Goals and what they mean
This week I want to talk about goals and meeting them. Goals are important. The first part of this post is understanding what a goal is. A goal is an expectation you plan to meet by a certain time. You should have both long term and short term goals. As a writer, you can set a page goal or a word count goal. Maybe it’s a goal to have a book finished by a certain date. For me, I set a lot of different goals for my writing. I have a daily page goal for when I’m creating and one for when I’m editing.
When I’m drafting a new story, I have the goal of at least seven pages a day. I know it doesn’t sound like much, as a professional writer, seven pages should be easy. The problem is writing is not always a sure thing in terms of what you get done each day. There are days I write and the words flow like water. It’s exhilarating as pages and pages flow from my fingertips. You never want those days to end and when they are forced to, it angers you in some way because of how spectacular it felt as story flows out of you. There are other days those seven pages feel like I’m climbing up a steep hill with no traction. It’s exhausting and when you finish you feel like you’ve gone ten rounds in the ring with a heavyweight prize fighter. Seven pages is a reasonable goal in my eyes when I’m creating. For others they may have a higher goal than I do. They feel they should be able to complete twenty pages every time they sit down at the computer. Some authors do it based on word count. They will set it at five thousand words or maybe two thousand a day. Word counts for me matter little because I like to just write day in and day out. Any time I look at my word count it’s more for fun. Sometimes I’m shocked at how much I have to say. Other times it’s depressing because the words just didn’t flow because Savannah didn’t want to work that day. Other times it’s because I am unsure of a scene or the flow of the story as a whole.
When I’m editing forty pages is my goal. I feel it is a reasonable expectation for myself to get forty pages read and edited of my own work everyday. There is only one exception to this rule for me and that is when I need a break. I recently started a new job that is a full time position. The job is rewarding in terms of, I get to work with kids who have special needs. I get to see their excited faces when they count to six and recognize a number, but it’s exhausting. I also have a family that demands my attention. So Friday nights are reserved for my family. Which means I get only a dozen pages done if I’m lucky. This past Friday, I got sixteen pages and felt pretty good about it because I was exhausted from my week. I was tired enough that I almost fell asleep during my daughter’s karate lesson. I didn’t, but then I fell asleep during our movie night instead. So sixteen pages was a win in my book.
As a writer there are other goals as well. Perhaps selling a certain number of books by a specific date. You may want to join a writer’s association by a certain date. These are long term goals. I personally had a goal for book sales and to join a writer’s association. My goal with Bad Witch Walking was to sell ten books to people I didn’t know. Again this sounds crazy but it makes perfect sense for a first time author. As an Indie author we have to build our name from scratch. Most of us do not have anyone to handle our publicity or getting our name out to millions of people. We have to do it. Ten readers for a new author is the foundation of an empire. Those ten readers who enjoy that book will buy the next one and will tell others about it. As a reader myself, I can tell you I talk about books to other people. I will talk up a book I really enjoy. If I do it, I know other readers do so as well. Those original ten readers will talk to friends and family about a new book they enjoyed. Ten readers become twenty and so on. It’s a slow process but it does work. I’m sure the question you have is did I meet my goal? The answer is yes I did. I sold ten books to people I do not know. I also have given away a number of books as well, which is just as important as book sales. It’s another way to find readers, get reviews, and get your name out there.
My other long term goal is to join the Romance Writers Association by October. I am almost there in terms of the funds and hopefully I will be able to meet that goal. We will soon find out in the next couple of weeks.
So what do you do when you fail to meet a goal? Do you just give up on that goal? Do you kick your own ass for the failure? The answer is you may kick your own ass, that’s a personal choice. Just don’t spend too much time doing it. I have high expectations for myself, so I tend to kick myself when I fail to meet these expectations. Failing to meet a goal is difficult. I am disappointed by my failure whether it was in my control or not. So I spend a little time kicking myself and then reminding myself I won’t fail to meet the deadline again. The next step is I set a new time table for the goal. I don’t give up, I just push forward. A great example of this is when I was planning to launch Bad Witch Walking. My first goal was to do it by April of this year. As we went through the editing process, I found out it wasn’t in the cards. I still had loads of work to do on the book plus copy editing, building a Facebook page, and getting a cover for it. April wasn’t reasonable because I had no clue what I was doing. Now that I am more experienced, I am able to set a more attainable goal for Bad Karma’s release date. Originally, I had planned to do it in late December. It was a good fit doing it every six months. Turns out, I will be releasing it November 18th. The goal is set in stone and I have a Facebook release party already planned for the day along with a few events after.
The thing I have learned is that giving up is not an option. When you give up on a goal it means you’ve given up on yourself. That is not acceptable. The one person you should never give up on is you. Anything worth having takes time, patience, and hard work. There are going to be times you’re going to fail. It happens. Failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You learn from those failures. Failure teaches you how to fail gracefully. They teach you how to get back up and continue to push on. Failure is what makes us appreciate success. Building an empire is exhausting work but at the end it’s all worth it. The payoff is success and the feeling of accomplishment, which in my eyes is a success. Every goal you meet however big or small is a success. Every time you fail, getting back up and trying again is a success. Success is defined by you and your determination, no one else. Until next time!
