Hate Resolutions? Me, Too!

 

Just stop with the resolutions.

I’m doing 2026 my way. I’d like to encourage you to do the same. Yes, you can read this if you are into resolutions. I’m not here to stop you. After all, I’m not your mom. And maybe resolutions work for you. After all, how could they be such a strong part of our culture if they work for no one? But they don’t do a lot for me. 

If I’m feeling profoundly optimistic, I’d estimate that I meet annual goals maybe half the time. Maybe. 

So, what might I do instead? I’ve done some reading on alternatives to resolutions and given them a writer’s twist. Here are a few suggestions.

Clear Things Out

I like to think of this one as taking out the trash. What is the writing resolution that you’ve made several years in a row but never achieved? 

“I’m going to finish my fantasy novel to self-publish.” 

“I’m going to craft a Lord of the Rings inspired political satire, Gollum’s White House.” 

Whatever it is, give yourself permission to ignore it completely this year. Focus on something new! I like this idea a lot because it gives you permission to leave behind something that isn’t working for you.

Writer of 2026 

Read an author throughout the year who initially inspired you to become an author. For me, this would be Marguerite Henry. 

Or you could read an author who inspired a particular project. Before I set reading all of the Sherlock Holmes novels as a goal, I should probably check out how many there are. Apparently there are four novels and 56 short stories. I know I can knock out the novels. 

You might also decide to take a course taught by a favorite author. If you love fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, you can find lectures from the college writing class he teaches on YouTube. Check out his YouTube videos here.

Go Big! 

Then there is the idea that your resolutions simply have not been big enough. Instead of stating that you want to finish your fantasy novel, you should plan to finish a trilogy, perhaps by setting a NaNoWriMo style goal for each quarter. 

Or you might normally state that you want to clean off your desk and keep it neat throughout the year. Instead, you set the goal that you want to catalogue your home library on Library Thing.  You can find Library Thing here.

This isn’t a good fit for me simply because I’m quite capable of setting inflated goals on my own. I do not need encouragement! 

Try Something New

With this idea, you try something new every month. If you are anything like me, this one would be easy. 

You could try writing in first person if you normally write in third. Or you might try writing in a new genre. Of course, you need to acquire knowledge to tackle a new genre. 

Take a look at the WOW! writing classes and see what catches your eye. You can find the list of clases here. There are classes on writing flash, writing a novel, and even screen writing. Do any of these appeal to you? 

Do you have another inspirational idea we might all benefit from in 2026? 

--SueBE 

To get a free copy of Sue’s book, What to Do When Your Book Is Banned, subscribe to her newsletter, One Writer’s Journey, here.

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 80 books for young readers.  

• To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog.

She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:

• Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work 

• Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults 

• Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults 

Read More »

2 comments author resolutions, goal setting, Inspiration, new year resolutions, Sue Bradford Edwards

Is a Page a Day Worth the Hype?

In October, I committed to participate in Write Till Christmas. This is an event sponsored by my writing friend Kelly Sgroi.  She started this program in 2023 with the purpose of encouraging us to add to the word count of any project we've been meaning to get to all year.

Anyone who has ever seen my to-do list knows that my list is far too long for anyone to accomplish.  Honestly, I'm not sure 3 full time writers could accomplish my list.  I had 4 book length projects that I started the year wanting to work on.  By October that number had grown to 5.  And I had accomplished mere pages.  

So I took a hard look at the five projects.  I also had numerous paying deadlines to meet so I knew there was no way I could write a full novel without burning out.  Instead, I chose an early middle grade project. I had managed to write about 2 and a half pages on it early in the year. That's not even a tiny bit impressive, but I chose this project because I knew that if I stuck with it I would be able to write a full draft between October 1 and Christmas.

How did it work?  

It should have been so straight forward!  But one of my deadlines really managed to slam me to the floor.  I quit working on Write Till Christmas for about a week.  When I met my deadline, I took another day off.  As I another full day drew to a close, I made myself write a paragraph.  It wasn't a good paragraph but I have to be honest.  At this point I can't point to it and say, "Right there!  There's the stinker of a paragraph."  

