Close this window to return to Laurie's Site.
Go for the Goal!
Goal setting is crucial if you want to become published. The problem is that folks often confuse goals with dreams. “Someday, I will be a famous writer,” is a dream. “I will devote five hours this week to writing,” is a goal.
What’s the difference?
Only one is within your control..
Any type of goal has three components:
- Challenging, yet attainable
- Specific and measurable
- Dependent upon only you
Becoming a famous writer is not within your control – you can’t determine who will publish your book, what sort of marketing or promotion will support it or how your potential audience will receive it. But you can write five hours a week. And that will get you closer to your dream.
Getting Started
You first need to decide on a long-term goal: begin with something you’d like to achieve within one year. Next, imagine six months down the road – what you’ll need to have done in order to be at the half-way mark. For example, if your vision is to complete a manuscript within a year, then your mid-term goal is to be half-done. And you’ll get there by way of the short-term goal. Month by month, determine the number of days or hours you’ll need, or amount of pages or words required, to reach your mid-term goal.
Here’s what mine looks like:
Long-term (one year): Complete my young adult manuscript
Mid-term (6 months): Have written approximately 125 pages
Short-term (monthly): Write at least 5 hours each weekend
Each of these meets the three criteria for goal setting – challenging, specific and within my control – but I’m not done yet. There are necessary steps required to support my meeting each of these time frames. Call them my ‘action steps’; those things I’ll actually do to support my goal and make it attainable.
Short-term goal: Write at least 5 hours each weekend
Action steps
- Complete all school work during the week
- Avoid scheduling morning appointments
- Turn off the phone while writing
I’m a full-time teacher; for me, weekends are my only time to write. That motivates me to work hard during the week to be sure most of my correcting and planning is done so my mind is free to switch gears. Since I’m one of those ‘morning people’, I schedule any errands or appointments for the afternoon; and, because the phone makes me nuts, I turn the ringer off and let the machine pick up (ensuring I don’t miss anything important). These ‘action steps’ allow me to reach my 5 hour goal.
Now you’re ready to do the same for your mid-term statement. Here’s mine:
Mid-term goal: Have written approximately 125 pages
Action steps
- Average 5-6 pages a weekend = 20-25 pages a month
- Read newsletters, magazines on writing
- Read at least 2 young adult books each month
- Attend at least two of my writer’s group meetings
- Decide on which conference to attend & register
All of these steps are measurable and even though reading YA novels and attending group meetings may not seem directly connected to the writing piece, they certainly are. Reading helps me to problem-solve, to see how other authors use voice and dialogue; and being with other writers is not only inspiring, but affirms my craft.
And finally, my last step:
Long-term goal: Complete my young adult manuscript
Action steps
- Attend one writer’s conference
- Read, read, read: 3-4 books, magazines a month
- Do market research for possible submission/li>
- Develop a schedule for revising this manuscript
Regardless of the genre or level of your writing, this process is easily applied. And you don’t have to limit yourself to one goal either. Heck, if I didn’t teach full time, I’d have even more.
Look at it this way – the year will pass whether or not you have a plan for your writing. If you have to be one year older anyway, might as well reach your goal. Maybe then you’ll be one step closer to your dream.
First appeared in Institute for Children's Literature November 2005
All speeches and articles are copyrighted by, and are the property of, Laurie Thurston, and may not be reprinted without permission of the author.