Like so many others in mainland China right now, I have COVID. Restrictions were lifted and here we are.
With that said, it sounds like an appropriate time to look at writing goals!
Unlike many writers (in my mind, at least; correct me if I'm wrong), I don't have a set genre that I write in, or aspire to write in, which is a bit problematic, I think. When it comes to novel writing, I've been singularly focused on my novel Silence, Broken and haven't really spent much time writing in other genres.
I like writing poetry, and will continue to write poetry, but I also want to write more things that the general public connects with (no offense poetry, it's just that so many people find you challenging).
With that in mind, I created Where Nightmares Roam and Drone Girl. They've been indispensable in helping me find out if I'm really interested in writing those genres (fantasy and sci-fi, respectively). But what are my writing goals? What do I want from writing in the next few months or year? This had already been on my mind when one of my professors from my undergrad posed a question to all of us in the writing community: Anyone making any writing resolutions for 2023?
I don't typically plan from the beginning of the year what I plan to be doing writing-wise. I go in with a vague goal and as the year progresses, things evolve. Super natural process, right?
Could I achieve more if I made solid goals for the year?
I'm thinking I'll split my goals into macro-goals and then micro-goals based on those macros; that way nothing feels too overwhelming.
If you want, you can try this too with your own goals for the upcoming year!
My macro writing goals:
-Publish my poetry collection
-Find an agent for Silence, Broken
-Self-publish a short story once a month
-Continue Where Nightmares Roam
-Pick-up Drone Girl
-Finish China poetry collection
-Maintain 30 poetry subs
-Start thinking of/outlining a YA fantasy for traditional publication
So then my micro goals need to look something like:
-Publish my poetry collection
-Send collection to five contests and/or publishers a month (side note: super hard and contestedly unnecessary to find an agent for a poetry collection)
-Find an agent for Silence, Broken -Finish 10k word edits x 8 (book has ~80k words) -Send edited work to an actual editor in 10k word chunks 'cause money -Fix work -Create a good pitch/query letter -Send five agent queries a month
-Self-publish a short story once a month
-Start with old short stories (unpublished) and edit +revamp
-Spend ten days creating new a new short story
-Ten days to edit -Double check and self-publish
-x12
...and so on, I won't bore you guys with the details of every goal.
The most important thing to remember is to keep goals in bite-size chunks. You can't be taking on way too much, and you can't just be focused on writing. You'll need to have other health/social/work/education goals as well.
How can you expect to get anything done if you aren't taking care of yourself?
What about you guys? What are ya'lls writing goals? What are ya'll hoping to get done in the next year? What might be some of your macro goals and how can make micro steps to achieve them?
Until next time!
I leave you with a picture of a cake my husband made yesterday, as it's the only thing I have taken a photo of recently besides a positive COVID test. And I'm tired of COVID.
Comments