Soon I was chugging along and back on schedule.  I should explain.  When I miss a week at a page a day, I don't tell myself that I have 7 pages to make up.  Nope. When I start writing again, I'm starting fresh.  So as I started writing again, I was able to accomplish a page a day.  The pages once again added up.

Then I got sick.  Then my son got it.  Soon three of four people living in our house had it.  I did not accomplish a page a day every day that week, but I did write a little something.  Setting that goal to keep moving forward paid off.

When I was well, I was soon adding a page a day to my word count.  By the end of the year, I had drafted a full manuscript at 82 pages.

For those of you who don't know, I write full time.  I'm lucky enough to have steady contract work.  Those checks keep the lights on but it is far too easy to use it as an excuse not to work on my own writing.  Writing a page a day for Write Till Christmas showed me how even small goals can add up.  

I'm currently ignoring that specific project.  I want to let it cool before I begin revising it.  So now I am working through a page a day on a booklet I plan to give away for free.  Help! They Want to Ban My Book. What Do I Do? is about what I learned when my book was challenged.  I'm revising what I drafted last year and have 8 solid manuscript pages.  That's just under half way.  

Setting a goal of writing or revising a page a day has definitely paid off for me.  On a really wild day I  may accomplish two full pages instead.  One paragraph, one page or two.  Set a small goal and stick to it.  The momentum will carry you forward until you have completed something big.  It is definitely worth the effort.

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 60 books for young readers. 

• To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.  

• Click here to find her newsletter.

 

She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:

• Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work 
• Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults 
• Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults 

Read More »

5 comments A Page a Day, goal setting, manageable goals, Sue Bradford Edwards, Write Till Christmas

Active Questions and Productivity

How active are your questions?

One of my favorite newsletters is Sarai Mitnick’s Making Time. Making Time is her year-long experiment on making time to be creative. Sarai isn’t all about getting up an hour early to write or creating lengthy to-do lists. Instead, she focuses on creativity and getting to creative endeavors because they make her happy. 

In her last newsletter, she encouraged her readers to use active questions to make time for the things they want to do. What’s an active question? It’s easier just to show you. First we’ll start with questions that are not active. 

Let’s say that your goal is to write 10 pages a day. At the end of each day, you may ask yourself, “Did I write 10 pages?” Then you answer YES or NO. Or you may ask yourself, “How many pages did I write?” The answer might be 2 pages or 10 pages or something specific like 3.75 pages. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t meet my goal, I often get specific about what I did accomplish. 

Both of these questions are passive. One of the things that makes them problematic is that you can easily make an excuse if you didn’t accomplish your goal. “I would have done it, but— 

--the kids were home sick from school. 

--I had to deal with the insurance company. 

--Mom had a doctor’s appointment. 

--my husband asked me to watch Downton Abby with him. 

You would have gotten to it, but you were the victim of circumstances. 

To avoid this way of thinking, ask yourself a question about your intentions. In this case, you might ask, “How hard did I try to meet my goal?” Then you rate your effort on a scale of 1 to 10. You may have accomplished nothing towards your goal although you sat down to work four different times. You scored a 10 because you tried to get it done. 

Scoring your intentions can be very revealing. My to-do list is a frightening beast. Every week, I have a list of three columns. Things I need to do by X date. Things I need to work on by some vague future date. And things I want to do. I seldom accomplish more than a handful of the things on this list. 

So last week I looked at my goals as active questions. “How hard did I try to (fill in the blank).” Not only did I not revise my essay, work on my site, outline my cozy, or (and the list goes on and on), I had given most of the tasks on my list very little thought. There were just too many. My numbers for how hard I had tried were low across the board. I was just too scattered. 

By the end of the week, I decided to focus on one non-paid writing task a week. That means I could choose anything that is not under contract. I focused on one book and in just two days I managed to accomplish more than I had done in the previous month. Why? Because I focused my efforts. I may not have had hours and hours to work, but I only had one prioritized project. It was a lot like Renee’s editing sprint (see her post here). I focused and got something done. 

