Dec 23 2009
Motivation and Year End Writing Goals #1
Here we are, heading toward a new year, and with every new year, it allows all of us to look back and decide how the year went, and what we want to do for next year with our writing.
STREAK PAGE
First off, I want to make note of a few changes. The Streak page is gone. After one year, it was down to only a few dedicated folks powering forward and reporting their streak to me. And I have to admit, at times, I was lax getting them onto the web site. But all-in-all, I was stunned at how well some writers did.
Pati Nagle has, without a doubt, one of the best writing streaks going I have heard of. She has been writing two pages (500 words) per day, without a miss, for well over six years now. That’s right, six years, writing every day, Christmas, birthday, sick days, while traveling. Pati has done it. Wow! No wonder she’s selling novels and short stories everywhere these days. Fantastic, Pati. Keep firing.
Others who started last year kept their streaks going all year as well, which I also find fantastic and beyond my ability, that’s for sure. So special congrats go to Rob Vagle (over a year), David Levine (over a year), David Schibi (over a year), Lyn Worthen (over a year), Rick Dickson and Laura Ware (close to a year). Fantastic streaks, guys! Keep them going.
For me, looking back I had a pretty good ramp-up year from a very down 2008. I wrote (and sold) a bunch of short fiction to varied anthologies and markets. I wrote about four novels worth of novel work, sold one novel and one ghost novel, and I have going into the new year far, far more work out there than I did at this time last year. I could have done better, but I feel for me the year was an okay writing year. And next year is looking a lot better because of all the work I’ve done this year so far.
Motivation Posts:
Each day, now, starting with this post, I’m going to update and repost the motivation posts I did last year so they are all together here and updated. Many of you didn’t see them last year and those who did won’t mind rereading them. And then after I have the motivation posts all up, I’ll have another Killing Sacred Cows post. Thanks a lot for all the private e-mails and discussion on different sites about the magic bakery. Glad that metaphor worked for so many people.
And if you did read these posts last year, ask yourself how you did with your goals you set last December, then figure out why some of them worked and others didn’t. And never blame another person or an event. If you didn’t write, there is no one to blame but yourself. You didn’t chase your dream. Figure out why and go after it this next year. It’s a new year, after all.
Now, to the first of the motivation posts. Just me giving away another taste of a pie. Feel free to ask questions.
So, what are goals to writers?
Let’s see, make a million bucks, be a bestseller, make an American Express commercial like Stephen King. Yeah, those are goals, and writers think about them.
How about the goal of seeing your name in print, selling a first short story, or seeing your first novel in the bookstore? Yup, those are goals as well. Personally, I want to see five of my books at the same time on the local Safeway racks. Never had that happen, came close once, so it’s a goal.
But all those goals are tough to work toward in any fashion that makes any kind of sense and that lasts. Human minds just don’t think in those large, fuzzy ways when it comes to motivation. We WANT that stuff, but we don’t begin to know how to work toward it.
There is an old joke. “How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.”
Well, that applies to writing completely, both in the production sense and in the business sense. When you step back and look at those huge goals and dreams I listed above, they are elephants. You stand beside an elephant and think about eating it all and you just give up, even if you like elephant meat.
So writers must focus on the simple bite and only one bite at a time. Standing back and looking at the entire beast will just freeze you solid, no matter how long you have been at this business.
Second, you must focus only on what you can control. I got a great question from a writer.
Do you recommend setting the goal for the year as ‘X number of words written’, ‘X number of books written’, or ‘Just get published for the first time!!!’
Let me take the three parts of that question backwards. You just can’t control getting published, so that goal is out of your control completely. You can’t force an editor to buy your work. And even if an editor did buy your novel at the beginning of the year, you would still not be published next year because of the time lag it takes from purchase of a book to publication of the book. So that type of goal is not only out of a writer’s control, but also sets the writer up for failure.
