Making Time to Write Monday: 2013 Writing Goals
It’s 2013! Many people start off the year bursting to go to the gym, or to eat out less, to lose 30 lbs, or to get to bed earlier, or whatever people make resolutions about these days.
I’m not a big resolution-maker. But I am a big goal writer. Back in November I wrote about my SMART goals for 2012. I didn’t finish every goal in 2012, but I learned a lot about what I can do and where I need to push myself.
Why do I bother with goals?
1) It helps me determine where I will spend my time. Honestly, there are times I sit down to write and I have no idea where to go next. I don’t know where my focus should be. Anytime I’m in a lull (usually when a big project is out on submission), I can pull up my goals and get busy on something in a new category.
“Most of history’s great creators didn’t just have their hands in one basket. They would have lots of different things going on. If they ran into obstacles in one area, they put it aside for a while and moved on to something else. By having multiple projects, you’re more likely to have a breakthrough somewhere…you’re always moving along.”
—Psychologist, Dean Simonton, as quoted in The Creative Spirit by Goleman, Kaufman, & Ray
Copyright 2013, Marcie Flinchum Atkins
2) It helps me when I’m discouraged. When I don’t have good news or haven’t made the progress (land an agent, land a book deal) that I want, if I look back at what I DID do, it’s kind of encouraging. I can see that I really did accomplish something.
3) It’s proof. Are you trying to stake your claim as a freelance writer? Goals that you have finished, or at least worked toward, are great sources of documentation as you are trying to establish your career as a writer.
I have ten goals for my writing this year. They are SMART goals and they have lists of tasks under each one. Here’s an example of one:
Copyright 2013 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Here are my categories of goals for the year:
1. Writing new picture books
2. Revising and Submitting Picture Books
3. Reading—Professional Craft-Related Books and Children’s and Young Adult books
4. Professional Conferences
5. YA novel out on submission goal
6. Middle Grade novel revision goal
7. Middle Grade idea goal for brainstorming and drafting
8. Platform
9. Agent Search
10. Magazine Articles
What are you making time to write in 2013?
3 Comments
Alayne Kay Christian
I’m a multiple projects writer, too. But my desk is not nice and neat like yours. Thanks for sharing the example of your goal planning/tracking sheet. It looks like you have some great goals set up for 2013.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Alayne, I did tidy up a bit before I took the picture. 🙂
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