Give active questions a try. Look beyond what you accomplish to where you put your best intentions. This can help you shift your focus and make progress on what matters most. 

 --SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 35 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.

The next session of her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on June 5, 2023).  Coping with rejection is one of the topics she will cover in this course.

Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins June 5, 2023) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins June 5, 2023).

Read More »

10 comments active questions, efforts, goal setting, intentions, self examination, Sue Bradford Edwards

Eeny Meany . . . What to Work On Now?

Recently I returned from a road trip to my home state. I don’t know if it was the eight straight days without working or the time spent among my story telling cousins, but I came home with ideas galore. This led me to an interesting problem. 

I’m working on three, big projects (a mystery, a middle grade science fiction novel, and an early grade nonfiction series). They won’t be done any time soon. Two of my new ideas are especially persistent and emerged almost fully formed. I had to decide what to work on first. 

I asked myself these questions: 

1. How does each idea fit into my long-term goals? Thanks to Renee, "Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Gig," we all know to evaluate an idea or a job according to how it fits with our goals. My two pushiest ideas won’t further my three big projects, but they could help me find an agent. Of course, each of my three big projects would also do this. For me, this question was a draw. 

2. What project is most likely to sell? The joys of being a freelance writer include trying to determine which idea is right for the market right now. Middle grade novels are in demand as is series nonfiction. In fact, a publisher has a call out which my series idea fits to a T. My two new ideas are both picture books which are especially difficult to sell if you aren’t an illustrator. That’s a point for working on the series idea and the middle grade novel. 

3. Which project am I most enthusiastic about? This is a trick question for me and for a lot of other writers, because the answer is almost always, “The new project!” After all, the new project is shiny and new and perfect. If I was close to finishing one of the others my answer might be different, but the point goes to the two new ideas. 

4. What answer will help me accomplish something? Hmm. This sounds like the kind of question my mother would have asked me. Staying on track and getting something done means that the point for this question should go to whichever of the three big projects is nearest completion, the nonfiction series idea. 

5. Do you need an easy win? While no writing project is really an easy win, sometimes you need to go with the project you can finish in the least amount of time. That is why a lot of writers work on something long and something short, rotating between the two. Me? I’ve been working on both the series and the new ideas. 

How you prioritize each of these questions will depend on where you are in your writing journey and what you are working on. The answer that is right for you today, may not be the right answer a month from now. Still, asking yourself questions like these can help you make up your mind before you sit down to write.

 --SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 30 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog, One Writer's Journey.

The next session of her new course, Pitching, Querying and Submitting Your Work will begin on July 10, 2022).  Coping with rejection is one of the topics she will cover in this course.

Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins July 10, 2022) and Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults (next session begins July 10, 2022). 

Read More »

4 comments deciding what to work on, goal setting, prioritizing ideas, what to work on next

Stagnant Goals

I love Jim Rohn and still have my very first copy of SUCCESS Magazine. In a recent article titled: 4 Tips for Setting Powerful Goals Jim got in my face and helped me realize I had been forgetting an important key to my personal and professional goal setting. I'm sharing my experience in hopes of helping others who might have fallen into the same trap I had.

The number 1 point in the above article is Evaluation and Reflection. I had gotten so busy trying to keep my boss happy, my clients happy, my children happy, the bills paid, the clothes washed, the animals fed, etc... that I had forgotten to evaluation my goals. It had been a good long time since I had taken a look at where we were going and where we had been. After reading the article a few times, I came back to number 1 and asked myself:

"Are you satisfied with where you are right now?" 

Guess what? That question made me giggle at first. I thought about it some more and started jotting down things I was and was not satisfied with. I started crying. I sat a good long while just looking at my list before I answered that important question with:

"Absolutely NOT!"

In so many areas I felt I was falling short. I had slipped from an over achiever to someone who was just getting by with good enough, close enough, and that will do for now. I had been doing the same things day in and day out thinking I was moving toward my goals when in reality I was stagnant. I wasn't making any forward progress at all but I hadn't realized it because I hadn't taken time to evaluate much of anything. Blame it on the pandemic, blame it on the busy-ness of life, blame it on anything, but regardless of how we landed in this place, something needed to change to move us forward again. No one wants stagnant goals and that's what mine had become.