Setting a goal of a number of books written sounds like eating an elephant to me. It might be a great larger goal that can be made to shoot at and then forget at once. It also is the type of goal that sets up failure. Say your goal is to have four novels done next year. One every three months, but here comes April 1st and the first novel is still chugging along. It doesn’t finish until the middle of May. Suddenly you are behind and have missed your entire year’s goal due to circumstances you really can’t control that much. Why set a major goal with that kind of failure possible?
And setting a goal of “X number of words written in the year” is also eating the elephant. Same set-up for failure if life gets in the way and you suddenly get behind.
Yet all those goals in the question sounded very reasonable, a lot more reasonable than doing an American Express commercial or having five books at the same time on the Safeway racks.
So how do writers think about goals without the evil elephant stomping into the middle of the room and taking a crap just when you are about to take the first bite?
Well, that’s what I’m going to talk about over the next number of posts. How to set goals, how to think about them, how to maintain them even through all the fun of life events and jobs and family. And how different types of writers must set different types of goals. I will get to it all.
But for the moment, let me start by saying this: Read Heinlein’s Rules once more so that you can quote them aloud to anyone who asks what they are.
Second, step back and take a real look at your life and your schedule. That’s step one actually. Don’t pretend there is time where there isn’t, but do look at where you can carve time out of things you are doing right now that you really don’t need to do.
Third, time yourself on writing one page, just 250 words of fiction. Get that number solid in your mind. Most of us, I will tell you right now, range from 10 minutes to 30 minutes per page. If you are outside that range, ask yourself why and figure it out.
Basic questions to answer first, before this discussion can go any farther. Keep the answers to yourself, be honest with yourself.
And one more thing. If you want to look at the really large goals right now, don’t be afraid to make those large goals really, really large. It is stunning to me how many writers’ large goals are something very small, like selling one short story. Nope, if you have to fight the elephant, make it the biggest darn thing walking.
But don’t call it a goal for the moment. Call it a dream.
Dream big, let the dream be there, then come back over the next few days and we’ll figure out how to set some real goals that will take that first bite toward reaching that dream.
Cheers, Dean
Glad to see the motivation posts again, Dean. Loved these last year.
I was actually looking at my ‘Dreams List’ from last year, stuff that would be cool if it happened but that I didn’t really have control over. One item on the list was selling a short story at semi-pro level or better.
Why semi-pro? Because I’ve always wanted to have a short story in Weird Tales, since I’m a huge Ray Bradbury fan. Well, I’m not holding my breath or anything, but Ann Vandermeer is holding one of stories for a second read. It would be amazingly cool if she bought, but if not I’m cool too. I’ll just send her another one right after that. I’m laying seige to the publishing industry. Resistance is futile. (And, yes, the Borg reference to the Star Trek writer was totally intentional )
Also, sad to see the streak page go but, oh well, maybe I’ll start a blog with my own streak page. And my race numbers as well. That I way I have a little public accountability.
Looking forward to reading the posts again and the new Killing Sacred Cows.
Steve
I’m looking forward to these upcoming motivation posts, especially since I’ve never read them before.
I’ve always been one to set daily word-count goals, and then a yearly goal based on those. Rarely, though, have I been able to meet my yearly goal. I’ve gotten close, however. This year, for example, I set a goal of 150,000 words. I know I’m not going to make it, but I also know that barring anything unforeseen I will get into the 125,000-130,000 range come December 31. I’m not going to beat myself up about not reaching 150,000, though, because what really amazes me is what I’ve actually achieved despite having been just plain damned lazy from January through all of July. I’m happy with this, and I hope to do better next year.
I’d mentioned previously my goal to write 500 words per day, that I increased it to 750-1000, then 1250-1350, then 1500, then, most recently, 1700+/day. Today, I decided to see how it would feel to write 2000/day for the remainder of the year (I wrote 2010 words today). As I’ve stretched my writing muscles, I’ve learned it really doesn’t take me all that much longer to write a little more (roughly 15-20 minutes per page). Does that mean that I should try to write this much all the time? I don’t know… yet. I know that Stephen King and Robert J. Sawyer both have goals of 2000 words per day, but what’s comfortable for them may not be for me. I won’t know until I try, however.
