2020: Getting Clear on My Vision for Myself as a Writer

Each year I look ahead and have way more goals in my brain (and on paper) than I could possibly accomplish. Over the years, I’ve started tweaking things to really fit my own personality and my own schedule.

Joy in the Process

Last year my phrase of the year was “Joy in the Process.” I realized I didn’t have a ton of control on the outcome of projects. I could make them the best I could. I can’t control whether someone else likes it, whether someone else wants to publish it, or whether readers will get it. I can hope that I do everything in my power to make it so, but ultimately, it’s not up to me. I wanted to embrace that the only thing I COULD control was the process?

Do I love the excitement of a new idea? YES!

Do I enjoy the deep dive of research? YES!

Do I love to play with words and structure during revision? YES!

I can’t imagine not writing. So, I just knew that no matter what else happened last year, I would experience joy in the process. I can honestly say that I did.

Word of the Year for 2020

Usually, I do better picking a phrase for the year to guide my writing life than a single word. But this year I have decided that one word will suffice. I chose SHARPEN.

Sharpen because it reminds me to hone. It reminds me to sharpen my focus and lessen distractions. Sharpen because it connects to the words: balance, recalibrate, polish, fine-tune, improve, and align. And I think I need all of those things in my writing life.

Goal Setting

I used to make writing goals for a whole year. It was hard for me to see ahead for a whole year because so many things seem to play out for me during the various seasons of my life. I know where I want to be as an author. I have a good sense of that overall picture (I hope). This fall I read two books that really helped me refine my goal setting and to-do list.

The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington and Getting Things Done by David Allen both helped me hone my own process of goal setting and prioritizing.

I tried out the 12 Week Year process for October-December to see if it would work for me. I loved it. I implemented Quarterly goals, then I did weekly to-do lists with deadlines and a weekly review on Sunday evenings. It helped me tremendously, especially during my busiest season ever.

As I planned for 2020 though, I realized something about quarterly goals bugged me. I wanted to arrange my goal setting around the seasons of my life. I’ve been teaching for 22 years and I realized that my writing cycles tend to go in these areas:

* January-May

* June-August

* September-December

I feel like January, June, and September all feel like fresh-start times of the year for me. So, in 2020, I’m still going to make goals, but I’m arranging them by seasons (not climate-type season), but the seasons of my actual life. The ebb and flow of life as a teacher and parent and writer. I have different expectations for each of those times of the year.

Reading Challenges

I’m trying something new this year with my reading goals. I have loads of stacks of books on my office floor—books I haven’t read yet. When I looked at them, then tended to fall into certain categories. I made a list of those categories. I decided in 2020, I’m going to do a monthly theme challenge for myself as a reader. Each month, I’m going to decide what my focus for my reading is going to be. Most of the books I’m going to read that month will be focused on a particular theme or author or topic. This doesn’t mean I won’t read anything else. I’m a librarian, so I read pretty widely, but the main focus of my pleasure reading will be on these topics. My January reading challenge is science and nature books. I’ve been getting loads of great suggestions from friends on Facebook, so I can’t wait to dive in!

20 in 2020

I’m a big fan of Gretchen Rubin’s Happier Podcast. Last year they made a list of goals to do called 19 in 2019. I only managed to do about 2 of the things on my list. I think it was because the list was totally unfocused. This year, I’m going to do a 20 in 2020 list. It’s all focused around places that I write. As a mom of two active kids, I’m always on the go. When I pack my writing bag, I ended up writing in some pretty boring places (like in my parked car) and some exciting places (Kogod Courtyard). I’m going to see how many of these places I can actually write at in 2020.

What new things are you trying in 2020 to challenge yourself?