Until now that is! (if you know me, you knew there was a happy ending right around the corner)

We sat down as a family and made some big changes and set some lofty goals. Each one of us has our own goals and we also have some family goals we are all working towards. My goals include more time for writing, following up with authors who have asked for help, and some additional time for reading. Let's not forget some time each week to evaluate and reflect! 

As we near the end of our time together today, let me ask you these important questions (please answer in the comments, or leave a note - we love hearing from you):

1) When is the last time you evaluated your goals? How often do you do this and how do you remind yourself? 

2) Are you going to evaluate your goals sooner than later now that we've chatted? 

3) What are you most excited about this new year? What's going on with you?

And as we part ways today, I'll leave you with this gem:

Hugs,

~Crystal

and now...a little more about me...

Shown from left to right:
Delphine riding Honey
Mr. Otto holding Eudora
Crystal riding Marv.
Thank you Forward Farm, LLC 

Crystal is a hot mess of busy-ness who has decided to shorten her bio...

You can find Crystal milking cows, riding horses, and the occasional unicorn (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her own blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade and she has never (not once) been accused of being normal!

Read More »

3 comments crystal casavant, crystal casavant-otto, crystal otto, goal setting, jim rohn, success, success magazine

Tips for Goal Setting in the New Year

 

I spent yesterday cooking up a storm in the kitchen and getting acclimated with my new 2021 planner. After setting a whole bunch of writing goals I didn’t meet last year, I’m doing things a little differently this year. 

First, I had to select a word of the year to focus on. In years’ past, I’ve chosen words like “creative” or “entrepreneurial.” This year, I selected “service.” I’ve reached a point in my life and career where I want to do more volunteer work. Ideally, I’d like to volunteer somewhere locally that holds a special place in my heart, like a food pantry or organization that helps women and their children get back on their feet after life throws them a curveball. But I’m also looking to find a professional or nonprofit organization to serve on and work my way up to being a board member or officer. 

Then I had to pick three goals to focus on for the year. Where I failed in goal setting last year was setting way too many goals that were only in the writing/publishing realm. This year I’ve decided to focus on three separate types of goals—creative, lifestyle and health and wellness. 

My first goal is to increase my podcast engagement and begin earning revenue. While I built up a good base and feasible production schedule in 2020, I’m ready turn this endeavor into a product that contributes to my household income. By breaking down goals for this in each quarter, such as pitching myself to other podcasts and creating more content for bonus episodes and social media, I should be able to accomplish this goal. 

My second goal is related to travel. While I’ve talked a lot about my desire to travel, the pandemic put quite the kink in plans last year to visit places like New Orleans and St. Lucia. For 2021, safe and intentional travel is in my goals, even if it starts out as simple as weekend visits to college campuses with my teens once universities begin opening them back up. Or day trips to places we haven’t been before. I’m optimistic about safely seeing more places in 2021. 

The third goal is my ongoing struggle to shed pounds. Living in a house full of people with off-the-charts metabolism isn’t easy, and staying at home so much surrounded by food has put some unwanted pounds back on me this past year. While I’ve continued to stay in decent shape through daily runs or long walks, I’ve got a manageable goal of shedding 6-7 pounds and maintaining it in 2021. I think this is reasonable and I’ll use the MyFitnessPal app and meal prepping to help me stay on track. 

I also use a daily gratitude journal to help me stay focused on what I do have and not on what I don’t. By mixing these three types of goals into my life, I’m confident I’ll be successful. I also won’t feel bad if I don’t accomplish a whole bunch of writing goals in 2021—those will be icing on the cake instead. 

What sorts of goals have you set for 2021? Do you like mixing them up the way I do? 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and magazine editor who also hosts the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas. Visit her website at FinishedPages.com.