When I’m drafting a new story, I have the goal of at least seven pages a day. I know it doesn’t sound like much, as a professional writer, seven pages should be easy. The problem is writing is not always a sure thing in terms of what you get done each day. There are days I write and the words flow like water. It’s exhilarating as pages and pages flow from my fingertips. You never want those days to end and when they are forced to, it angers you in some way because of how spectacular it felt as story flows out of you. There are other days those seven pages feel like I’m climbing up a steep hill with no traction. It’s exhausting and when you finish you feel like you’ve gone ten rounds in the ring with a heavyweight prize fighter. Seven pages is a reasonable goal in my eyes when I’m creating. For others they may have a higher goal than I do. They feel they should be able to complete twenty pages every time they sit down at the computer. Some authors do it based on word count. They will set it at five thousand words or maybe two thousand a day. Word counts for me matter little because I like to just write day in and day out. Any time I look at my word count it’s more for fun. Sometimes I’m shocked at how much I have to say. Other times it’s depressing because the words just didn’t flow because Savannah didn’t want to work that day. Other times it’s because I am unsure of a scene or the flow of the story as a whole.
When I’m editing forty pages is my goal. I feel it is a reasonable expectation for myself to get forty pages read and edited of my own work everyday. There is only one exception to this rule for me and that is when I need a break. I recently started a new job that is a full time position. The job is rewarding in terms of, I get to work with kids who have special needs. I get to see their excited faces when they count to six and recognize a number, but it’s exhausting. I also have a family that demands my attention. So Friday nights are reserved for my family. Which means I get only a dozen pages done if I’m lucky. This past Friday, I got sixteen pages and felt pretty good about it because I was exhausted from my week. I was tired enough that I almost fell asleep during my daughter’s karate lesson. I didn’t, but then I fell asleep during our movie night instead. So sixteen pages was a win in my book.
As a writer there are other goals as well. Perhaps selling a certain number of books by a specific date. You may want to join a writer’s association by a certain date. These are long term goals. I personally had a goal for book sales and to join a writer’s association. My goal with Bad Witch Walking was to sell ten books to people I didn’t know. Again this sounds crazy but it makes perfect sense for a first time author. As an Indie author we have to build our name from scratch. Most of us do not have anyone to handle our publicity or getting our name out to millions of people. We have to do it. Ten readers for a new author is the foundation of an empire. Those ten readers who enjoy that book will buy the next one and will tell others about it. As a reader myself, I can tell you I talk about books to other people. I will talk up a book I really enjoy. If I do it, I know other readers do so as well. Those original ten readers will talk to friends and family about a new book they enjoyed. Ten readers become twenty and so on. It’s a slow process but it does work. I’m sure the question you have is did I meet my goal? The answer is yes I did. I sold ten books to people I do not know. I also have given away a number of books as well, which is just as important as book sales. It’s another way to find readers, get reviews, and get your name out there.
My other long term goal is to join the Romance Writers Association by October. I am almost there in terms of the funds and hopefully I will be able to meet that goal. We will soon find out in the next couple of weeks.
So what do you do when you fail to meet a goal? Do you just give up on that goal? Do you kick your own ass for the failure? The answer is you may kick your own ass, that’s a personal choice. Just don’t spend too much time doing it. I have high expectations for myself, so I tend to kick myself when I fail to meet these expectations. Failing to meet a goal is difficult. I am disappointed by my failure whether it was in my control or not. So I spend a little time kicking myself and then reminding myself I won’t fail to meet the deadline again. The next step is I set a new time table for the goal. I don’t give up, I just push forward. A great example of this is when I was planning to launch Bad Witch Walking. My first goal was to do it by April of this year. As we went through the editing process, I found out it wasn’t in the cards. I still had loads of work to do on the book plus copy editing, building a Facebook page, and getting a cover for it. April wasn’t reasonable because I had no clue what I was doing. Now that I am more experienced, I am able to set a more attainable goal for Bad Karma’s release date. Originally, I had planned to do it in late December. It was a good fit doing it every six months. Turns out, I will be releasing it November 18th. The goal is set in stone and I have a Facebook release party already planned for the day along with a few events after.
The thing I have learned is that giving up is not an option. When you give up on a goal it means you’ve given up on yourself. That is not acceptable. The one person you should never give up on is you. Anything worth having takes time, patience, and hard work. There are going to be times you’re going to fail. It happens. Failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You learn from those failures. Failure teaches you how to fail gracefully. They teach you how to get back up and continue to push on. Failure is what makes us appreciate success. Building an empire is exhausting work but at the end it’s all worth it. The payoff is success and the feeling of accomplishment, which in my eyes is a success. Every goal you meet however big or small is a success. Every time you fail, getting back up and trying again is a success. Success is defined by you and your determination, no one else. Until next time!
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