My First Post
March 20th, 2008 Posted in AndreaToday is officially Write Stuff’s 2nd Anniversary! Personally, I’m proud to have been apart of this blog for so long. I thank Karen for inviting me to contribute here. The one thing I’m always striving to work on is my nonfiction skills, discussing what I’m learning or find interesting. It’s good to venture out of your comfort zone and try new things. My way of celebrating this momentous occasion is to share with you all my very first post on Write Stuff (back when I was a guest writer). I’m looking forward to many more years on this blog.
What is one of the best motivation tactics?
Goal-setting (Like the title didn’t give that away). Setting goals builds your self-confidence and helps you grow as an individual. It doesn’t matter if you are a freelancer or a novelist. We all need a little direction, including me.
At the beginning of this month, I decided to start setting monthly goals for myself. They are all short-term since I’m a short story writer. I’m too much of an indecisive person to make any long-term ones. So far, I’ve achieved one of them. I’m in the goal-oriented club. You want to join?
You’ll be thrilled to know it’s not hard. No initiations or hazing are involved upon being a member. All you have to do is keep a few tips in mind when setting your goals.
Write them down: Mine are listed in their own section on my blog. Whether you have them listed on a blog/website or pinned on the wall, visualizing your goals helps you achieve them. Although, it’s best to place them where you frequent the most. Since I have a weekly posting schedule at my blog, I felt that was the best place for my goals to be listed.
Make them Short & Sweet: Make your goals short and attainable. However, don’t be afraid to challenge yourself every once and a while. It never hurts. Here are mine for this month:
- Finish Reading On Writing by Stephen King
- Complete at least two short stories
- Edit at least three short stories
- Enter at least one contest
- Submit at least two short stories
Seems like a lot, huh? I think I may have challenged myself this month but most of them are pretty attainable.
Set Them Up: I’ve always worked better when I have a deadline. Granted it’s harder for me make them if no one is pushing me, but I’m starting to learn how to push myself. Making deadlines keeps you on track. Don’t worry they can be flexible. Life likes to throw curve balls. You can’t schedule everything.
Staying on track and keeping your goals front and forward in your mind will help you increase your stack of writing credits.
3 Responses to “My First Post”
By Jodi on Mar 20, 2008
Thanks for this timely post on goals. I started setting weekly goals a few weeks ago, just to create a pace for my writing and to ensure that I wasn’t missing deadlines. I had lost my momentum for writing and setting goals has been a good way to get things moving again.
As I’m new to writing as a career, its been a good structure for me to work with. I make a few of the writing prompts goals for the week, and we’re working with the book 3am Epiphany as well .. but as you point out, its not just about writing … its about editing and submitting. So these are new goals that will begin to creep in as my body of work increases. I also need to start making goals to getting my NaNo novel finished and in the next couple of weeks, for planning out my plot and characters for Script Frenzy.
I also set myself a reading goal for the year - to finish reading one book a month, which is working well. It’s a good reinforcement for me that reading is just as important to writers, as writing is.
I was lent Stephen King’s book recently so I think it will be the book of the month once I’ve finished ‘First Novel’
By Terry Finley on Mar 23, 2008
All we wrtiers need to set goals.
Thanks for the reminder.
By Terry Finley on Mar 23, 2008
All writers need goals.