Read More »

6 comments goal setting, health and wellness goals, lifestyle goals, Renee Roberson, tips for setting reasonable goals, writing goals

Goal Setting for the New Year or Any Time

How do you set your goals for the New Year? Our accountability group (Hi Ladies!) has been discussing our 2019 goals – what each person wanted to accomplish and what they actually did. 

I have a confession to make. I hate these kinds of conversations. I’m excellent at “setting” goals. But actually following through? Let’s just say that I’m easily distracted. Put out a call that sparks an idea and there I go. Or offer me a paying gig. That tends to be pretty distracting too.

Don’t get me wrong. It isn’t that I’ve accomplished nothing. I’ve written and submitted three books this year. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and The Murders of Tupac and Biggie, both in Abdo’s American Crime Stories, will come out in January. I’ve also read something like 140 books ranging from novels, memoirs, and graphic novels, to picture books and juvenile nonfiction.

Last year, I thought I had nailed this whole goal setting thing with Renee’s SMART goals. SMART goals are specific - write 1000 words a day vs write every day. They are relevant which means that they match your larger ambitions. Writing SMART goals would keep me on track. I was sure of it.

Then I started doing something else Renee suggested. In another post, "Write Your Dreams into Existence," Renee asked us to journal about where we wanted to be in 10 years. This method involves writing down ten long term goals that you want to achieve in ten years. Write them as if you’ve already achieved them vs something that will happen in the future. This means that you write “I have an agent” vs “I will find an agent.” Recopy your ten long term goals daily.

When I did this, I noticed the many things in my day that didn’t feed into these goals. I also started to see opportunities that would help me reach them. These are some of the things that “distracted” me from my annual goals.

How then should you set your annual goals? First things first, don’t think of them as annual goals. As Margo recently said in her post, “I've always wondered what was so magical about starting a new year. Why do we make all these promises to do all these things just because January is lucky enough to start a brand new, fresh calendar?” 

These aren’t goals for January. These aren’t goals for the New Year. They are your writing goals. Some will be accomplished this year. Others will take longer.

So whether you do this now, at the tail end of December, or in two weeks when it is actually January, think about where you want to be in ten years. Do what Renee suggested and come up with ten long term goals for your future. Remember to write them in the present tense. 1. I have an agent. 2. I do school visits. 3. I have a strong online presence...

Then recopy them daily for several weeks. Do they still feel like solid long term goals? Rework the ones that feel off. Then repeat the process, writing them daily for several weeks.

Once you have long term goals that feel right, you are ready to set your short term SMART goals. These short term goals are the initial steps in realizing your long term goals. 

After all, isn’t the whole point of setting goals to help you get where you want to be?

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue's writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins  January 6th, 2020. 

Read More »

6 comments goal setting, Renee Roberson, SMART goals, Sue Bradford Edwards

Write Your Dreams into Existence

Morning time with my journal and my dog.

After a rough winter last year and a string of rejections (for both writing contests and to agents) that seemed to be going nowhere, I thought long and hard about the best way to shift my mindset. A few months ago, I heard a podcast episode about how to narrow the focus on your goals in order to best achieve them. I was intrigued.

Now, to be perfectly transparent, this podcast episode was pitching a product called the “Start Today Journal,” created by entrepreneur and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis. But as she explained in her podcast, this practice can be done with any old journal, and she outlined the steps that anyone can use to set their goals.

What a lot of us fail at is having too many goals at one time, which can lead to overwhelm, causing us to beat ourselves up time and again when we don’t achieve any of them. Hollis developed a practice that focuses on writing down ten goals over and over. And here’s the kicker—you write down those goals as if they have already happened.

This practice starts you out by doing an exercise where you envision what you want your life to be like in ten years, down from the kind of home you live in to what kinds of vacations you take. Then you envision what types of dreams you need to achieve in order to accomplish that type of lifestyle.

I’ve been journaling with this method for almost a month, and my goals are starting to become so ingrained in my mind that I do things to work toward them without even putting much thought into it. I start out each day by writing down five things I’m grateful for, and these vary depending on the day. Then I write down the same ten goals, in the exact same order, and at the end, I write which one I’m going to achieve first.

