Rethinking My Writing Goals

Tuesday, February 07, 2023


As I considered my goals this year, I thought the most important goal was to get back into a writing groove. I actually surprised myself when I ended up finishing a short story this month.

With February now upon us, I considered my goals for this month and even the remainder of the year. What would I focus on next? I love the idea of writing new stories, but the truth is, I have to face my writing weakness which is always looming and lurking in the corner: revising.

I am certain this isn't the first time I've talked about this weakness of mine. 

In fact, I only even thought of it recently when I was cleaning out my closet and stumbled across an old short story. Looking at this story that was handwritten and nicely folded in an envelope, I thought to myself, "So that's where you went to." 

I have another collection of stories sleeping inside a couple of notebooks, dying to come out and at least be typed.

What's my hesitation?

I'm not sure. It could be that this is the part of writing that really makes me think about the actual story I'm trying to say and less intuitive than the first draft is for me. It also involves getting feedback which is always stressful, even in the best of stories. I can even conquer the 

But I think as I embrace new writing goals, I'll have to accept that I really need to get the fires burning in the revision process of writing. 

What are your writing goals? 

4 comments:

Sue Bradford Edwards said...

To get more on submission. Which, just a few weeks into the year, has forced me to realize I need to get more work polished so I can send it out.

What if you set a firm goal to enter and polish a story each month?

Nicole Pyles said...

I think that could be a very good goal! Now just to follow through...

Angela Mackintosh said...

I took Chelsey Clammer's Writing is Revising workshop, and what was really helpful to me was coming up with an order of operations for revision. You might have resistance to revision because it uses a different part of the brain (right brain vs left). I found tackling one story element at a time helps Lately, I would rather revise than stare at a blank page!

Like Sue, my goal is to submit more this year. I also want to build a regular writing routine. I'm branching out and trying new genres. I wrote a short story the other day - totally fictional! Maybe we can trade feedback at some point. It'll take me at least a month to finish the story, but I love getting and giving positive feedback. :)

Sue Bradford Edwards said...

Ang nailed it - an order of operations is vital. It doesn't make any sense to do the easy fixes (punctuation, spelling, grammar) before you fix pacing and other big picture issues. And it is so much less threatening if you can look at one thing at a time. You know. Once you get that far . . . getting back to work.

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