quote I have from Les Brown: Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

   Comment by Vijaya — December 8, 2010 @ 3:15 pm

2. 

   Vijaya, I LOVE that quote! That’s a keeper to tape to my computer.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 8, 2010 @ 4:15 pm

3. 

   Thank you for the thought-producing questions!

   I’m getting ready for the new year by seeing what I did with the old one–taking inventory of how I spent my money, time, energy, etc so I can see what I want to add/cut back on this coming year. It’s lovely to have a bird’s eye view of the year rather then month by month.

   Comment by Jessica — December 8, 2010 @ 6:33 pm

4. 

   Jessica, that’s a very smart thing to do before you make goals for the coming year. The thing I hear most often from people–and say myself–is, “Where did the year GO?” If we don’t get a handle on that, next year will fly by just as fast without us spending proper time on our goals.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 8, 2010 @ 7:17 pm

5. 

   Great post, Kristi! Thank you so much for putting it together. I’ll be going through each question with my notebook and pen in hand to record everything, and be ready to go for the upcoming year.

   Andrea

   Comment by Andrea — December 9, 2010 @ 1:20 am

6. 

   Andrea, I’m glad the questions worked for you. I used to wait till January 1 to do this, but then I ended up rushing through the process and setting goals that weren’t very clear or where I hadn’t really “counted the cost.” Starting now is a good idea.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 9, 2010 @ 10:18 am

7. 

   Fantastic advice. Thanks, Kristi!

   #2 for sure. May seem like a dream, especially to those of us with small kiddos, but if we don’t know what we want we won’t subconsciously push ourselves towards it.

   #3 WOW, that’s new! Great way to think of it. I will be giving that a lot of thought today.

   Comment by Heather Kephart — December 10, 2010 @ 7:53 am

8. 

   Heather, you’re right about writing with small children being more difficult. That’s how I started too, and I remember the “fun” of typing with someone on my lap or crawling under the chair or tugging on my shirt tail.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 10, 2010 @ 10:12 am

9. 

   Kristi, this is an awesome post with great practical tips that move us forward both mentally and professionally! I will definitely adopt this into my annual year end routine! Thanks again for all you’ve done to help me grow this year! I appreciate your tips very much!
   ~Kerstin

   Comment by Kerstin T — December 11, 2010 @ 12:23 pm

10. 

    Kerstin, thanks so much for leaving your comment. I’m glad you find the blog helpful. Most of the time, I’m preaching to the choir, as I need most of these messages drummed into ME too!

    Comment by Kristi Holl — December 11, 2010 @ 6:55 pm

11. 

    Good timing, Kristi.

    Up until now, I’ve replied to your posts as “C.J. Rockwell” but I’ve decided to use my real name from now on. The main reason is because I’ve started my own blog, and I want to build a following with my own name. Your blog in many ways inspired me to try again after failing at it the first time, and so far it’s going well.

    I needed to start thinking about my goals for next year. I didn’t accomplish some of my goals for 2010, but many I did. Especially the two most important ones-

    1. Bring fun back into writing again.
    2. Finding the balance between trusting my judgment, and listening to the RIGHT advice.

    The third question is my favorite one to answer, because as others have said, it tells you what your real dreams are.

    I’ve already gotten a head start on one of my goals for next year, starting my own blog!

    I’d been working on the idea for the last year, and originally I was going to wait until January, but I decided to jump the gun, before I talked myself out of it. It’s only a few days old, but it’s helped me in ways I never could’ve foreseen.

    It’ll take some time before I balance my non-blog writing with semi-regular updates, but the tip you gave about writing your blog entires ahead of time really helped me. That way if I don’t have an idea for an entry one day, I’ve got something already written that fits my blog’s theme to keep me updating regularly.

    I wasn’t able to update today, too much going on at home, and starting my blog this soon threw my non-blog writing out of whack. It’ll take some time to sort it out.

    Have a good holiday, I know I will, and for the first time in years!

    Taurean

    Comment by Taurean Watkins — December 12, 2010 @ 9:19 pm

12. 

    Hello, C.J./Taurean! How nice to meet you–again! I’m glad you’re inspired to use your real name and also to start your blog again. Sometimes the timing is just off for some things–but then it will work great later. How interesting that the two things you accomplished this year are the exact same things that I accomplished and worked hard at. We’re really on the same page there.

    Yes, it takes a while to sort the blog writing time from the non-blog writing time. I nearly always have to do the “real” writing first or it suffers. Not always possible, but it works best for me when I can.

    Comment by Kristi Holl — December 13, 2010 @ 6:02 am

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