On these pages, I’ve written things like what my annual income is (again, as if this has already happened), how much money my podcast is generating per month, that my kids went to college debt free, etc. At the very end of the page you write down which goal you achieved first. This changed for me after the first week, when I thought realistically about what goal I have the most probability of achieving first. My podcast is still in development, for example, so it's not going to start generating income right out of the gate. So every day on that line, I write, “I’m an award-winning fiction and non-fiction writer.” I have a few pieces out at contests as we speak, so I’m trying to will a contest award into existence by writing down this faith in my writing every day.

Here’s what I’ve noticed. Writing down these same goals and achievements each and every keeps them front and center of my mind. I focus on planning and writing and working each day to ensure that I accomplish what I’ve set out to create.

Do you journal about your goals and dreams? Are there any specific practices you’ve tried recently? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and magazine editor whose young adult novel, Between, can be found on the digital platform, Wattpad. She’s hopeful it will garner some attention at the 2019 Watty Awards this year, and she may be writing a specific dream about this novel in her journal each day.

Read More »

5 comments goal setting, journaling for writers, Renee Roberson, Start Today Journal, writing down your dreams

Goofy goals that I might actually accomplish!

I'm good at setting goals, but not always accomplishing goals. Sometimes setting goals feels like a to-do list, and my life frequently feels like one giant to-do list. Have I mentioned I don't like to-do lists?

To be fair, I set my list of writing goals for the year with my writers group, which, honestly, will help me stay on track. They are wonderful women who are supportive and kind and helpful in many ways. But, as I was reviewing my goals yesterday and trying to decide where to begin, I realized I didn't feel like doing any of them.

So, I did what I usually do, and started reading the news feed on my phone, and after that began watching true crime stories on the Justice Network. I don't know why these shows are suddenly appealing to me, but I hope it's because I'm a writer, and not a murderer.

After about an hour of not accomplishing any goals, I began looking at Craigslist because I had run out of pertinent news stories to read, and the only crime re-enactment show was one I had already seen. I went to the listing for free stuff, and found a variety of weird and interesting objects.

That list changed my life! I now have a new set of writing goals that are easy and fun, and am much more likely to complete. Feel free to use these, or come up with your own so you, too, can become a productive goal accomplisher.

Goal #1: Write a story or poem around one or more of the unique, free items found on Craigslist. Here's a few I found: Four packs of pork chops, one cargo cover for a 2004 Highlander, a manual titled The Complete Guide to Hermit Crabs, fresh and frozen breast milk, a pink, 1950's-bathroom sink, Kitty litter buckets, and a baby grand piano.

#2: Go to Goodwill and find an old object and make up a back story. Bonus points if you can (fake) attribute it to a famous writer.

#3: Find the oldest book in your public library, and use some of those character names in your next story.

#4: Kill off one (or all) of your characters whose name begins with the letter "G." (Sorry, Greg!)

#5: Research a city you've never visited, and set a poem or short story there.

#6: Find five-ten books with the word "love" in the title, and then write your own title using the word "love" once, and all (or most) of the other words from all the titles to create the greatest love story title of all time. Mine is: Eternal love story for a dog I respect in the time of cholera.

#7: Create/describe a monster who wears an article of clothing. While searching Canadian Myths and Legends, I came across the description of a native legend from the Queen Charlotte Islands named The Haida Monster, who has two tails and wears a hat.

#8: Kill a character with a kitchen utensil that is not a knife or other sharp object. Can someone be potato-masher-ed to death? Let's find out! (Maybe I should stop watching those true-crime shows.)

#9: Begin a collection of writing-related objects, like pens, books, or pictures of writers. You don't have to finish, just start. Easy!

#10: Create a family legend. Would your ancestors be captains of industry, pioneers who settled the West, or bank robbers? You can also go to a thrift store and find an old picture of someone and claim that person as your infamous relative. Hang that picture prominently in your writing space.

#11: Describe a ghost that might live in your house.

#12: Follow an author on social media.

#13: Attend an author presentation at a library, bookstore or other venue.

