Let’s talk about goals today. I wrote about writing resolutions for New Year’s back in January, but maybe it’s a good time to revisit the topic–because after almost five months, it’s probably a good time to revisit goals too.
I’m in the middle of making some revisions to my writing goals–mostly because I’m not in the middle of revising my writing, and I should be. I think one of the hazards of writing is that it’s easy to get caught up in the new shiny project, and never finish that one that’s already had so much work put into it. Usually I have pretty good focus, but lately I must confess I’ve been flailing a bit.
I have two novel drafts that just need some revision. One only needs one last final round, the other a few more passes. But I’ve also started thinking about my next project, the historical fiction novel I want to do for NaNoWriMo 2013. I figured between now and then is a good time for some research–which is good. Except that lately, I’ve been shunting aside the other drafts in favor of research, which is bad!
My original writing goal for the year was to write every day. I’ve done pretty well on that and I still am…only I don’t feel like I’m actually moving forward, because I’m not working on what I really should. To avoid an endless string of half-finished projects and to move forward on larger things like, say, publishing, I really need to finish at least one novel draft before concentrating on the new one. So I’ve been coming up with revised goals.
I’m a big fan of small-picture goals, like writing every day. It’s immediately attainable, it’s measurable, it’s something you have to do now rather than putting off (as you could something that has a longer timeline). However, I find I need to pair my small-picture goal with some bigger-picture ones, and set some deadlines.
Right now I’m giving myself a week for no-pressure, no-guilt fiddling about with the historical fiction novel. But I set a date to begin revising my nearly-finished draft, and another date for finishing it! After that, I’ll set new goal dates for things like querying agents and revising that second in-progress draft.
So that’s where I find myself on writing goals, not quite halfway into the year. Did you set any goals at the beginning of the year (or some other time)? How has it been working out for you?
Stonehenge Writers 