Writer’s Life: Setting Attainable Goals
Photo by Pascal Creative Commons
My goals for 2011 are to land an agent and nab a multi-book, seven-figure deal. (Gotta make it big before the apocalypse strikes so I’ll have enough money to build me a secret underground bunker!) I’m not going to say this is a ridiculous goal, because crazier things have happened, but I’m just not going to stake my future on it. That goal is out of my control.
What I can control is my manuscript (to the extent that it will allow me to control it). I can make sure that I’ve proofed it and that it’s been seen by at least one other pair of critical eyes. I can control how many agents I query, despite the rejections or responses that must be getting sucked into some black hole never to be seen again. I can control how many short stories I submit. This year my goal was 100 submissions, which I just crossed! I can control (for the most part) how much time I have my butt-in-chair, fingers-on-keyboard.
A new year is fast approaching, and with it, new possibilities. I’ve got a few goals planned out already, mostly novel-centric. I’ve got this year’s NaNovel to finish, polish, and start querying, plus another novel that I’ve been working on during my down time. I’d like to get another 100 short story submissions for next year, and participate in NaNoWriMo again.
So have you started to set your goals for next year already? Are they goals that you can control? And most importantly, do you have a secret underground bunker with room for one more?
Excellent goals all. And so true about setting goals you can control. I’m going to start my own blog and I’m thinking of setting a goal of submitting 52 stories this year – one for each week.
Cool! I can’t wait for your blog to get up and running. I’ll be sure to check it out. 52 stories is a great goal. Sending them out is half the battle. 🙂
As I’m currently struggling with a potentially unsustainable goal, I entirely agree with this post. In my work life, I always strive to under-promise and over-deliver, but it feels like i do the reverse with my writing. Strange, that.
100 submissions is great! I still need to think about my goals. One is definitely to finish Wail! although that feels a little bit endless right now.