Achieving Goals

Did you set any writing goals at the start of the year?  As we rapidly approach the end of another 12 months, how many of those goals did you achieve or are on the way to achieving?

Someone set some kind of goal here but I've yet to see this one achieved!  Pixabay image

If it is any comfort, I haven’t met all of mine either (though a number are underway).  I like to set some targets for the year because I’ve found having something positive to work towards incredibly helpful.  I am much more likely to achieve something having done that.   I suppose the goals seem more real when written down so it makes me get on with them.

Setting goals is a good idea.  You know what you're aiming for.   Pixabay image.

Do I “beat myself up” when it comes to NOT achieving all I would have liked to have done?  Absolutely not.  Life DOES get in the way at times and it can be a question of writing what you can when you can and hopefully getting to do more at a later date.  It is far more important to focus on what you CAN do but outlining some realistic thoughts on what this could be is a good idea. 

Let’s say you can only write a couple of hundred words a day, well look at turning those outpourings into flash fiction.  There is a wide range of markets and competitions out there taking 75 words, 100 words, 250 words and so on.  A story doesn’t have to be long to have impact or to be published.

Work out your possibilities.  Think short, medium and long term.  Pixabay image.

I understand the point of NaNo but have never taken part in it.  I know I couldn’t keep to the daily word count.  Some days I would exceed it, some days I would come in under it and I guess it would literally even out in the end.  I just know I would feel guilty if I didn’t “make it through” and I don’t want to put myself through that.

My preferred method, instead, is to have X number of stories written and submitted somewhere by the year end, so many posts written for Chandler’s Ford Today, some potential articles drafted for pitching at a later date, and to ask myself have I made progress on my latest flash fiction collection?

How will you do?  Can you turn the impossible into the possible?  Pixabay image

I then compare where I am this year with where I was the previous one and sometimes it is better, sometimes it is the same, sometimes it is less.  All of that is okay.  As long as you are happy with what you have achieved in the time available to you, this is all that matters.  Setting goals also means you are taking your writing seriously and for any success in publication to come, you must be the first person who does do that.  If you don’t take it seriously, why should anyone else?

The writing journey is a long one so setting goals along the route makes sense to me.  Pixabay image.

 One thing I have learned to do is to carve out what writing time I can and stick to it. Family and friends are supportive when they know what you are doing and why.  Just be consistent.  They’ll then take you seriously too!

Some goals will be easier to reach than others but give yourself time.  Pixabay image