Journal
Teaching Goal Setting and Achieving 2010
On Sunday I will be teaching at my local RWA group, the Romance Writers of Atlanctic Canada, on setting goals for 2010, here are some of the exercises we will be completing during the workshop - I hope you can put them to use!
Exercise 1: Imagine the Life – What do you want from 2010? What is your big Overall Goal? See chart 2 for mine – Get a contract with a bigger publisher. Other examples – Get Published. Get an Agent. Go full time writing. Finish a book. All of us have a level in our writing career that we have achieved – now imagine your next level.
How can this be? How can I expect to do it THIS year? Well, this isn’t “The Secret” although thinking positively is important. This is about having a dream and then figuring out what could make that dream happen. It is about wishing, but more about WORK.
Exercise 2: Pick a Direction - What would have to happen to make your overall dream a reality? For me – I feel that although I want to continue writing in the erotic genre, it is a small genre and getting a larger contract might be difficult. I think that writing in a slightly different genre would open some doors for me, so my direction is to try some new genres, while maintaining my current publishing schedule.
Last year I wanted to become published so I knew I had to become more prolific. If your goal is to complete your book, perhaps your direction is to take a plotting course, or to simply establish a daily writing habit. Want an agent? You have to have something to sell. Your direction – finish a couple of books, polish them, send them out! Same goes for getting published or even going full time. Material evidence is a must. This is part of exercise 3.
Exercise 3: Material Requirement - What do you need to do to move forwarding the Direction you have chosen? For me it is finish 5 works and send them out.
For some it might be write 90,000 words, or it might be finish a second book and polish.
Finally, this is the measurable part of your goal setting. You have a dream, you have a direction, you have a material requirement. Now, what can you do in a month toward achieving that requirement? This is a realistic look at your time, your abilities and your habits. Maybe you will need to change them. Maybe not.
Exercise 4: Single Steps – What can you achieve in a week toward your goal – write 1000 words? 5000? Edit? Polish? Submit? Lay our 12 weeks of steps. 3 months of movement in the direction of your dream, with the material requirement in mind. Each week is a step closer.
Sit back and look at your steps. In three months you can walk a long way toward your goal.
Lilly
Exercise 1: Imagine the Life – What do you want from 2010? What is your big Overall Goal? See chart 2 for mine – Get a contract with a bigger publisher. Other examples – Get Published. Get an Agent. Go full time writing. Finish a book. All of us have a level in our writing career that we have achieved – now imagine your next level.
How can this be? How can I expect to do it THIS year? Well, this isn’t “The Secret” although thinking positively is important. This is about having a dream and then figuring out what could make that dream happen. It is about wishing, but more about WORK.
Exercise 2: Pick a Direction - What would have to happen to make your overall dream a reality? For me – I feel that although I want to continue writing in the erotic genre, it is a small genre and getting a larger contract might be difficult. I think that writing in a slightly different genre would open some doors for me, so my direction is to try some new genres, while maintaining my current publishing schedule.
Last year I wanted to become published so I knew I had to become more prolific. If your goal is to complete your book, perhaps your direction is to take a plotting course, or to simply establish a daily writing habit. Want an agent? You have to have something to sell. Your direction – finish a couple of books, polish them, send them out! Same goes for getting published or even going full time. Material evidence is a must. This is part of exercise 3.
Exercise 3: Material Requirement - What do you need to do to move forwarding the Direction you have chosen? For me it is finish 5 works and send them out.
For some it might be write 90,000 words, or it might be finish a second book and polish.
Finally, this is the measurable part of your goal setting. You have a dream, you have a direction, you have a material requirement. Now, what can you do in a month toward achieving that requirement? This is a realistic look at your time, your abilities and your habits. Maybe you will need to change them. Maybe not.
Exercise 4: Single Steps – What can you achieve in a week toward your goal – write 1000 words? 5000? Edit? Polish? Submit? Lay our 12 weeks of steps. 3 months of movement in the direction of your dream, with the material requirement in mind. Each week is a step closer.
Sit back and look at your steps. In three months you can walk a long way toward your goal.
Lilly
Posted on 07 Jan 2010 by Lilly Cain