My idea for setting my goal for next year is to go beyond the 150,000 word goal I set for this year, but to try to not make it something that feels out of reach. Right now 1500-1700/day feels quite comfortable, and 2000 a bit of a stretch, but that’s probably because I’m not yet used to it.
I like to take off 1 day per week, which means that I have 313 writing days in a year. At 1000/day, which right now would feel like a breeze, I could conceivably write 313,000 words. Factoring in life, I aim to write 250,000 next year, and I hope to exceed that, if at all possible. So, life could screw with me for 63 days next year, two full months, and I could still attain my goal, as long I manage to write at least 1000 words/day the rest of the time.
Memorizing Heinlein’s Rules will help. I agree. I’ve got them posted at my blog, so that I see them every day. The rules that I have posted, however, have been modified by Robert J. Sawyer and James A. Ritchie. I’ve quoted them below, noting the modifications (Ritchie’s additions are underscored and Sawyer’s additions are bolded).
1. You must write frequently.
2. You must finish what you write in a reasonable amount of time.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.
6. You must start work on something else immediately.
James A. Ritchie felt that many beginning writers don’t make writing a habit, thus the addition to rule #1, and that most spend too much time on a given project, thus the addition to rule #2. And Sawyer, at his web site, felt that rule #6 should be added for the sake of novices, because although many pros understand it as being implied, many of us novices have the annoying trait of pinning all our hopes on one novel.
I read all manner of how-to books on writing, regardless of the genre they’re aimed at. I figure there’s lots to be learned from anyone who is published. G. Miki Hayden, in her book, Writing the Mystery, tells a fascinating story that apparently has origins in India. She writes:
A wise woman who lived in India (the Mother) once wrote that there are two quite opposite illusions we simultaneously hold about ourselves and our ambitions. First of all, we believe that our urge to step in a direction is identical with our completion of the aim. We don’t see that years of effort are required to develop those necessary underpinnings. Secondly, and at the same time, we don’t really believe that we have the ability to fulfill our longed-for goals.
We are wrong on both counts, the Mother says. We consider our achievements with too great a complacency, but we really lack confidence. We think we’ll never make the grade. The desire itself, however — while it isn’t the accomplishment — is a strong indicator that the capacity for eventual success lies within. Let’s take our inborn ability as a given and unwaveringly move toward the hoped-for end destination — becoming the writer we know is inside of us.
That first part — that “we believe that our urge to step in a direction is identical with our completion of the aim” — is, I think, an incredibly profound observation of human nature. Our capacity for deceiving ourselves goes beyond words, and it’s an important principle to remember.
I don’t think my underscoring of James A. Ritchie’s additions took, so I’ll bold them here, for the two rules to which they were applied:
1. You must write frequently.
2. You must finish what you write in a reasonable amount of time.
Drat, I was seriously thinking about doing a streak. Of course the number of words would have been very low, maybe too low, but since I have been writing something most days I thought I might try it.
As I read on I thought about making a goal for the year, the number of words per day I was going to do times the number of days in the year, but that may not be a good idea after all.
So that means I’m going to have to keep reading the next couple of posts. I will be writing anyway, not counting any time I don’t feel like writing. I had a couple periods like that this year. I usually ended up writing something anyway even if it wasn’t the stories I was working on.
I agree with Steve, it will be great to read these again, especially with any additional material that’s being added due to relevance — or revelation.
I’ve been looking over my own Big Goal list for the year, trying to break it down into Little Goals so that I can get the work done incrementally. The end of 2009 and the first two months of 2010 are crammed, due to prep for the workshops, but after that….? I don’t have any pressing deadlines, save for those I make myself.
