Goal Setting for 2012
Fresh starts have been on my mind all month. I began an amazing new job right before Christmas that I am really excited about. My husband and I will start preparing in earnest for our move later this winter. And, with 2012 looming on the horizon, I am getting serious about writing goals for the coming year.
I am a part of a goals group with some of my writing friends that will help keep us accountable for what we want to accomplish throughout the year. The goals group is actually my first step toward actually meeting my goals–the accountability and encouragement from friends are both super important to me.
To start with, I broke my goals down into quarters. I am concentrating on three things for the first quarter, January-March:
- Outline the contemporary romance idea I have been kicking around, tentatively titled Drawn Together
- Continue research for my alternative historical fantasy, The Recollector
- Figure out what to do with my novel Burn. It has two plot “iterations” and I cannot decide what rabbit trail to go down. Hopefully my group can help me with it!
- Write one blog post a week.
I also plan on participating in ROW80 again (a lot more successfully this time) so that I can boil things down to weekly mini-goals, such as finishing a section of an outline or hitting a daily word count.
This seems like a lot when I write it down, but I have to remember that it is over the course of three months, and if I do a little bit every day, I will meet those goals easily. I know this first quarter will be busy, with a lot to do at my new job and preparing for a move, but if I want to fit fiction writing into my life I have to make it happen even when things are a little crazy.
What are your 2012 goals? Did you meet your goals for 2011? Happy New Year!
authoress of urban fantasy and paranormal, grammar nerd, serious geek
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These sound like good goals–each one taking a project to the next level. My goals for this year circle around getting one project complete. Wouldn’t that be nice?! I haven’t decided yet whether to set a time goal or a wordcount goal per day.
I love the perspective of doing a little each day. Guaranteed success, I think! Thanks for that.
Looking forward to sharing goals and progress with you during ROW 80!
Heather Kelly recently posted..To ROW or not to ROW (80)
Thanks Heather! I was awful about completing things in 2011, so completion of the projects I have been working on is my #1 ultimate goal.
Doing a little each day will guarantee that things move forward without overwhelming us, I think. Being consistent about actually doing it every day is my biggest hurdle, but I know that a little bit at a time is the easiest way to move forward!
Good luck and I look forward to sharing ROW80 with you as well.
[...] Complete. I have already set specific writing goals for the year, but my overall goals are 1) creating a writing habit and 2) completing a project. I [...]