#14: Wear something that makes you feel like a writer. Do you have a beret, cape, or silky scarf? Wear this (or these) item(s) to a coffee shop and write, pretend to write, or just drink coffee.

#15: Find a book in your house and read one page.

#16: If you usually write with a computer, use a pen and paper, and vice versa. Bonus points if you have an old typewriter and write something on that, unless that's what you normally write with.

#17: Write in a new place. Write outside, in the car, on public transportation, in the mall, or Costco! I once wrote a short poem in the produce section of a grocery store.

There you have it, a list I can actually complete. As you create your list of 2019 goals, add some that are simple. And have fun with it, I know I will!

Mary Horner doesn't always accomplish her goals for the year, but after having some fun and then feeling guilty, will get around to them eventually!

Read More »

6 comments accomplishing your writing goals, easy goals, fun goals, goal setting, goofy goals., writing goals

Be S.M.A.R.T with Your Writing

Pexels.com

What I love about this community is how we all inspire each other. I read the interviews with our contest winners, and I pick up ideas on how to juggle writing with a full-time job. I check out a post from one of our bloggers, and I get an idea for a submission market I’d never thought of before.

My husband works in Corporate America in marketing, and he’s always been a big fan of those “how to succeed in business” books where he can pick up bits of advice and information in short bursts. I sometimes chuckle when I see him lounging by the pool or beach on vacation with the latest Stephen Covey in his hand, but I shouldn’t. There’s good information to be found in them if you are in the right mindset. I’m not sure if Covey is the person who actually coined the “S.M.A.R.T” acronym in regards to goal setting, but he has discussed it some of his books.

I think I mentioned it in a previous blog post, but I joined Weight Watchers online in early January to help get rid of 15 extra pounds I put on in the past few years and break some bad eating habits. While I’ve always been an active person, I was not eating in a way that supported my weight loss goals. (Hello chocolate and carbs!) What I like about the program is that you can set small, attainable goals and tangibly track every single thing that goes in your mouth. I’m happy to say that after three solid months of tracking and working toward my original goal, I have met it.

Here’s how we can use that same mindset to achieve our writing goals.

Specific. Set a specific goal. Having a goal like “I’m going to finish a novel this year!” is too vague. Believe me, I know from personal experience and multiple failures. Right now, I’m working on revising a novel, and setting mini goals each week helps me move forward (although slowly, sometimes) and focus on different areas. Each week I try to revise two chapters or experiment with telling the story from a different character’s perspective.

Measurable. A few weeks ago I wrote about Camp NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month expanded into a spring and summer month (April and July) for those of us who get too overwhelmed in November to tackle 50,000+ words. With the camp, you can set measurable goals like producing a certain number of words, blog posts, articles, and the campers in your “cabin” can help cheer you on.

Achievable. I often compare writing to that old Aesop fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Slow and steady wins the race, at least in my opinion! Achievements can be big or small. Published a blog post? Check! Finished a kick-ass opening chapter to your novel? Check! Received a check for a magazine article? Check! Set a goal that you can achieve short-term, boost your self-confidence and keep moving forward.

Realistic. When I started Weight Watchers, it wouldn’t have done me any good to set a goal of losing 15 pounds in one week or even two. If I had, I would have failed miserably and lost my motivation. I took it week by week, sometimes losing two pounds and then gaining a pound back the next week. Sticking with a realistic program helped me achieve success. Setting a goal to write and publish a novel within six months probably isn’t a realistic goal. But writing and publishing one in year or two? Bingo.

Timely. There are seasons of our lives where certain writing goals don’t work as well. When I was a mom of a toddler and infant, there was no way I could have tackled completing a novel with all the anxiety and sleep deprivation I was going through. It was easier then for me to focus on developing article queries and essays, and now that my kids are 12 and 14, I have much more to concentrate on fiction in between driving them to all their activities!

What are some S.M.A.R.T writing goals you can work on attaining, if you haven’t already? I’d love to hear how you make this method work for you!

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who recently won first place in the thriller category of the 2017 Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards.

Read More »

4 comments goal setting, Renee Roberson, S.M.A.R.T goals, writing advice