Had I not placed with Writers of the Future in 2009 I’d probably be feeling very down about my writing right now — as I didn’t even come close to meeting my production goals. But getting the win with the Contest really pumped me up — while getting the check pumped me up even more. I keep that check front-and-center at my desk now, so I can’t avoid it. Like the stack of cash from the GEICO commercial: it’s always watching me! It knows when I am playing video games or surfing or just effing off when I ought to be working!
One of the inescapable conclusions I’ve reached, is that I can no longer avoid establishing a true regimen for myself. Between writing goals, fitness goals, and several other projects I want to accomplish in 2010, I literally have very little time in my week to dink around.
And I adore dinking around! I do that better than I do anything else! And it scares me to think I have to grow up and stop dinking around in 2010, lest I fall on my face and be wondering — at the dawn of 2011 — where all the time went and why I didn’t get more done?
I also think there are two kinds of goals: expansion goals, and restriction goals.
Word and page counts — daily, weekly, monthly — are expansion goals. You are expanding into new territory, breaking new ground, getting new things done.
Restrictive goals would apply to something like diet: no more high-fat lunches at work, no more ice cream treats on weekday evenings, etc. For me personally, it comes down to restricting myself from time-wasting on the internet — my demon, my absolute and total demon — as well as restricting myself from doing stuff like video games or watching NBA basketball if I haven’t gotten my gaily writing goals completed first.
Lately I dwell greatly on those restrictive goals, because I know that if I fail with those, I will certainly — no, absolutely — fail with my expansion goals.
Hey, Dean –
Thanks for running the streak page. Anything like that takes work, and it was generous of you to donate your time and the space on your site.
Big congrats to everyone who kept a streak going, especially for a year and more. Woohoo! You guys rock!
Glad to see the goals posts again. I have already set my goals for 2010. Did pretty well making my goals for 2009.
Thanks for your inspiration!
I’m looking forward to reading more of the goal posts. I just finished a cool online workshop that had a very similar idea to it and I’ve already begun to think and work on what my goals should be, what will be easy to achieve, what will stretch me to achieve, and what are the dream goals (ones I have no control over).
Brad – Oh, the dinking. How I love to dink around even as I’m sitting there telling myself to open that word file I can continue to dink and dink. Some days I can still reach my word count goal for the day, but then I look back and think I could have gotten way past my goal and been ahead of the game. Other days I don’t reach my goal and I get really irritated at myself. What did all that dinking get me? Farther from my goal.
Hi Angelia, I shall visit your blog. (waves congenially across the web-o-sphere)
Sometimes I feel like I am the King of Dink.
I need to go back and re-read Dean’s recent post about “hard” writing. I know the reason I dink so much is that when I sit down to put words on the page, I am unconsciously too wrapped up in the “hard” myth.
When I was much, much younger, I couldn’t wait to sit down and write, because I was doing it for fun and wasn’t worried about selling. I could pound out two thousand words in about two hours, and have a ball doing it too.
Over the years I think I went too far in the opposite direction. Once I said to myself I wanted to sell, I began to scrutinize and fret, such that my production speed slowed, writing sessions became dull and painful — no more fun! — and when even that didn’t seem to be getting me any results — just more rejection slips — I began to question whether or not I should be doing this at all.
I think I’ll add to my list of goals for 2010: rediscover the ‘fun’ in the process, as a way to up my production, help me avoid The Think Factor, and make this entire project just generally more enjoyable, overall.
(notice I say this in about 250 words written over ten minutes because when I am writing on blogs I am not at all trapped in the “hard” mindset)
Yeah, and Brad, when writing fast and enjoying it as in blog responses, your voice comes through clearly. You should do this with your fiction.
Cheers
Dean
[...] I’ve really got a fire burning under my tokus the last couple of weeks, and it is due to my own drive, but considerable thanks are due to Dean Wesley Smith’s series on motivation. [...]